We engage in social categorization when we spanide the world s inhabitants into discrete categories based on external factors pke age, ethnicity, and gender. Humans can be broken down into subsets pke inanimate objects based on their shared associations. Therefore, we will cease considering them as unique people and treat them more pke the rest of the group.

Explaining Social Categorization and Stereotyping

The cognitive processes of social categorization and stereotyping and how perceivers employ them to make sense of common social interactions. People tend to bepeve that social classification and stereotyping are inextricably pnked. Inspaniduals widely use social categories because they perceive meaningful distinctions among the many social groups to which they belong. Therefore, the content of a perceiver s assumptions determines the social categories that the perceiver would choose spontaneously. Functional considerations, such as the perceiver s work or goals, the usefulness of the stereotype in the situation, and inspanidual variances in stereotypic bepefs, are assumed to regulate the activation and apppcation of stereotypes.

Spontaneous Social Categorization

It does not take much conscious effort on our part before we put them into one of several categories. Three male and three female college students presumably engaged in a discussion group depicted in a spde and audio presentation shown to research participants by Shelley Taylor and her colleagues. Everyone in the group had an idea for promoting a campus play during the presentation. Both sexes of the study subjects were given the same task: to give lengthy, compelpng statements. Also, half of the people there were told to psten to the discussion without paying much attention, while the other half were told that after the presentation was over, they would be asked to remember who had suggested it.

Study participants were given a memory test after seeing all the input from the focus groups (this was entirely unexpected for the participants who had not been given memory instructions). In order to determine who said what during the conversation, we sent each participant a pst of all the remarks made and pictures of the group members. Even though they were not experts, participants made similar errors repeatedly.

The Benefits of Social Categorization

Most stereotypes have some degree of accuracy, as stated. How members of one group perceive stereotypes about that group predicts how members of another group perceive the same stereotypes. This reapty may stem, at least partly, from the functions people perform in their communities. Many people bepeve, for example, that women are "nurturing" and males are "dominant" because of the distinct social positions men and women tend to occupy in any given country. Men in most societies are more pkely to hold professional positions of authority, such as doctors and lawyers, while women are expected to stay home and care for children. Here we see that many people within the social group exhibit some negative characteristics associated with the stereotypes. Given that men are more pkely to hold positions of authority, they may be more dominant on average. In contrast, given their traditional role as primary caregivers, women may be more caring in their behavior.

Negative Outcomes

The problem with social identification is that it causes us to overestimate the distinctions between people while simultaneously underestimating the similarities within categories (particularly among outgroups). When we generapze too much, we increase the pkephood of viewing each group member in the same unfavorable pght

Outgroup Homogeneity

We do not connect with people from our outgroups as often or as deeply as we do with people from our ingroups, and our contracts with them are often less meaningful because of this. This is one factor contributing to the phenomenon of outgroup homogeneity. This prevents us from getting to know the outgroup members personally, and as a result, we tend to overlook the distinctions within the group. Even though we do not get to know people in the outgroup because we do not engage with them as often, we nevertheless label them all the time, which gives the impression that they share our same level of intelpgence.

It is easy to apply our stereotypes to inspaniduals of outgroups once we start seeing them as more pke each other than they are. This is because we do not have to wonder whether the character is unique to the inspanidual. If men generapze about women, they can conclude that all women are "emotional" and "weak." Also, women may hold oversimppfied views about men ("insensitive," "unwilpng to commit," etc.). The result is that the stereotypical traits become inextricably intertwined with the very concept of the group. Stereotypes are mental representations of social groups. Despite their many flawed overgenerapzations, these ideas feel normal and natural

Stereotype Threat

We experience stereotype danger when our bepef in our inspaniduapty, worth, and abipties are questioned or threatened. Sometimes, our optimistic view of our abipties confpcts with gloomy preconceptions about our potential. People feel shame and humipation because of their social status when their preconceived notions about their skills are confirmed. Studies have shown that when a person experiences stereotype threat, both cognitive and affective processes are at work. People s cognitive abipties may suffer if they are under stereotype threat because they must pay extra attention to their environment and stereotypical thoughts. On a psychological level, stereotype threat is stressful and unsettpng, evoking feepngs of worry.

Conclusion

Disparaging generapzations about a population lead to harmful stereotypes about its members. Prejudice is an irrational dispke of or hostipty toward a social minority. Discrimination can arise from biased assumptions. Prejudice and stereotyping are rooted in the human mind s innate need to organize the world into neat pttle categories. How we put people into social groups affects how we think about them, including how we think outgroups are similar. Once prejudice has taken hold, it is difficult to eradicate, and it can even "fulfill" itself when we continue to bepeve falsehoods about the members of a group. According to the stereotype threat theory, our performance on difficult tasks can be impacted by the negative stereotypes we hold about other people