Stereotypes

Social cognition

How people think about and understand others, including impressions, stereotypes, and attributions.

Stereotypes

Cognitive beliefs about characteristics of members of a social group; mental shortcuts that may be inaccurate or overgeneralized.

Prejudice

Affective component of bias: negative (or positive) feelings toward a group or its members.

Discrimination

Behavioral component: acting on prejudice by treating people differently based on group membership.

Stereotype content model

Stereotypes vary along warmth and competence dimensions; predicts emotional reactions (pity, envy, admiration, contempt).

Cognitive efficiency of stereotypes

Stereotypes reduce cognitive load by allowing quick judgments; function as heuristics.

Ingroups vs outgroups

Ingroup = group you belong to; outgroup = group you don’t belong to. People favor ingroups in evaluations and behavior.

Minimal group paradigm

People show ingroup favoritism even when group assignment is random and meaningless.

Outgroup homogeneity effect

Perceiving outgroup members as more similar to each other than ingroup members; contributes to stereotyping.

Implicit bias

Automatic associations about groups that influence judgment and behavior without conscious awareness.

Implicit Association Test (IAT)

Measures implicit biases by examining reaction times linking groups with positive or negative words.

Explicit bias

Conscious, openly endorsed prejudicial attitudes.

Modern racism

Subtle forms of prejudice that appear when norms allow for ambiguity or rationalization; discrimination persists without overt hostility.

Aversive racism

People endorse egalitarian beliefs but still possess negative automatic associations, leading to discriminatory behavior in ambiguous situations.

Stereotype activation

Exposure to one group category automatically triggers associated stereotypes.

Stereotype application

Using activated stereotypes to interpret behavior or make judgments; application is controllable with effort.

Schemas and stereotyping

Stereotypes are schemas about groups; guide attention, memory, and interpretation in biased ways.

Confirmation bias in stereotypes

People notice and remember stereotype-consistent information more than counter-stereotypical information.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Expectations about a group member lead you to act in ways that cause them to confirm the stereotype.

Pygmalion effect

Higher expectations improve performance; shown in classroom studies where teachers’ expectations influence student achievement.

Stereotype threat

Anxiety about confirming a negative stereotype leads to impaired performance (e.g., women in math, Black students on tests).

Mechanisms of stereotype threat

Increased anxiety, reduced working memory, vigilance to threat, lowered sense of belonging.

Reducing stereotype threat

Reframing tasks, affirming self-worth, role models, emphasizing growth mindset, reducing identity salience.

Social identity theory

Group memberships form part of self-concept; people enhance self-esteem through ingroup favoritism and outgroup derogation.

Ingroup favoritism

Preferential treatment and positive evaluation of ingroup members over outgroup members.

Realistic conflict theory

Competition over resources leads to intergroup hostility (e.g., Robbers Cave experiment).

Superordinate goals

Shared goals requiring cooperation reduce intergroup conflict (demonstrated in Robbers Cave).

Robbers Cave experiment

Boys split into two groups developed hostility; cooperation toward common goals reduced prejudice.

Contact hypothesis

Contact between groups reduces prejudice under specific conditions: equal status, common goals, cooperation, institutional support.

Decategorization

Reducing prejudice by seeing individuals as unique rather than category members.

Recategorization

Creating a shared ingroup identity to reduce bias (e.g., “we are all students”).

Attributional ambiguity

Members of stigmatized groups may be unsure whether feedback is due to personal performance or prejudice.

Ambiguous feedback

Positively or negatively interpreted differently depending on group identity and context, complicating self-evaluation.

Subtyping

Creating narrow categories for people who do not fit stereotypes to protect the overall stereotype from change.

Illusory correlation

Perceiving a relationship between group membership and behavior even when none exists (often with distinctive or rare events).

Scapegoating

Blaming an outgroup for ingroup problems; increases during frustration or resource scarcity.

Just-world belief

Belief that people get what they deserve; leads to victim-blaming and justification of inequality.

System justification theory

People defend and justify existing social, economic, and political systems, even when they harm disadvantaged groups.

Belief in a just world

Motivates perception that outcomes are deserved; contributes to blaming marginalized groups.

Ultimate attribution error

Attributing negative outgroup behavior to disposition and positive outgroup behavior to situation (reverse for ingroups).

Role of media in stereotyping

Media overrepresents certain groups in stereotypical roles, reinforcing associations automatically.

Implicit bias and behavior

Implicit biases predict subtle discriminatory behaviors, like body language, seating distance, and eye contact.

Microaggressions

Subtle, often unintentional slights or insults that communicate negative stereotypes or assumptions.

Impact of discrimination

Leads to stress, worse mental health, reduced academic performance, and decreased trust in institutions.

Reducing prejudice

Effective strategies include empathy training, perspective-taking, cooperative learning, intergroup contact, and norm changes.

Norm change in prejudice

Prejudice reduces when social norms shift toward inclusion, making discrimination socially unacceptable.

Moral licensing

After doing something unbiased, people may feel justified in acting in biased ways later.

Ambiguity and bias

Stereotypes most strongly influence judgments when information is unclear or incomplete.

Cognitive load and stereotyping

High cognitive load increases reliance on stereotypes by reducing controlled processing.

Motivation to be non-prejudiced

Can reduce stereotype application but not activation; requires effort and consistent practice.