Nature and Origins of

Stereotyping
Term Paper for Social Psychology
Group 1
What is a Stereotype?

❖ A stereotype is a schema or set of beliefs about a certain group of people.

❖ The process of assigning attributes to a person solely on the basis of the class or
category to which he or she belongs is called stereotyping.
❖ Stereotypes are:
❖ Cognitive frameworks that directly influence the way we process various social
information.
❖ Rigid, oversimplified, or biased perception of individuals or groups.
❖ Can be derogatory.
General Examples of Stereotypes
❖ Politicians are shrewd, opportunists and liars.
❖ Women are docile, nurturing, considerate and overly emotional.
❖ Men are assertive, good leaders and accomplished.
❖ Doctors are polite, kind, intelligent and progressive.
Major Characteristics of Stereotypes
❖ Stereotypes can be either positive or negative. For example, positive
stereotypes attributed to women may include warm and sensitive while
negative stereotypes may include dependent, delicate and unable to be
decisive.
❖ Stereotypes can be accurate or inaccurate. People join political parties,
clubs and professional associations because they have a stereotype
regarding common beliefs and attitudes which are mostly accurate. On
the other hand, stereotypes such as “males are more effective leaders
than females” are inaccurate.
❖ Stereotypes can be explicit or implicit. Implicit stereotypes are
automatically activated and operate indirectly, and thus individuals may
not be aware that they possess such beliefs. In contrast, explicit
stereotypes are accessible to conscious awareness and are what
individuals report when asked about group differences.
Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination

Social psychologists have traditionally drawn a distinction between

stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination.
❖ Stereotypes are considered the cognitive component of attitudes toward
a social group—specifically, beliefs about what a particular group is like.
❖ Prejudice is considered the affective component, or the feelings we have
about a particular group.
❖ Discrimination concerns the behavioral component, or differential actions
taken toward members of specific social groups.
According to this attitude approach, some groups are characterized by
negative stereotypes and this leads to a general feeling of hostility, which then
results in a conscious intention to discriminate against members of the
targeted group.
Types of Stereotypes

❖ Gender Stereotype: beliefs concerning the

characteristics of women and men—contain both
positive and negative traits.
❖ Because of the strong emphasis on warmth in
the stereotype for women, people tend to feel
somewhat more positively about women on the
whole compared to men—a finding described by
Eagly and Mladinic (1994) as the “women are
wonderful” effect.
❖ Women are particularly underrepresented in the corporate world. The
seventh edition of Deloitte Global's 'Women in the Boardroom' report
revealed that women hold 17.1 percent of the board seats in India.
However, only 3.6 per cent of the board chairs are women, down by 0.9
per cent since 2018, the report added.
❖ In corporate settings women are primarily making it into middle
management but not the higher echelons. This situation, where women
find it difficult to advance, may be indicative of a glass ceiling—a final
barrier that prevents women, as a group, from reaching top positions in
the workplace. Several studies have confirmed that a “think manager—
think male” bias exists and can help explain how the glass ceiling is
maintained.
❖ Age Stereotype: Age stereotypes can be ambivalent. For example, young
individuals stereotypically perceive the older generation as warm but
incompetent (Cuddy et al., 2005), while older individuals perceive the
young generation as open-minded but foolish (Hummert et al., 2004).
❖ Racial Stereotype: A widely accepted perception or belief about the
attributes of a particular race, especially minority groups. Black people
are generally stereotyped as being athletic, but unintelligent and
incompetent.
❖ Socio-economic Stereotype: Social class stereotypes depict low-income
people as less competent than higher-income individuals, but perhaps
more warm-hearted. Rich people are cross-nationally stereotyped as
more competent (but cold-hearted) than poor people, especially under
conditions of greater income inequality.
Katz and Braly - Racial Stereotyping (1933)
❖ 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.
❖ Racial stereotypes always seem to favor the race of the holder and belittle
other races.
Stereotype Threat

❖ Stereotype threat is defined as a “socially premised psychological threat

that arises when one is in a situation or doing something for which a
negative stereotype about one's group applies” (Steele & Aronson, 1995).
❖ According to stereotype threat, members of a marginalized group
acknowledge that a negative stereotype exists in reference to their group,
and they demonstrate apprehension about confirming the negative
stereotype by engaging in particular activities.
Origins of Stereotypes

❖ Friends: Homophily limits people’s social worlds in a way that has

powerful implications for the information they receive, the attitudes they
form, and the interactions they experience. When people have diverse
friendships, they're less likely to believe stereotypes.
❖ Family: Parents and caregivers model gender roles and may encourage or
discourage certain behavior for girls and boys. These different messages
shape a child's understanding of gender roles and who they are supposed
to be.
❖ Television: Mass media have huge reach in society and are a key filter
through which people learn about each other, yet countless studies
demonstrate that these media continue to reproduce ethnic and racial
stereotypes, with often harmful effects. Mass media play a role in shaping
collective identities and intergroup attitudes and, by typecasting certain
groups, distort the picture that audiences see of different groups. There is
evidence to suggest these skewed media representations can not only
promote public hostility toward other ethnic groups but also lower ethnic
minority individuals’ self-esteem.
❖ Community: Stereotypes form part of the assumed shared knowledge in
a community. While much of this shared knowledge is cultural and may
develop on the basis of naive, handed-down theories, personal
experience can play a role in modifying stereotypical views.
❖ Politics: People may use stereotypes to interpret and understand social
issues, inform political beliefs, and form impressions of political
candidates.
❖ Cultural Differences: Generalizations become stereotypes when all
members of a group are categorized as having the same characteristics.
Stereotypes can be linked to any type of cultural membership, such as
nationality, religion, gender, race, or age.
❖ Personal Experiences: how a person or group that we directly interacted
with influenced our thoughts, can later on become a stereotype we
associate with that person or group.
❖ Human Nature: Researchers say that our brains seem hardwired to create
social categories that influence how we see others. Without actual
knowledge in a subject we must face or are exposed to different degrees
of past influences and experiences, compare, find similarities, search for
positive or negative depending on the situation and our particular nature.
We are automatically prejudicial while forming an opinion without actual
knowledge, though this may only be a superficial opinion until we verify
specifics.
Where Bias Lives in Our Brain
A Short Film On Stereotyping
 Thank You.

Darshana Sarmah 22mapsyc06

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