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-
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