CH 10: Stereotypes

Why Do We Categorize?

1. To reduce complexity of the world

   1. Principle of least effort

2.  Human cognitive capacity is limited

3. Categorization is an efficient way to deal with wide stimuli

Principle of Least Effort

People naturally choose the easiest, least effortful option when making decisions or taking actions.

• We prefer interactions, relationships, or choices that require minimal cognitive or physical effort.

Social Categorization

Classifying people into groups based on shared attributes.

• Major categories: gender, ethnicity, age.

Category Accentuation

• After forming categories, people exaggerate differences between groups.

• Differences within a group seem smaller; differences between groups seem larger.

In-Group vs Out-Group

• In-Group:

  • The group you belong to or identify with. You tend to view its members more positively.

• Out-Group:

  • A group you don’t belong to. People often see out-group members as more different or less favorable.

Outgroup Homogeneity Effect

Tendency to underestimate the variability of out‐group members compared to the variability of in‐group members / viewing out-group as “all the same”

• Brigham & Barkowitz (1978):

  • Students were worse at recognizing outgroup faces than ingroup faces.

• Why it happens:

  • Familiarity hypothesis: We know more about our ingroup.

  • Ingroup categories matter more, so we store more detailed information.

Cross‐Ethnic Identification Bias

The tendency to see out‐group members as looking very similar to one another, and showing greater accuracy for recognizing in‐group members than out‐group members

In‐group Favouritism 

The tendency to evaluate one's in‐group more positively than out‐groups

How Prejudiced is Learned (Social Learning)

Prejudice and stereotypes develop through basic learning processes:

• Classical Conditioning:

  • Pairing a group with positive or negative experiences.

• Operant Conditioning:

  • Being rewarded or punished for expressing attitudes.

  • Example: Child punished for using a slur → learns not to use it.

• Modeling (Bandura):

  • Observing parents, peers, media, teachers.

  • Children adopt the attitudes they see others display.

Social Norms Shape What Prejudice Is Expressed

• People feel free to express prejudice toward socially acceptable targets (e.g., racists, criminals, terrorists, pedophiles).

• People suppress prejudice toward stigmatized but protected groups (e.g., elderly, disabled, immigrants).

• Prejudice depends on what society signals is acceptable.

False Consensus Effect

Believing that “everyone thinks this way” makes stereotypes:

• Stronger

• More readily activated

• Harder to change

• Example: Meta-analysis (Hall et al., 2015) showed many healthcare providers implicitly prefer Whites over people of color.

Anxiety and Intergroup Interaction (Amodio & Hamilton, 2012)

Study with White female students:

• Anticipating an interracial interaction produced greater anxiety.

• Anxiety increased implicit bias (evaluative + stereotype associations).

• Anxiety comes from fear of:

  • Being perceived as racist

  • Being the target of racism

• ➡ Emotions, especially anxiety, activate implicit prejudice.

Colour-Blindness vs. Multiculturalism (Vorauer & Sasaki, 2013)

• Colour-Blind Ideology

  • Ignore group differences

  • Focus on similarity

  • Often ineffective at reducing prejudice

  • (can invalidate minority experiences)

• Multicultural Ideology

  • Recognize, value, and learn about group differences

  • Leads to lower prejudice, more understanding

  • Supported by research (Scott & Safdar, 2017)

• Targeted Diversity Messages

  • More effective when they are tailored to specific groups

  • (Sasaki & Vorauer, 2010; 2013)

Ultimate Attribution Error (Cognitive Biases)

For out-groups → negative behaviour = internal traits; positive behaviour = luck/situation.

For in-groups → negative behaviour = external factors; positive behaviour = internal traits

• Leads to:

  • Scapegoating

  • Victim-blaming (supported by belief in a just world: “bad things happen to bad people”)

  • Example: Mock jurors saw a Black defendant as more likely to reoffend.

Contrast Effect (Cognitive Biases)

When behaviour differs from what we expect, we see it as more different than it actually is.
Examples:

• Assertive woman seemed “extra aggressive” if one expects women to be passive.

• Smart football player seems “super intelligent.”

Perceptual Confirmation (Cognitive Bias / Stereotypes)

Seeing what we expect to see, even when evidence is ambiguous.

• Targets judged as hostile if interviewers expect hostility.

• Stereotype threat affects performance and motivation (e.g., women in math).

• People interpret the same behaviour differently depending on group membership.

• Example:

  • An older adult losing keys → “memory decline” vs. friend losing keys → “just forgetful.”

Confirmation Bias (Cognitive Biases)

Seeking out information that confirms what we already believe and ignoring contradictory evidence.

• Examples:

  • Asking Swedes about hockey or Brazilians about carnivals (fits stereotype).

  • Remembering stereotype-consistent information and forgetting disconfirming information.

Good news:

• Low-prejudice individuals attend more to stereotype-disconfirming evidence.

Stereotype Threat

The fear of confirming a negative stereotype about one’s group, which increases anxiety and impairs performance.

• Classic Study: Steele & Aronson (1995)

  • Black & White Stanford students took a verbal SAT test.

  • Diagnostic test (“ability”) → Black students performed worse

  • Non-diagnostic (“problem solving”) → No difference.

  • Interpretation: threat of confirming the stereotype impaired performance.\

• Identity salience matters:

  • Priming ethnicity or gender can trigger threat even subtly.

Environmental Triggers (Stereotype Threat)

• Being the only group member in a setting (e.g., 1 woman in an engineering group).

• Stereotyped surroundings (e.g., “computer science décor”).

• Belonging uncertainty → lower interest, participation.

• Dasgupta et al. (2015):

  • Women in female-minority groups (25% women) felt more threatened, participated less, and showed lower confidence.

Why Performance Drops (Mechanisms in Stereotype Threat)

1. Anxiety increases → distracts from task.

2. Reduced working memory capacity.

3. Attention shifts to fear of confirming stereotype.

4. Brain activity changes: activation of emotion-regulation areas instead of problem-solving areas.

Stereotype Lift

When told a test favours their group, majority group members perform better (e.g., men on math tests).

Ways to Reduce Stereotype Threat

• Present tests as non-diagnostic of ability.

• Promote growth mindset / gender-fair messages.

• Self-affirmation: Reminding students of strengths reduces threat.

• Provide misattribution cues (“Your anxiety may be from the environment”).

• Create microenvironments where minority students are not visibly outnumbered.

Rejection-Identification Model

Experiencing prejudice or discrimination leads to:

• Lower psychological well-being

• Depression, sadness, helplessness

• Cognitive impairments

People interpret negative events (e.g., job rejection, rental denial, police stop) as discrimination → emotional harm.

Why Most Stereotypes are Problematic

According to Brown (1965), stereotypes are objectionable because they involve:

• Implicit ethnocentrism → assuming one’s own group is the standard.

• Assuming differences are innate and unchangeable → overly fixed, essentialist thinking.

Are Stereotypes Inevitable?

• Automatic activation

  • Stereotyping can occur automatically, even subliminally (Devine, 1989).

• Can we control stereotypes? Yes.

  • Requires:

    • Motivation

    • Effort / cognitive resources

  • Bodenhausen (1990): people stereotype more when tired or cognitively overloaded.

Auto‐stereotypes (Types of Stereotypes)

A stereotype that one holds about one's own group

Hetero-stereotypes (Types of Stereotypes)

A stereotypes about other groups

Meta‐stereotype (Types of Stereotypes)

A person's beliefs about the stereotypes that out‐group members hold about the person's own group

Stereotypes About Overweight People

• Collectivistic cultures

  • Blame the situation more; show less prejudice (e.g., Chinese nurses saw weight as outside personal control).

• Individualistic cultures

  • Blame personal responsibility; stronger weight stigma (U.S., Canada, Iceland, Australia).

• Weight stigma affects teacher expectations

  • Girls were seen as less capable in reading.

  • Boys were seen as less capable in math.

• Some cultures value larger body size (e.g., Mauritania – symbol of beauty/wealth).

Stereotypes About Women

Women → seen as warm, emotional, vulnerable.

Men → seen as assertive, impulsive, excitement-seeking.

• Gender stereotypes develop early (age ~5) and strengthen through socialization.

• Cultural differences:

  • Feminine cultures (e.g., Sweden, Netherlands) → flexible gender roles.

  • Masculine cultures (e.g., Japan, Italy) → stricter gender roles.

Hostile vs. Benevolent Sexism (Glick & Fiske)

Hostile sexism → openly negative beliefs about women.

Benevolent sexism → “positive” but patronizing (“women need protection”).

• Patterns across cultures:

  • Hostile & benevolent sexism correlate.

  • Women reject hostile sexism more than men, but both sexes often accept benevolent sexism.

  • Men seen as more powerful but more negative.

• Higher sexism → lower gender equality.

  • In high-sexism cultures, women may endorse benevolent sexism more—as a strategy for protection

Prejudice

A negative attitude toward a group and toward anyone perceived as a member

Controversy in Prejudice Research

• Survey Studies

  • Rely on self-reported attitudes, which often suggest that prejudice is decreasing.

  • Issue: People may give socially acceptable answers rather than their true feelings, so the results can be misleading.

• Covert Measures

  • Use indirect or nonverbal methods (like reaction-time tasks such as the IAT) to detect hidden biases.

  • These studies often show that implicit prejudice is still common, even when people deny holding biased views.

Affirmative Action (Prejudice)

• Group-focused: Supports entire disadvantaged groups rather than specific individuals.

• Compensatory: Gives preferential consideration to groups that have experienced historical or systemic discrimination.

• Outcome-based: Evaluated by whether it reduces inequality, not just by the fairness of its intentions.

Contemporary Models of Prejudice

1. Impression Management Perspective

   1. Prejudice still exists; people just hide it publicly.

   2. Overt bias → replaced with subtle/indirect bias.

2. Aversive Racism (Gaertner & Dovidio)

   1. People endorse equality, yet hold implicit negative biases.

   2. Behaviour shifts depending on situation: bias appears when it can be rationalized.

3. Dissociation Model (Devine, 1989)

   1. Distinguishes:

      1. Knowledge of stereotypes (shared culturally)

      2. Endorsement of stereotypes (personal beliefs)

   2. Low-prejudice people work to control automatic stereotype activation.

Strategies for avoiding stereotypes and prejudice

1. Motivation Matters

   1. People can control stereotypes when internally motivated (acting fair because it matters to them), not just externally motivated (to avoid judgment).

2. Increase Self-Awareness

   1. Noticing your own biased behaviour → guilt → motivation to change.

   2. Highlighting discrepancies between beliefs and actions reduces stereotypic responding.

3. Adopt Egalitarian Goals

   1. Intentionally choosing fairness and equality reduces automatic stereotype activation.

   2. People with tolerant beliefs show fewer discriminatory behaviours.

4. Be Motivated to Be Accurate

   1. Stereotyping increases under time pressure or cognitive load.

   2. When accuracy is important, people gather more information and rely less on stereotypes.

5. Avoid Trying Too Hard

   1. Overcontrolling behaviour can backfire → people act awkward, distant, or less warm.

   2. Fear of “looking prejudiced” can reduce natural, comfortable interaction.

De-Categorization (Reducing Stereotyping)

Goal: Reduce rigid group boundaries.

How:

• Focus on personalized, individual contact rather than group labels.

• Be motivated to know and like an individual from a stereotyped group.

• Encourages seeing people as unique, not as group representatives.