As part of my Cognitive Science class this last Spring, I presented an overview of how stereotypes influence human behavior. This topic is especially useful to cognitive designers - a category of designers who regularly incorporate findings from cognitive science to enrich the development of new products and experiences.

1. Stereotypes
Allison Leach
Cognitive Science
November 2012

2. What is a stereotype?
Definition
“a socially shared set of beliefs about traits
that are characteristic of members of a social
category”
Origins
Derives from the Greek “firm, solid” and
“impression”(“solid impression”)
http://adam.oliner.net/comp/stereotyping.html
http://www.simplypsychology.org/katz-braly.html

3. What is a stereotype?
• Stereotypes are categories of objects or people.
Between stereotypes, objects or people are as
different to each other as possible. Within
stereotypes, objects or people are as similar to each
other as possible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype

4. Theories Old and New
• Gordon Allport (1954): assumed stereotypes of
outgroups reflected uniform antipathy
• Daniel Katz and Kenneth Braly (1933): argued
ethnic stereotypes are uniformly negative
• New model of stereotypes: suggests stereotypes are
frequently ambivalent and vary along 2 dimensions;
warmth and competence (Fiske et al. 2002)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype

5. Mixed Stereotype Content Model
(Fiske et al.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype

6. Stereotype Content Model (SCM)
(Fiske et al. 2002)
• Intergroup emotions and
stereotypes predict distinct
behaviors which can be
active, passive, facilitative,
and harmful
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype

7. Formation
• Socialization and upbringing: although stereotypes
can be absorbed at any age, stereotypes are usually
acquired in early childhood under the influence of adults
• Intergroup relations: stereotypes are shared because
group members are motivated to behave in certain ways
• Genetic: some evolutionary psychologists believe that
xenophobia has genetic roots, so that people will respond
positively to similar people and negatively to genetically
different people
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype

8. Cognitive Function
• Helps us make sense of the world, a form of
categorization which simplifies and systematizes
information so that the information is easier to be
identified, recalled, predicted, and reacted to.
• Time and energy-savers which allow people to act
more efficiently: shortcuts to make sense of
social contexts that make the world less cognitively
demanding
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype

9. Social Function
• Social categorization: stereotypes can be used
for explaining social events - often to justify the
activities of an ingroup, or to put an ingroup in a
positive light by differentiating from the negative traits
of an outgroup (ex: anti-Semites and Jews)
• Self categorization: stereotypes can emphasize a
person’s group membership via depersonalization
(ex: adhering to the values of a political party)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype

10. How it Works
• Automatic activation: Lepore and
Brown (1997) describe automatic
stereotype activation as the activation of
categorically associated “nodes.”
• When encountering a category member
the group node is activated, and the
excitation spreads to other connected
nodes. These involuntarily excited nodes
are stereotypic characteristics.
• Controlled processing: Automatic
reactions can be modulated by attention
and suppressed, or even planned.
Lepore, L., & Brown R. (1997). Category and stereotype activation: Is prejudice
inevitable? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72 (2), 275-287.

11. How it Works
• If a person has seen an
orange basketball before,
they have already placed
this object into a basketball
category consisting of
certain characteristics;
it bounces, has a certain
texture and groove, is
spherical, and is orange.
• If he or she then encounters
a yellow basketball, that
person might be able to still
associate it with the
category of basketballs
based on its texture and
shape.

12. Accurate?
• Although many widely-held stereotypes lack empirical support,
“it is possible for a stereotype to grow in defiance of
evidence” (Gordon Allport, 1954)
• Illusory correlations develop incorrect inferences about the
relationship between two events
• The accuracy of some stereotypes are supported by empirical
social science research (Rosenthal 1991)
• Ethnic and gender stereotypes about personality and behavior
may be more accurate, while stereotypes about political affiliation
and nationality may be much less accurate (Jussim 2009)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype

13. Effects of Stereotypes
• Attributional ambiguity: the uncertainty of stereotyped
individuals to interpret the cause of others’ behavior toward them
(positive or negative: group or individual merit)
• Self-fulfilling prophecy: behavior is which one’s inaccurate
expectations about a person’s behavior prompt stereotype-
consistent behaviors
• Self-stereotyping: specific stereotypes that affect a person’s
evaluations of their abilities
• Stereotype threat: when people are aware of a negative
stereotype about their social group, then experience anxiety that
they might confirm the stereotype, undermining performance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype

14. Effects of Stereotypes
• Discrimination: the judgment of an individual based on the
categorical characteristics associated with the target’s social or
ethnic group
• Appearance bias: such as the Halo Effect - a tendency for
positive characteristics to be associated with other positive
characteristics (ex: physical attractiveness and goodness)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype

15. How it Works
Stereotype Threat
The cognitive process model of
stereotype threat
PATH 1
STEREOTYPE
ACTIVATION
STEREOTYPE- STEREOTYPE RESTRICTED UNDER-
AROUSAL
RELEVANT THREAT CAPACITY PERFORMANCE
SITUATION
SELF-
CATEGORIZATION
PATH 2
PATH 3
Rosenthal (1968)

16. How it Works
Pygmalion Effect
A model of the self-fulfilling
prophecy at work
SUPERVISOR
EXPECTANCY
PERFORMANCE LEADERSHIP
SUBORDINATE
MOTIVATION
SELF-EXPECTANCY
(Eden 1984, Rosenthal 1968)

17. How it Works
Pygmalion Effect
A model of the self-fulfilling
prophecy at work
TEACHER’S
EXPECTANCY
PERFORMANCE LEADERSHIP
STUDENT’S
MOTIVATION
SELF-EXPECTANCY
(Eden 1984, Rosenthal 1968)

18. Research: IAT
• Harvard University's Implicit Association Test
(Greenwald et al. 1998) allegedly measures and reveals
subconscious racial biases
+• Participants are shown flashes of pictures of white and black
faces, and positive and negative words. They are evaluated
on whether they associate different words with certain races
_• The more a test-taker tries to not appear biased the more
bias shows up in the test results
• On average, then, the participants found it much easier to
associate the target concept black with the attribute
unpleasant than with the attribute pleasant.
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/selectatest.html

19. Implicit Association Test
v
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

20. Solutions
• Blinding: providing no cues whatsoever as to the social category or
stereotype under which the target might fit makes discrimination
impossible
• Empathy: taking the perspective of outgroup members and “looking
at the world through their eyes” can significantly reduce ingroup bias
and stereotype accessibility (Galinsky & Moskowitz, 2000
• Reorienting beliefs: ex: when black college students were
encouraged to think of intelligence as malleable rather than fixed, their
grades increased (Aronson, Fried, & Good, 2002)
• Education: ex: implicit and explicit racial biases were reduced after
students took a course on prejudice and conflict (Rudman, Ashmore,
& Gary, 2001)
• Counter-stereotype imagery: ex: implicit gender stereotypes
decline after people spend a few minutes imagining a strong woman
(Blair 2002)
http://www.understandingprejudice.org/apa/english/page19.htm

21. Good or Bad?
• Advantage: • Disadvantage:
enables us to respond makes us ignore
rapidly to situations in differences between
which we’ve had a individuals, leading
similar experience us to think things
about people that
might not be true
http://www.simplypsychology.org/katz-braly.html

22. Questions
• Considering that stereotypes might have been a positive
evolutionary adaptation, are there situations today in which
they still play can play a positive role?
• Do you believe enough education can eradicate stereotypes -
or is even this awareness of their existence doomed to trigger
effects like the stereotype threat?
• Do you believe stereotypes can be effectively measured?
• If stereotypes are automatically activated, how can we design
to facilitate or inhibit their occurrence?
•

23. Works Referenced
Eden, D. (1988). Pygmalion, Goal Setting, and Expectancy: Compatible Ways to Boost Productivity. The Academy of
Management Review, 13 (4), 639-652.
Fiske, Susan T. (1998). "Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Discrimination". In Gilbert, Daniel T.; Fiske, Susan T.; Lindzey,
Gardner. The Handbook of Social Psychology. Volume Two (4th ed.). Boston, Mass.:McGraw-Hill. p. 357.
ISBN 978-0-19-521376-8.
Lepore, L., & Brown R. (1997). Category and stereotype activation: Is prejudice inevitable? Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 72 (2), 275-287.
Milne, A. B., & Macrae, C. N., & Bodenhausen, G. V., & Thorn, T. M. J., & Castelli, L. (1997). On the activation of
social stereotypes: The moderating role of processing objectives. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 33,
471-489.
Oliner, Adam J. (2000). “The Cognitive Roots of Stereotyping.” Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“The Psychology of Prejudice.” Understanding Prejudice. <www. zunderstandingprejudice.org/apa/english/
page19.htm> (18 November 2012).
Kimberly A. Quinn, Harriet E.S. Rosenthal, Categorizing others and the self: How social memory structures guide social
perception and behavior, Learning and Motivation, Volume 43, Issue 4, November 2012, 247-258.
Rosenthal, R. (2002). The Pygmalion Effect and Its Mediating Mechanisms. In J. M. Aronson, Improving academic
achievement: impact of psychological factors on education, 25-35. Riverside: Emerald Group Publishing.
Wikipedia contributors. "Stereotype." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 18 Nov.
2012. Web. 19 Nov. 2012.