Stereotypes and Reputations for Keeping Assurances

Abstract

Adverse national stereotypes, which often have a racial or ethnic character, prevent states from attaining reputations as assurance keepers. Reputations predict future behavior by explaining past behavior as the result of an actor’s characteristics. Negative stereotypes preclude formation of reputations for keeping assurances because people prefer to preserve their stereotypic preconceptions. To preserve their preconceptions, people explain a negatively stereotyped state’s choice to keep assurances as the result of transient situational factors, and not as the result of characteristics. This leaves intact the state’s reputation as an assurance breaker despite evidence of kept assurances. Only states associated with positive national stereotypes may attain an assurance keeper reputation. The dissertation uses British reputational assessments of the United States and Japan between 1910 and 1931 and an original survey experiment to test the argument. Both case studies depend on extensive archival research conducted at The National Archives in the United Kingdom.