Exploring the Characteristics of a Salesperson Social Schema
Abstract
This paper represents an initial study into the effects of consumers’ cognitive representation of the social category "salesperson." The two studies describe in some detail the contents of the "car salesperson" social stereotype and provide an initial test of the ability of certain salesperson characteristics to activate this stereotype. More specifically, study 2 shows how certain salesperson characteristics can affect the perceived "typicalness" of a salesperson. Implications for salespeople and future research are also discussed.
This paper has been withdrawn.