Racial Stereotyping: Processes, Contents, Antecedents and Political Consequences

I.        Stereotyping Processes

A.  Definitions of Stereotypes:  “pictures in our heads;” a set of beliefs about the personal attributes of a group of people—i.e., a generalization about a group.

1.    Cultural versus Individual stereotypes  

2.    Stereotypes as generalizations

3.    Can be good or bad

B.   Categorization

1.    People almost automatically classify or categorize similar objects

2.    Human beings are cognitive misers who emphasize efficiency over accuracy

3.    Primitive categories

4.    Ingroups versus outgroups

C.  How and Why Stereotypes are Maintained

1.    Stereotypes bias the processing of ambiguous information

2.    Subcategorization:

3.    Illusory Correlations

4.    Motivation

D.  Implicit Stereotyping

1.    Two separate memory systems: Explicit and Implicit.

2.    Methods: IAT, Priming

3.    Patricia Devine’s research comparing implicit stereotyping among low and high-prejudiced whites.

4.    Implications

II.                 Content of Stereotypes

III.               Roots of Stereotyping and Prejudice: Right Wing Authoritarianism

IV.              Political Consequences of Racial Stereotypes