Stereotyping
Applying a group's generalized image to an individual member.
What it means
The cognitive process of attributing the generalized characteristics associated with a social group to an individual member of that group. Stereotypes act as energy-saving schemas that allow rapid, low-effort judgments under uncertainty, but they distort perception by overriding individuating information and exaggerating between-group differences and within-group similarity. They can be activated automatically by category cues, influencing judgment and behavior even among people who consciously reject them. Stereotypes are self-perpetuating through confirmation bias, the ultimate attribution error, and behavioral confirmation, whereby expectations elicit confirming behavior from targets. They are the cognitive component of prejudice and a root of discrimination, stereotype threat, and intergroup conflict.
Examples
Assuming an older job applicant must be poor with technology, and reading their interview through that lens regardless of their actual skills.
A shop assistant reads a casually dressed customer as a time-waster and gives a cold greeting, so the customer buys nothing and leaves — and the assistant's hunch feels confirmed.
A doctor hears the same chest pain from two patients and reaches for anxiety in one and cardiac tests in the other, guided by the category before the symptoms.
First described in Term: Walter Lippmann (1922); cognitive approach: Tajfel, Hamilton.