Forming Impressions of Others: Making The Shoe Fit: The Functions and Consequences of Stereotyping

Do you believe that blacks are musical and pleasure-loving, that Jews are ambitious, intelligent, and materialistic, that feminist women are aggresive and plain? If so, you are engaging in what has been called stereotyping. Click the link below to read full article.

A stereo type is a preconceived idea about some group of people, an image that is generally over-simplified and rigid and frequently (although not always) uncomplimentary. Once we consign a person to such a group, we tend to overlook his or her individuality and to perceive the group characteristics more saliently.

                Originally, “stereotype” referred to a printing process. When each page of a newspaper or book had to be set by hand, letter by letter, printers found that they could save time reprinting a piece by making a cast or mold of it. They saved time and energy, but, of course, they could not easily make changes in the material. The renowned columnist, Walter Lippmann, (1922), suggested that people often use a similar mechanism in dealing with people, that we carry a mold or picture in our head to represent a particular group. When we meet a person whom we categorize as a member of that group, we por the formless information about that person into our mold, and we feel we know that person and what to expect in our interaction. We save time and effort, but we also have to accept the rigidity and inflexibility as part of the price.

                Stereotypes serve several important functions for those who hold them. And do not be fooled: all of us, at one time or another, have judged others in stereotypic terms. First, by stereotyping we can reduce the overwhelming complexity of information to manageable proportions. Rather than getting lost searching for someone’s idiosyncratic and unique traits, we can organize our impressions in general stereotypes. Second, because people share stereotypes, they can communicate directly and easily with those who share them. When a mother describes her son to a stranger by saying, “You know what I mean; he’s a real boy,” complex information is immediately conveyed about the cultural stereotype of the “real boy,” Stereotypes are a form of social shorthand. There are, of course, many differing categories that can serve as bases of stereotypes: young or old, foreigner or citizen, various ethnic groupings, male or female. Each serves as a convenient way to organize our perceptions of people. The convenience of stereotyping is typically acquired at terrible cost: it strips people of their individuality.

(Source: Raven, Bertram H., Rubin, Jeffrey Z. (1983). SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2nd Edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc: United States of America.)

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