up


HOME


MENU


SEARCH

Stereotypes
By Saul McLeod, updated 2015

Definition: A stereotype is “...a fixed, over generalized belief about a

particular group or class of people.” (Cardwell, 1996).  For example, a “hells
angel” biker dresses in leather.

One advantage of a stereotype is that it enables us to respond rapidly to

situations because we may have had a similar experience before.

One disadvantage is that it makes us ignore differences between

individuals; therefore we think things about people that might not be true
(i.e. make generalizations).

The use of stereotypes is a major way in which we simplify our social world;
since they reduce the amount of processing (i.e. 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 (i.e.
“them” and “us” mentality) which leads to in-groups and out-groups.

Positive examples of stereotypes 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).  Negative stereotypes seem far more common, however.

Racial Stereotypes

Researchers have found that stereotypes exist of different races, cultures or

ethnic groups. Although the terms race, culture and ethnic groups have
different meanings, we shall take them to mean roughly the same thing at the
moment.

The most famous study of racial stereotyping was published by Katz and Braly
in 1933 when they reported the results of a questionnaire completed by
students at Princeton University in the USA.

They found that students held clear, negative stereotypes – few students
expressed any difficulty in responding to the questionnaire.

Most students at that time would have been white Americans and the pictures
of other ethnic groups included Jews as shrewd and mercenary, Japanese as
shrewd and sly, Negroes as lazy and happy-go-lucky and Americans as
industrious and intelligent.

Not surprisingly, racial stereotypes always seem to favor the race of the holder
and belittle other races. It is probably true to say that every ethnic group has
racial stereotypes of other groups.

Some psychologists argue that it is a “natural” aspect of human behaviour,

which can be seen to benefit each group because it helps in the long-run to
identify with one’s own ethnic group and so find protection and promote the
safety and success of the group.

There is no evidence for this view, however, and many writers argue that it is
merely a way of justifying racist attitudes and behaviours.

Katz and Braly (1933) – Racial

Stereotyping
Aim: To investigate stereotypical attitudes of Americans towards different
races.

Method: Questionnaire method was used to investigate stereotypes.

American university students were given a list of nationalities and ethic
groups (e.g. Irish, Germans etc.), and a list of 84 personality traits. They were
asked to pick out five or six traits which they thought were typical of each
group.

Results: There was considerable agreement in the traits selected. White

Americans, for example, were seen as industrious, progressive and ambitious.
African Americans were seen as lazy, ignorant and musical. Participants were
quite ready to rate ethnic groups with whom they had no personal contact.

Conclusion: Ethnic stereotypes are widespread, and shared by members of a

particular social group.
Research Evaluation
The Katz and Braly studies were done in the 1930’s and it can be argued that
cultures have changed since then and we are much less likely to hold these
stereotypes. 

Later studies conducted in 1951 and 1967 found changes in the stereotypes
and the extent to which they are held.  In general, stereotypes in the later
study tended to be more positive but the belief that particular ethnic groups
held particular characteristics still existed.

Also, it should be noted that this study has relied entirely on verbal reports
and is therefore extremely low in ecological validity. Just because participants
in a study will trot out stereotypes when asked does not mean to say that
people go around acting on them. People do not necessarily behave as though
the stereotypes are true.

The limited information that the experiments are given is also likely to create
demand characteristics (i.e. participants figure out what the experiment is
about and change their behaviour, for example give the results the
psychologist wants).

Finally, there is the problem of social desirability with questionnaire research

– people may lie.

Stereotype Threat
A stereotype threat arises when one is in a situation where one has the fear of
doing something that would inadvertently confirm a negative stereotype. It is
cued by the mere recognition that a negative group stereotype could apply to
you in a given situation.

It is important to understand that the person may experience a threat even if

he or she does not believe the stereotype. Simply psychology: , in the context,
the person perceives that the stereotype is a plausible characterization of
himself or herself by others (Steele & Aronson, 1995).

Steele and Aronson (1995) conducted an experiment involving African

American and White college students who took a difficult test using items
from an aptitude test (American GRE Verbal exam) under one of two
conditions.

In the stereotype threat condition, students were told that their performance
on the test would be a good indicator of their underlying intellectual abilities.
In the non-threat condition, they were told that the test was simply a problem
solving exercise and was not diagnostic of ability.

Performance was compared in the two conditions and results showed that
African American participants performed less well than their white
counterparts in the stereotype threat condition, but in the non-threat
condition their performance equaled that of their white counterparts.

In another study (Shih, Pittinsky, and Ambady, 1999) Asian women were
subtly reminded (with a questionnaire) of either their Asian identity or their
female identity prior to taking a difficult math test. Results showed that
women reminded of their ‘Asianness’ performed better than the control group
and women reminded of their female identity performed worse than the
control group.

According to Steele, stereotype threat generates “spotlight anxiety" (Steele &

Aronson, 1995, p. 809), which causes emotional distress and “vigilant worry"
that may undermine performance. Students worry that their future may be
compromised by society’s perception and treatment of their group so they do
not focus their full attention on the test questions.

Students taking the test under stereotype threat might also become inefficient
on the test by rereading the questions and the answer choices, as well as
rechecking their answers, more than when not under stereotype threat. It also
can induce “attributional ambiguity" —a person gets a low grade and asks, “Is
it something about me or because of my race?"

  Download this article as a PDF

How to reference this article:

McLeod, S. A. (2015, Oct 24). Stereotypes. Simply psychology:
https://www.simplypsychology.org/katz-braly.html

APA Style References

Cardwell, M. (1996). Dictionary of Psychology. Chicago IL: Fitzroy Dearborn.

Katz, D., & Braly, K. (1933). Racial stereotypes of one hundred college
students. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 28, 280-290.

Shih, M., Pittinsky, T. L., & Ambady, N. (1999). Stereotype susceptibility:

Identity salience and shifts in quantitative performance. Psychological
science, 10(1), 80-83.

Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test
performance of African Americans. Journal of personality and social
psychology, 69(5), 797.

Further Information
 Attitudes Attitude MeasurementPrejudice and DiscriminationSocial

Identity TheoryPrejudice and Discrimination Examples of

Discrimination The Psychology of Prejudice, Stereotyping and

Discrimination 

  Download this article as a PDF

How to reference this article:

McLeod, S. A. (2015, Oct 24). Stereotypes. Simply psychology:
https://www.simplypsychology.org/katz-braly.html
Comments (18)
Sort by: Date Rating Last Activity

+9

Eilish McGill

This site is amazing and really helped just wish I could find the actual study online or paper by Katz and
Braly from 1933 :(

Report
Reply

3 replies

+27

Sandra Taylor

This was really helpful, I have read quiet alot of articles by Saul and found him to be informative and easy
to understand :)

Report
Reply

+11
 Nicola Markland

I really like finding articles from this guy, I sit and read my Gross book and at times get very confused..
then I find and article from Saul McLeod, what Gross has been saying finally makes sense after I've read
his articles and it even shows you how to cite the article which was a massive help at the start of the year
when i didn't have a clue what i was doing.
Thank you.

Report
Reply

-49

lagergeld

Favoring one's ingroup isn't necessarily evil, and it's high time liberals and culture-bashers realize this.

Report
Reply

+1

hdkjfhs

What would the citation be in MLA? I'd like to use this as a source for a paper, but I'm terrible at citing.
>.<

Report
Reply

2 replies

+18

Mia Short

Not many sites explain stereotypes like this. And that was a compliment. :D

Report
Reply

+1

Mahar Arshad

very helpful..amazing
Report
Reply

-34

lola

I really find it offensive that the word " negroes " was used I would prefer if you change it to black instead .
Thanks

Report
Reply

1 reply

+6

sonic

helped me with my coursework lol! thank you

Report
Reply

+10

Ryan

The word "negros" was completely appropriate due to the recency of the study.(1930's) To go and
erase/correct terminology would lead our generations to forget where we began and where we have
progressed. Also a good example of stereotypical attitude not up to date PC wise.

Report
Reply

12Next »

Post a new comment

Check Spelling
Comment as a Guest, or login:
 Login to IntenseDebate
 Login to WordPress.com
Name
Email
Displayed next to your comments.

Not displayed publicly.

Submit Comment

Comments byIntenseDebate

Home | About | A-Z Index | Privacy Policy | Contact Us

Back to top

This workis licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-

No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Company Registration no: 10521846

 Privacy Policy