A stereotype is a thought that may be
adopted about specific types of individuals or certain ways of doing things.
These thoughts or beliefs may or may not accurately reflect reality. One advantage of a stereotype is that
it enables us to respond rapidly to situations because we may have had a
similar experience before. However the disadvantage is that it
makes us ignore differences between individuals, therefore we think things
about people that might not be true (i.e. make generalizations).
The
use of stereotypes is a major
way in which we simplify our social world; since they reduce the amount of processing
we have to do when we meet a new person. By stereotyping we infer that a person has a whole range of
characteristics and abilities that we assume all members of that group have.
Stereotypes lead to social categorization, which is one of the reasons for
prejudice attitudes.
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