Lecture 5 - Stereotypes

• Stereotyping is the cognitive function to systematize and simplify information from the social environment to make sense of the world (Tajfel, 1981)
• Hogg and Vaughan (2021) define stereotype as a socially prevalent schema guiding social sense-making
• Stereotypes can be positive or negative, and they are widely shared, simplified, evaluative beliefs about the personality traits and behaviors of a social group and its members
• In forming impressions of others, we process information holistically using 'implicit theories of personality' (Asch), and we integrate this information linearly to reach a final impression, with a heavier weighting on earlier information due to the attention effect (Anderson)
• The 'Motivated tactician' model incorporates both top-down (Asch) and bottom-up (Anderson) thinking in forming impressions, depending on motivation and cognitive resources
• Biases in impression formation include weighting initial information more heavily, giving more attention to unusual traits or behaviors, and weighting negative information more heavily
• Stereotypes play a central role in impression formation, based on judgements of covariation between category membership and specific attributes
• Stereotypes are acquired early in social development, play a role in building group identities, and become more pronounced with social tension and conflict
• Stereotype activation is an automatic process, where schemas are accessible and can influence reactions even if not endorsed by the individual (Devine, 1989)
• Challenging stereotypes can occur before or after activation, influenced by processing goals, general attitudes, awareness, cognitive resources, and motivation
• Stereotype threat is when an individual feels performance pressure due to negative stereotypes against their group, leading to poorer performance, especially in situations where negative stereotypes are present (Steele and Aronson, 2004)
• Stereotyping


  The essential cognitive function of stereotyping is to systematise and simplify information from the social environment in order to make sense of the world
• Stereotype


  A socially prevalent schema that guides our social sense-making
• There can be positive stereotypes and negative stereotypes
• Stereotyping can be cultural disconnect or flat out racism at times (e.g. black people are athletic)
• Stereotypes


  Widely shared, simplified and evaluative beliefs about the personality traits and behaviours of a social group and its members
• One of the most salient characteristics in initial contact with someone is their group membership (e.g., sex, race, age)
• The process of categorisation activates a stereotype-consistent impression and expectation
• Information that is not consistent with a stereotype may actually have difficulty being assimilated into the impression
• Stereotypes are slow to change
• Stereotypes are affected by the social context
• Stereotypes can be implicit or explicit
• Categorising


  Reduces cognitive load
• Exemplars in a category

  Treated in a similar way
• We don't require all the information about the exemplar or the category
• Prototype


  A mental representation of the best exemplar of the category
• All other exemplars are compared to the prototype for 'fitness'
• Once the category and the prototype are created, they are difficult to change
• Impression formation


  Part of the mediating process between stimulus and response within a social cognition framework
• Stereotypes allow us to categorise a large group of people into specific groups
• Impression formation is important at an interpersonal level (e.g., friends, strangers) and wider social level (e.g., job interviewing; jury service; political voting)
• Asch's theory of impression formation


  • In forming impressions of others, we process information about them holistically, using 'implicit theories of personality' in interpretation and inference
  • Some traits have a central role in integrating this information and organising the impression
  • We integrate this information into a holistic picture as it is presented ('on-line')
• Anderson's theory of impression formation

  • We process information about others elementally (not holistically), following the algebraic rules of combination (not implicit theories of personality)
  • We integrate this information linearly to reach a final impression using all of the information given (not 'on-line') - with a heavier weighting on earlier information due to the attention effect
• 'Motivated tactician' model


  We use both top- down, deductive thinking (Asch) and bottom-up, inductive thinking (Anderson) in forming impressions, depending upon motivation and cognitive resources
• Top-down (schema-driven) processing is our default position in interpreting information about others, because it is cognitively more efficient
• Biases in impression formation

  • Initial information is weighted more heavily
  • Unusual traits or behaviours weighted more heavily
  • Negative information is weighted more heavily and is more difficult to counter
  • Use of stereotypes (schema about social groups) in impression formation
• Stereotype-consistent impressions are formed easily, while stereotype-inconsistent information is ignored or distorted
• Activating a stereotype category (e.g. 'lesbian') can lead to updating an initial impression in a stereotypical direction
• Stereotypes


  Judgements of covariation - assumptions/ beliefs about the relationship between membership of a particular category and specific attributes
• The exemplars WITHIN a category appear more similar, while the differences BETWEEN the categories are more pronounced (meta-contrast effect)