Susan Fiske
American social psychologist of stereotyping and social cognition
Princeton social psychologist known for the stereotype content model of warmth and competence, ambivalent sexism theory with Peter Glick, and the continuum model of impression formation.
Why this person matters
Fiske's models show that prejudice is not uniformly hostile: groups are judged on warmth and competence, and sexism can combine hostile and benevolent forms. She co-wrote the textbook Social Cognition with Shelley Taylor, and her models were developed with collaborators including Peter Glick, Amy Cuddy and Steven Neuberg.
Main contributions
Stereotype content model
Fiske, Cuddy, Glick and Xu (2002) proposed that groups are perceived on warmth and competence, with competence following from perceived status and warmth from perceived competition. The model describes mixed stereotypes, such as high competence with low warmth.
Ambivalent sexism theory
With Peter Glick she developed the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (1996), which separates hostile from benevolent sexism. The two are positively correlated.
Social cognition and impression formation
With Shelley Taylor she wrote Social Cognition (1984), and with Steven Neuberg proposed the continuum model of impression formation (1990), from category-based to individuating processes.
Context and limits
She gave expert testimony in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, a gender discrimination case that reached the US Supreme Court. Her models describe average group-level perceptions in the samples studied. The sources read do not report replication studies or critiques of the stereotype content model.
In your introductory course
Social psychology.Fiske appears in prejudice and stereotyping and in social cognition. Students meet warmth and competence as the two dimensions of stereotypes and the hostile versus benevolent sexism distinction.
Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 12.5. This is course context rather than a biographical source.
Years of active work
- 1978
Received her PhD from Harvard.
- 1984
Published Social Cognition with Shelley Taylor.
- 1996
Published the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory with Peter Glick.
- 2002
Published the stereotype content model with Cuddy, Glick and Xu.
Sources
- National Academy of Sciences, Susan T. Fiske directory entrySociety or association. Institutional biography inspected.
- Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, Susan FiskeUniversity. Institutional biography inspected.
- Wikipedia, Susan FiskeReference work. Reference article inspected.