Stereotypes form as a result of several cognitive biases and tendencies. People use stereotypes to simplify and categorize the complex social world in order to avoid information overload. Stereotypes originate from a "grain of truth" where real differences between groups are exaggerated. The "illusory correlation" theory also explains that people tend to associate minority groups with negative traits even when the information does not support this. Once formed, stereotypes are reinforced through "confirmation bias" where people remember information supporting their beliefs and ignore information that contradicts them. The presence of stereotypes can negatively impact those that are stereotyped through "stereotype threat" where awareness of negative stereotypes undermines performance.
Stereotypes form as a result of several cognitive biases and tendencies. People use stereotypes to simplify and categorize the complex social world in order to avoid information overload. Stereotypes originate from a "grain of truth" where real differences between groups are exaggerated. The "illusory correlation" theory also explains that people tend to associate minority groups with negative traits even when the information does not support this. Once formed, stereotypes are reinforced through "confirmation bias" where people remember information supporting their beliefs and ignore information that contradicts them. The presence of stereotypes can negatively impact those that are stereotyped through "stereotype threat" where awareness of negative stereotypes undermines performance.
Stereotypes form as a result of several cognitive biases and tendencies. People use stereotypes to simplify and categorize the complex social world in order to avoid information overload. Stereotypes originate from a "grain of truth" where real differences between groups are exaggerated. The "illusory correlation" theory also explains that people tend to associate minority groups with negative traits even when the information does not support this. Once formed, stereotypes are reinforced through "confirmation bias" where people remember information supporting their beliefs and ignore information that contradicts them. The presence of stereotypes can negatively impact those that are stereotyped through "stereotype threat" where awareness of negative stereotypes undermines performance.
Explain the formation of stereotypes and their effects on behavior
The social world is extremely complex, and hosts a variety of information if
people were to process every single detail, there would be an information overload. Therefore, people use stereotypes in order to attribute certain characteristics to a group of people. Stereotypes are defined as distorted, exaggerated, or oversimplified assumptions about the personalities, attitudes and behavior of a certain category of people. (Hogg & Vaughan, 1995) Stereotypes are commonly based on assumptions and are subconsciously triggered through daily social interactions and the media, which make them resistant to change. This also links to the fourth principle of SCLOA, which states that peoples views of the world are resistant to change. Stereotypes stem from prejudice or unsatisfied negative attitudes towards individuals, based on their membership of an outgroup. If perceptions against others are limited and stereotyping is applied, biases can be developed against whole groups of people.
Additionally, when people are categorized into an ingroup, they tend to accentuate similarities between the members of the ingroup, and exaggerate difference between the ingroup and the outgroup. This leads to intergroup discrimination and eventually stereotypes.
One theory that explains the formation of stereotypes is known as the Grain of Truth hypothesis (Campbell, 1967). The hypothesis is based on the theory that all stereotypes arise from some sort of truth. This does not meant that a stereotype can be classified as true, but that a groups culturally characteristic patterns of behavior can be the reason that stereotypes are resistant to change.
An experiment based on this theory was conducted by Ford and Stangor in 1992. They found that if traits within certain groups were clearly distinguishable, they would arise as central traits within stereotypes. Students were presented with booklets containing a variety of situations pertaining to one of two groups, the blue group and the red group. The groups were fairly similar, however, one group was more friendly than the other, while the other was more intelligent. Certain situations were give, such as This group member failed his driving test for the fourth time, and the participants were made to categorize the group members. It was found that they categorized the group members based on their negative differences. This supports the idea that stereotypes occur in instances where there are differences between groups, and that they must contain at least a grain of truth.
Campbell states that stereotypes originate from two possible sources: The first source is a persons experience with another person or group, or their observation of a distinctive pattern among a few people within a group, and the second is the communication of people with other people, ie. Parents or media passing on knowledge. These people are known as gatekeepers. This process of passing on information establishes stereotypes as the truth in peoples minds, however, one criticism to this theory is that the person who originally made the statement about a certain group of people was right, but such statements are extremely subjective.
Another theory that justifies the formation of stereotypes is the Illusory Correlation theory (Hamilton & Gifford, 1976) which states that stereotypes are formed due to the tendency to see a relationship between two often unrelated variables, especially in a case when a minority group is attributed to a negative quality. In an experiment, they asked people to read statements about two groups Group A, and Group B. There were 26 statements for Group A and only 13 statements about people in group B, however, the ratio of positive and negative statements about each group was exactly the same. There was no reason to rate one group as any more positive or negative than the other, however, when performing judgment and evaluative tasks, the participants associated Group B with more negative qualities. This was due to the fact that Group B was the minority group, therefore making people view them as performing more negative actions than Group A. Wegner and Vallacher ( 1976 ) have stated that Illusory Correlation is similar to the Fundamental Attribution Error, in people tend to overestimate the relationship between minority groups and negative characteristics.
This can be explained as humans have the tendency to make general information more specifically accessible. If seeing someone from a minority group and seeing a certain negative characteristics were both uncommon, therefore the negative qualities were more noticeable when encountered within a minority group.
Once people make illusory correlations, they tend to seek out information that confirms this. This is known as the confirmation bias. This is when people remember information that supports their theory or stereotype, but overlook information that contradicts their belief. e.g. Three Hispanic students turn up late to class and they are categorized as careless, therefore this careless behavior is attributed to all Hispanic students. However, the times they do arrive on time and complete their work are forgotten.
An effect of stereotyping is the Stereotype Threat, whereby threats change the way in which the stereotyped group behaves. This means that a person is in fear of performing in a way that confirms a negative stereotype about the group that they belong to. Steele stated that stereotype threats induce spotlight anxiety, whereby people are under emotional stress, which eventually hinders their performance. This is supported by research conducted by Steele and Aronson (1995). They used African Americans and European Americans and asked them to perform a verbal test. When told that it was a test of verbal ability, the African Americans scored lower than the European Americans. However, when told it was a general verbal task that held no relativity to their intelligence, the African Americans scored higher and matched the score of their European American counterparts. This is because it was believed that African Americans were not as smart as European Americans, and this stereotype threat hindered their performance.
Works Cited
Crane, J., & Hannibal, J. (2009).Psychology: course companion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Explain the formation of stereotypes and their effect on behaviour. (n.d.). IB Psych Notes. Retrieved November 8, 2013, from http://ibpsychnotes.com/scloa-lo/lo8/
Hannibal, J. (2012). Psychology for the IB diploma. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Vargas, C. (n.d.). Explain the formation of stereotypes and their effect on behavior. NPHS IB Psych. Retrieved November 8, 2013, from http://nphs-ib- psych.wikispaces.com/Explain+the+formation+of+stereotypes+and+their+ef fect+on+behavior