Stereotyping: Definition, Examples, & Consequences
Stereotypes are assumptions we make about people based on their belonging in certain social groups. Stereotypes have far-ranging consequences for our society.
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After graduating from college, I lived in Egypt for a year. It was the first place I’d ever been where I wasn’t the default person—white and English-speaking. For the first time, I was perceived as a stereotypical American. This meant that people on the street assumed I would love American fast food, know all the most popular songs, and be from California or New York City. |
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What Is Stereotyping? (A Definition)
Stereotypes are a form of social categorization. We have a natural and automatic tendency to try to classify people into groups (Fiske, 1998). This tendency would disappear if it was not at least somewhat effective, and indeed, the assumptions we make about other people based on single traits are not always harmful. However, stereotyping is not fully automatic; we can and should recognize when we are engaged in making such assumptions as well as the situations that make us more likely to stereotype (Fiske, 1998).
This is because stereotyping entails believing that members of a certain group always behave a certain way, or have a certain trait, as a result of belonging to that group. For example, two stereotypes sometimes held about Jewish people are that they are greedy and that they are politically liberal (Berinsky & Mendelberg, 2005). The first stereotype has become far less acceptable to voice, while the second might be considered a more reasonable assumption by some people. However, neither stereotype is a fair assumption to make about any particular Jewish person.
Opposite of Stereotyping
To interact with other people without ever falling into stereotyping them would be very difficult! Categorizing and making associations are such natural functions of our brains that these things happen regularly and automatically. What seems more important to me is that we not act on those stereotyping thoughts, and when we say or do something based on stereotypical thinking, we take responsibility for it.
Causes of Stereotyping
We can use developmental intergroup theory (Bigler & Liben, 2006) to explain how we come to stereotype other people. This theory proposes that because we are such good categorizers, and because it is so essential for functioning effectively in the world, we learn from an early age to look for differences between people. Over time, we notice patterns in those differences and begin to classify people into groups.
Stereotyping Gender Example
Let’s take the example of gender. Children observe from an early age that certain people are more likely to do things than other people. Since so many aspects of our culture are organized around the gender binary, children naturally observe which things boys and men seem more likely to do and which things girls and women seem more likely to do. While this process of social categorization has innumerable practical advantages (Bigler & Liben, 2006), it can also lead to an abundance of errors in judgment, from assuming that a young girl will not be interested in entering the science fair to refraining from offering a man emotional support when he is clearly upset.
Examples of Stereotyping
Consequences of Stereotyping
Stereotypes also impact our workplaces, leading to unequal treatment of employees when it comes to job reviews, promotions, and hiring (Operario & Fiske, 2001). Many efforts have been made to address stereotypes within professional settings because workplaces are systems where leadership can exert a stronger influence over the company’s culture, and some interventions do seem to help reduce the impacts of stereotypes on workplace outcomes.
Stereotyping Theory
Social psychology research tells us that stereotyping is a behavior that is rooted in our social contexts as much as it is in our brains (Amodio, 2014). When we must make decisions under time pressure, or when we are presented with particularly threatening situations, we are more likely to stereotype other people. Our thinking becomes even more automatic, and less reflectful, when the older, more survival-focused parts of our brains get activated (Amodio, 2014).
In a moment like this, the theory suggests, we use our preconceptions about a given group to quickly evaluate the person we are interacting with and take action. It seems like there just isn’t the time to more thoughtfully evaluate the person or the situation, and we seem to have good reason to believe the preconceptions are real or effective. Indeed, it is rather effortful to override this automatic and mostly unconscious cognitive pattern (Amodio, 2014). And in fact, many people believe stereotypes not just unconsciously but consciously as well (Wegener et al., 2006).
Stereotype Threat
Stereotype threat is the experience of knowing that one may be stereotyped in a certain situation—an experience that can easily cause the person to become upset or change their behavior (Spencer et al., 2016a). For example, a Black person might experience stereotype threat when they find themselves wanting to voice frustration with a situation but are afraid of being stereotyped as the “angry Black person.” A well-studied effect of stereotype threat occurs in academic performance. When children are reminded of their racial, ethnic, or gender identity and how it is associated with poorer academic performance, they tend to underperform on tests (Steele & Aronson, 1995).
Stereotyping and Bias
Stereotyping and Prejudice
Stereotypes are a form of prejudice, or judging someone before you know them. Some psychologists have noted that this prejudice has two main components: warmth and competence (Fiske et al., 2002). What this means is that our stereotypes typically consist of the expectation that somebody will be high or low in warmth or in competence. For example, stereotypes about Black men often include their being very athletically competent but also aggressive (in other words, low in warmth).
Stereotyping of Gender Roles
Plenty of research has looked at gender stereotypes (Ellemers, 2018). Women are perceived as more emotional, and more emotionally expressive, than men (Plant et al., 2000). On the other hand, men are perceived as more sexual than women. Although many gender stereotypes reflect only a very tiny actual difference between men and women when measured across large samples, they continue to exert a very strong influence on how we live our lives and relate to each other (Ellemers, 2018).
Stereotyping in Movies
Stereotypes are perpetuated by the characters we see in movies. Disney films provide a particularly good example of this because they repeatedly demonstrate the “what is beautiful is good” stereotype. Multiple studies have found that characters who are “good” are depicted as more attractive and experience happier endings in Disney films (Bazzini et al., 2010; Smith et al., 1999). This kind of depiction matters: In one study, after viewing a Disney film, children indicated that they were more interested in playing with more attractive peers than with less attractive peers (Bazzini et al., 2010). Another study showed a very similar effect with adults after watching other mainstream movies (Smith et al., 1999).
Stereotyping in Advertising
Stereotypes are also everywhere in advertising. Scholars have effectively traced the long histories of using racist or gender-based stereotypes to try to sell products (Boulton, 2016), which may be because the advertising world itself is a mostly white and male industry. Only recently have advertisers begun to intentionally use representations of diverse gender roles and non-stereotypical depictions of people of color to sell their products (Grau & Zotos, 2016).
Stereotyping the Elderly
Stereotypes of the elderly focus on the idea that older people are losing their cognitive abilities, such as becoming more forgetful (Hummert et al., 1994). While these stereotypes may sometimes protect the elderly against pressure to engage in activities that will be difficult for them (Snyder & Miene, 1994), they also often dehumanize the elderly and lead to unfair treatment.
Articles Related to Stereotyping
Books Related to Stereotyping
Final Thoughts on Stereotyping
For a very human description of what it’s like to be a human in a stereotyping world, I recommend watching the following TED Talk:
Video: Stereotyping
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References
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- Berinsky, A. J., & Mendelberg, T. (2005). The indirect effects of discredited stereotypes in judgments of Jewish leaders. American Journal of Political Science, 49(4), 845–864.
- Bigler, R. S., & Liben, L. S. (2006). A developmental intergroup theory of social stereotypes and prejudice. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 34, 39–89.
- Bodenhausen, G. V., Sheppard, L. A., & Kramer, G. P. (1994). Negative affect and social judgment: The differential impact of anger and sadness. European Journal of Social Psychology, 24(1), 45–62.
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- Ellemers, N. (2018). Gender stereotypes. Annual Review of Psychology, 69, 275–298.
- Fiske, S. T. (1998). Stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (pp. 357–411). McGraw-Hill.
- Fiske, S. T., Cuddy, A. J., Glick, P., & Xu, J. (2002). A model of (often mixed) stereotype content: competence and warmth respectively follow from perceived status and competition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(6), 878–902.
- Grau, S. L., & Zotos, Y. C. (2016). Gender stereotypes in advertising: a review of current research. International Journal of Advertising, 35(5), 761–770.
- Hummert, M. L., Garstka, T. A., Shaner, J. L., & Strahm, S. (1994). Stereotypes of the elderly held by young, middle-aged, and elderly adults. Journals of Gerontology, 49(5), 240–249.
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- Operario, D., & Fiske, S. T. (2001). Causes and consequences of stereotypes in organizations. In M. London (Ed.), How people evaluate others in organizations (pp. 45–62). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
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- Smith, S. M., McIntosh, W. D., & Bazzini, D. G. (1999). Are the beautiful good in Hollywood? An investigation of the beauty-and-goodness stereotype on film. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 21(1), 69–80.
- Snyder, M., & Miene, P. K. (1994). Stereotyping of the elderly: A functional approach. British Journal of Social Psychology, 33(1), 63–82.
- Spencer, K. B., Charbonneau, A. K., & Glaser, J. (2016a). Implicit bias and policing. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 10(1), 50–63.
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- Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(5), 797–811.
- Wegener, D. T., Clark, J. K., & Petty, R. E. (2006). Not all stereotyping is created equal: Differential consequences of thoughtful versus nonthoughtful stereotyping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(1), 42–59.
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