Stereotypes (original) (raw)

Stereotyping From the Perspective of Perceivers and Targets

This article provides insight into the process of stereotyping from two different perspectives: the perceiver and the target. From the perceiver's perspective, motivational and cognitive reasons for relying on stereotypes for judgment are discussed. From the targets’ perspective, stereotype threat research is reviewed. From both perspectives, it is clear that stereotypes represent a dual-edged sword for both perceiver and target group members. Finally, research incorporating both perspectives provides useful interventions for prejudice reduction.

Development and mental representation of stereotypes

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1996

A mixed model of stereotype representation was tested. Experiment 1 examined the development of stereotypes about novel groups. Results showed that, at low levels of experience, stereotypic group knowledge is derived from information about particular group exemplars. However, as experience increases, an abstract group stereotype is formed that is stored and retrieved independently of the exemplars on which it was based. Results of Experiment 2 suggest that preexisting stereotypes about well-known groups are represented as abstract structures in memory. These results indicate that stereotypical knowledge is most likely to be exemplar-based in the absence of abstract stereotypes. The implications of these findings for other aspects of stereotyping and social perception are discussed.

Racial stereotypes: The contents of their cognitive representations

1986

This research investigated the nature of contemporary racial stereotypes and their role in social cognition. A priming experiment was conducted in which racial categories (black. white) were presented as primes, and positive and negative black and white stereotypic words were presented as test stimuli. Subjects were asked to indicate (by pressing a response key) whether the test word characteristic could "ever be true" of the prime category or was "always false," and reaction time was recorded. As predicted, primes of black and white most facilitated response to traits stereotypically attributed to these social groups. Thus, there appear to be important similarities between the information processing of object categories and the representation and use of stereotypes in social categorization. In addition, responses to the positive and negative evaluative words suggest that positive traits are more strongly associated with whites than with blacks, and negative characteristics are more strongly associated with blacks than with whites. Implications of these findings for social cognition. racial attitudes, and nonreactive measurement are discussed. 0 1986 Academic Press, Inc.

A multidimensional examination of the “Stereotype” concept: A developmental approach

International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 2011

The present studies tested the hypothesis that the stereotypical representation of a target group is composed of several components. It was further hypothesized that some of the dimensions are more closely associated with the perceiver's group than are others. Finally, it was hypothesized that the structure and the foundation of the stereotype is related to the age of the perceiver. In two studies, Israeli children, ranging in age from 4 to 17 years, assigned stereotyped traits to target groups (Israeli, Arabs, Americans, Germans). The respondents were then given the opportunity to rate the traits on several dimensions including group evaluation, salience, homogeneity, uniqueness, and ingroup consensus. Respondents of all ages could use the multiple components to describe their stereotype. The results indicate that the specific target group affected the structure of the stereotype. The stereotype of older children was more likely to represent a prototype of the target group and be based on personal experience than was the stereotype of younger children. The implications of the results for understanding the formation and fluctuation of stereotypes are discussed.

2011 Multidimension of stereotypes Coutant et al, IJIR.pdf

The Unbearable Accuracy of Stereotypes

2009

Sixty years of empirical research has taught us much about stereotypes. Stereotypes can arise from, and sustain, intergroup hostility. They are sometimes linked to prejudices based on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, and just about any other social category. They can serve to maintain and justify hegemonic and exploitative hierarchies of power and status. They can corrupt interpersonal relations, warp public policy, and play a role in the worst social abuses, such as mass murder and genocide. For all these reasons, social scientists-and especially social psychologistshave understandably approached stereotypes as a kind of social toxin. Perhaps equally understandable, but scientifically untenable, is the corresponding belief that because stereotypes contribute to these many malignant outcomes, that they must also be-in the main-inaccurate. The tacit equation is, if stereotypes are associated with social wrongs, they must be factually wrong. However, the accuracy of stereotypes is an empirical question, not an ideological one. For those of us who care deeply about stereotypes, prejudice, and social harmony, getting to the truth of these collective cognitions should guide inquiry about them. Unfortunately, this has not always been our experience. Because of his inquiries into stereotype accuracy, the first author has been accused by prominent social psychologists of purveying "nonsense," of living "in a world where stereotypes are all accurate and no one ever relies on them anyway," of calling for research with titles like "Are Jews really cheap?" and "Are Blacks really lazy?," of disagreeing with civil rights laws, and of providing intellectual cover for bigots. 1 These reactions are understandable, if one remembers that social psychology has a long intellectual history of emphasizing the role of error and bias in social perception, and nowhere has this emphasis been stronger than in the area of stereotypes. To enter this zeitgeist and to argue for the need to take seriously the possibility that sometimes, some aspects of some stereotypes may have some degree of accuracy, therefore, is to risk making claims that are unbearable to some social scientists. However, science is about validity, not "bearability." It is about logic and evidence. In this chapter we review conceptual issues and empirical evidence regarding the accuracy of stereotypes. By doing so we hope to correct some long-held beliefs about stereotypes, and to thereby remove some of the obstacles to the systematic investigation of stereotype accuracy and inaccuracy. The chapter has three main objectives: providing a logically coherent, defensible, and practical definition of "stereotype"; reviewing empirical research on stereotype accuracy; and considering the role of stereotypes in increasing or reducing accuracy in person perception.

A Positive Theory of Stereotyping and Stereotypes: Is Stereotyping Useful?

Journal of Studies in Social Sciences, 2014

This paper represents a "developing" perspective on stereotyping and stereotypes. The paper briefly introduces a less popular and potentially new theory or perspective on stereotyping, a process or social phenomenon often seen as a highly undesirable and negative in modern society. The author cites cultural dimension theory, socialization, social learning, cultural syncretism, and other sociological and behavioral processes and theories as having both elements and bases for stereotyping and stereotypes. The author agues that these processes by their very nature make stereotyping natural, if not a legitimate rationale approach to human relationships, interaction, and communication in the process of knowing each other as well as self more fully. This perspective does not underscore the negative aspects and consequences of stereotyping and stereotypes as we have come to know them in our modern society and everyday living. The author also proposes a Social Competitive Theory of Stereotypes to further explain the "usefulness" from a Darwinian and materially oriented Malthusian perspective-resources competition makes stereotyping a necessity. The author recommends further consideration on the views presented in this paper, and if possible, further research into the positive perspective or view of stereotyping and stereotypes as serving an important social function.

Beliefs About the Disconfirmability of Stereotypes: The Stereotype Disconfirmability Effect1

Journal of Applied …, 2003

Two studies examined people's beliefs about the relative disconfirmability of out-group and in-group stereotypes. In Study 1 (n = 56), Hispanics and White nun-Hispanics judged the in-group and out-group stereotypes in terms of the ease with which they could be disconfirmed. The results indicated that strongly, ethnically identified participants believed the out-group stereotype to be more difficult to disconfirm than the in-group stereotype. The second study with 73 White participants examined their beliefs about the disconfirmability of the White and African American stereotypes. The results indicated that participants higher in prejudice believed the African American stereotype is more difficult to disconfirm than the White stereotype to a greater degree than participants lower in prejudice. The results suggest that discon firmability beliefs comprise a distinct construct that may contribute to the difficulty of changing out-group stereotypes. Research on intergroup relations suggests that one of the factors that underlies people's reliance on stereotypes is their beliefs about stereotypes. For example, Devine and colleagues (Devine, 1989; Devine, Monteith, Zuwerink, & Elliot, 1991; Monteith, Zuwerink, & Devine, 1994) proposed that people who are low in prejudice have modified the mental representation of their stereotypes. Specifically, these people are thought to develop associations between the stereotype structure and their personal egalitarian beliefs. In situations where stereotypes are elicited, the egalitarian beliefs are simultaneously activated and bring to mind a collection of counterbeliefs that argue that the stereotypes are invalid. Although low-prejudiced people may hold beliefs that counteract stereotypes, there may be other types of beliefs that have the opposite effect and result in a greater reliance on stereotypes. What beliefs do people hold that may sustain their views of out-groups and what factors might influence people's beliefs about their stereotypes? These questions serve as the basis for the present paper.

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