Abstract:
The Stereotype Content Model states that stereotypes express generalised evaluative beliefs that vary according to the degree of warmth and competence ascribed to group members. The present study applied this model to examine the societal stereotypes (or meta-stereotypes) of Pākehā, Māori, Pacific Nations, and Asian New Zealanders using a national random postal sample (N = 246). Pākehā (or New Zealanders of European descent) were viewed as highly warm and highly competent relative to other ethnic groups. Stereotypes of Asian and Pacific Nations New Zealanders were mixed, however. Asian New Zealanders were seen as highly competent (comparable to Pākehā), but low in warmth relative to other ethnic groups. Pacific Nations peoples, in contrast, were seen as highly warm (comparable to Pākehā), but low in competence relative to other ethnic groups. Stereotypes of Māori exhibited a strikingly different pattern, and indicated that Māori as a social group were seen as low-to-moderate in both warmth and competence, relative to other ethnic groups. These different mixed stereotype combinations have important implications for understanding how socio-structural characteristics of ethnic group relations (competition and status) foster fundamentally different forms of legitimizing ideology, prejudice and discriminatory behaviour toward different ethnic groups in the New Zealand context.