Fraternity stereotypes and their impact on student academic evaluations

Individuals form first impressions that can have a lasting impact on their perception of that person (Allport, 1937; Ambady & Rosenthal, 1993; Asch, 1946). It is expected that in an academic setting, preset perceptions based on negative stereotypes of fraternity members will extend to negative perceptions of academic abilities as well. In experiment 1, participants were university faculty members who viewed a photograph of a target wearing either a plain Gray t-shirt or a similar Gray t-shirt displaying Greek letters. (See more in text.)