Stereotypes

Stereotype Definition

A widely held, oversimplified belief about the characteristics of a group

Categorisation and Generalisation

Categorisation: mentally placing someone into a particular social group instantly and automatically (gender, age, race, religion)

Generalisation: the process of forming a belief about a particular social group and applying that belief to all members of the group/out group homogeneity effect = tendency to underestimate individual differences between people in an out group

Stereotype truths

1. personal experiences with people from another group

2. gatekeepers from in-group that influence how one perceives members of out-groups

False stereotypes

1. illusory correlation refers to seeing a relationship that doesn’t exist between two variables

2. confirmation bias refers to the human tendency to seek out information that confirms a belief and ignoring information that challenges it

Effects of stereotypes

1. stereotype threat: being exposed to negative stereotypes about one’s group that makes them anxious

2. stereotype boost: positive stereotypes that increase confidence, leading to a better performance

Shih et al

A: how negative stereotypes about your group can hurt performance (stereotype threat) while positive stereotypes can improve performance (stereotype boost)

P: 46 Asian-American women studying in an elite American university/randomly assigned to 3 groups/1. asked to complete a questionnaire that reminded them of their identity as females/ 2. asked to complete a questionnaire that reminded them of their identity as Asian/3. no questionnaire/all participants were given a test of difficult math problems

F: group 1 performed significantly worse compared to group 3/group 2 did significantly better compared to group 3

C: when reminded of gender, negative stereotypes about women and maths caused increased anxiety, thus a worse performance (stereotype threat)/when reminded of race, positive stereotypes about Asians and maths caused increased confidence, thus a better performance (stereotype boost)

Evaluate Shih et al

• Use of Asian-American participants was effective: allowed both stereotype threat and boost to be seen in the same group

• Laboratory experiment: demonstrated a clear casual relationship between which stereotype was brought to mind and the performance on the math test

• Small sample size

• All participants were female and Asian-American: low generalisability