stereotyping

n. Stereotyping refers to the use of stereotypes to judge other people. It typically refers to using stereotypes to judge a particular person. If, for example, people rate the intelligence of a student from a lowersocial-class background less favorably than they rate the intelligence of a student from a higher-social-class background, despite identical academic performance on identical tests, people's social class stereotypes would appear to be influencing and biasing their judgments of these particular students. The primary questions addressed by research on stereotyping have been (1) What types of influences do stereotypes exert on how we judge individuals? (2) To what extent do people rely on stereotypes versus individuating information when judging other people? (3) Under what conditions are people more or less likely to rely on stereotyping when judging other people?

Perceiver, target, and individuating information: Some necessary jargon. Everyone in social interaction both perceives other people and is a target of other people's perceptions. Nonetheless, in order to have a comprehensible discussion of the role of stereotypes in person perception, it is necessary to distinguish the perceiver from the target. The perceiver is the person holding and possibly using a stereotype to judge the target, who is, potentially, a target of stereotyping. Thus, despite the fact that everyone is both perceiver and target, this discussion, as do most on stereotypes and person perception, relies on the artificial but necessary distinction between perceiver and target.

What is the alternative to stereotyping? It is the use of individuating information – judging individual targets, not on the basis of stereotypes regarding their group, but, instead, on the basis of their personal, unique, individual characteristics. Individuation, therefore, is judging a person as a unique individual, rather than as a member of a group, and individuating information refers to the unique personality, behaviors, attitudes, accomplishments, and so on, of a particular target.

There are two broadly separable ways in which stereotypes can influence the way people perceive a particular target. Biases
occur when stereotypes influence perception, evaluation, memory, and judgment. Biases alter the way a perceiver judges a target but do not necessarily directly affect the target. Self-fulfilling prophecies, however, occur when the stereotype influences perception because it first alters targets' actual behavior (which is then perceived accurately).

Not all influences of stereotypes on judgment are unjustified. In many situations, it is reasonable, appropriate, and justified for people to use their expectations as a basis for making predictions about particular individuals and for “filling in the blanks” when faced with unclear or ambiguous situations. First, consider a nonsocial example. In the Northern Hemisphere, it is usually much warmer in July than in January. People are, therefore, doing something quite reasonable if they expect any particular July day to be warmer than any particular January day. This is a reasonable expectation, despite the fact that, sometimes, daytime highs in January are warmer than nighttime lows in July.

This basic principle – that an accurate belief can lead to an expectation that is as accurate as possible under the circumstances – is just as true for social beliefs, such as stereotypes, as it is for nonsocial beliefs. So, if without any additional, relevant individuating information, if people expect any given woman to be shorter than any given man, or if they expect any given doctor to be wealthier than any given janitor, or if they expect any given LatinoAmerican adult to have completed less education than any given Asian-American adult, they are similarly simply being as reasonable and rational (and as accurate) as possible, in the absence of specific relevant information about each target.

Similarly, accurate beliefs can often be appropriately used to “fill in the blanks” when perceiving ambiguous situations. For example, people interpret a fidgety interviewee to be “nervous” if they believe the interview is about sex, but “bored” if they think it is about international economics. So, if people find out that both a member of a pacifist group and an Al Qaeda member “attacked” the United States, they are simply being reasonable if they use their beliefs about pacifists and Al Qaeda members (their stereotypes) and assume that the antiwar activist's attack was a verbal critique of U.S. policies, but the Al Qaeda attack was something much more dangerous.

Only a very small number of studies have examined whether stereotypes increase or reduce the accuracy of perceptions and judgments, but what they find is most interesting. If the stereotype itself is accurate, stereotyping (i.e., using the stereotype to judge an individual) will often increase the accuracy of those judgments, at least in the absence of perfectly clear and relevant individuating information. (When individuating information is perfectly clear and relevant, people should rely exclusively on it for making judgments – as, in fact, most research shows they do). On the other hand, when the stereotype is inaccurate, stereotyping reduces the accuracy of person perception judgments. For practical purposes, therefore, of eliminating unfair biases and maximizing accuracy, an important starting point is simply understanding how and when stereotypes enhance or reduce the accuracy of person perception.

Conclusions. Stereotyping occurs in a wide variety of ways. Stereotypes influence people's perceptions, judgments, and evaluations of, attributions and memory for, and interactions with other people. Stereotyping is most likely to occur when targets' behavior or attributes are unavailable or unclear. However, people also easily discard their stereotypes when judging others, at least when they have clear, individualized information about those others. Although there are conditions under which stereotypes can strongly influence person perception, in general, such influence is weak, fragile, and fleeting, largely because, in general, people rely heavily on individuating information when it is available.

▶ See also STEREOTYPES