Chapter 18: Stereotypes

One distinct advantage of a stereotype is that it enables us to respond rapidly to situations because we may have had a similar experience before. The biggest disadvantage is that it makes us ignore differences between individuals; therefore we think things about people that might not be true. The use of stereotypes is a major way in which we simplify our social world; since they reduce the amount of processing such as thinking, we have to do when we meet a new person. By stereotyping we infer that a person has a whole range of characteristics and abilities that we assume all members of that group have. Stereotypes lead to social categorization, which is one of the reasons for prejudice attitudes (the “them” and “us” mentality) which will lead to in-groups and out-groups. Most stereotypes probably tend to convey a negative impression.  Positive examples would include judges (the phrase “sober as a judge” would suggest this is a stereotype with a very respectable set of characteristics), overweight people, who are often seen as “jolly”, and television news readers, usually seen as highly dependable, respectable and impartial.  Unfortunately, it seems to be that negative stereotypes are far more common.