Stereotypes are positive or negative generalizations indiscriminately attributed to members of a group (Tamborini et al. 2000). They have a significant impact on individuals’ perception of and interactions with members of different social groups by conveying information about the social groups’ capabilities (e.g., fast learners, good athletes), personalities (e.g., shy, violent) and/or socio-economic status (e.g.
Stereotypes are beliefs about the characteristics of a group of people, which lead to expectations about what individual members of that group will be like and how they will behave. Stereotypes are usually formed on the basis of membership in visible social categories such as race, gender, age, and disability status. Although the content of
The journalist Walter Lippmann introduced the notion of stereotypes in 1922 and described them as “pictures in our heads”. Current psychological theory conceptualizes those “pictures” as cognitive structures or schemas that represent widely shared beliefs about the defining characteristics of social groups (Operario & Fiske 2004). Any group might be subject to stereotypes, but the
In a social or organizational context, prejudice refers to an attitude, usually negative, toward a person or a group of people because of their group membership. When this attitude is expressed behaviorally, the result is discrimination. At the core of prejudice are stereotypes and stereotype-based assumptions. The Stereotyping Process Although researchers have debated the precise