Stereotypes: Effects of Stereotyping
What is a stereotype?
- A stereotype comprises a set of characteristics, traits, behaviours and attitudes attributed to social and cultural groups based on broad, often biased information about that group
- Our social world is very complex and contains a huge amount of information; one way of avoiding information overload is to use stereotypes to understand the world and those living in it because they save energy and can easily be applied to people (an example of people as cognitive misers)
- The main drawback of categorising people into broad groups is that stereotyping can lead to associations between groups and characteristics that are often negative and may give rise to prejudice and discrimination
- One theory of how stereotypes form is Illusory Correlation (which can also be studied as part of the Cognitive Approach – Reliability of Cognitive Processes)
What is Stereotype Threat?
- Stereotype Threat (ST) occurs when an individual’s performance on a task is impaired when they feel that pre-existing stereotypes will be used to judge them on their performance
- ST may arise in an example such as the following: a woman is parallel-parking her car and is aware that a group of men are nearby – she is aware that women are stereotyped for bad parking so even if she is good at parking this may trigger ST and she then parks her car badly
- ST is not the same as actively being stereotyped by others it is when the individual knows that the stereotype already exists and feels that others are already judging them on this basis – even if this is not true (i.e. in the above example the group of men may have been completely unaware of the woman parking her car)
- ST is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy i.e. People look down on me because of my accent, they think I’m stupid so I’m not even going to bother applying for that job, I won’t get it
- ST can be negative even when it appears to be positive e.g. overweight people are so jolly;
- Asian students do so well at school;
- Women are so caring because these stereotypes still limit variety and individual differences within a social group i.e. what if I’m a woman who is uncaring?
- What if I’m an Asian student who hates school and fails their classes?
Seemingly positive stereotypes are still part of stereotype threat.
Which research studies investigate the effects of stereotyping?
- Spencer et al. (1999) – stereotype threat may trigger gender differences in Maths
Spencer et al. (1999) is available as a separate Key Study – just navigate the Individual & the Group section of this topic to find it (Two Key Studies of Stereotypes)
Exam Tip
Make sure that you choose the CORRECT theory of stereotypes in the exam: there are two topics in Stereotypes: Formation of Stereotypes and Effect of Stereotyping. If you use the wrong theory and study to answer the question then you will get 0 marks
Worked example
EXTENDED RESPONSE QUESTION (ERQ) - 22 marks
Discuss the effects of stereotyping. [22]
This question requires you to offer a balanced argument, using examples to support and also challenge theories and studies. Here is an exemplar paragraph:
The theory of stereotype threat can be vague; it is based on the idea that people usually use superficial criteria to form stereotypes and then once an individual knows that a stereotype exists this can affect their performance on a task. While this theory is at least anecdotally apparent i.e. we can see evidence of it in real life, it is rather unformed and vague in itself. This makes stereotype threat difficult to test, measure and quantifyThe theory seems to some extent to be based on common sense: we affect and are affected by other people’s attitudes towards us and there are numerous examples of stereotyping out there, particularly in some media outlets e.g. tabloid newspaper and social media. Stereotype threat, however, remains unscientific as measuring it involves an array of variables which are highly subjective and open to interpretation.
