Stereotype
Stereotype – from the Ancient Greek stereós (“solid,” “firm”) and týpos (“impression,” “mark”) – a relatively stable, generalized, and simplified belief or mental representation concerning the characteristics, behaviour, or attributes of a particular social group, category of people, or phenomenon.
Stereotypes emerge through processes of social categorization and are shaped by individual experience, cultural norms, social interaction, and shared representations. They help individuals organize and interpret social information but may also lead to overgeneralization, biased expectations, and inaccurate judgments when characteristics attributed to a group are automatically applied to its individual members (Hilton & von Hippel, 1996).
The concept was introduced into the modern study of public opinion by Walter Lippmann, who, in Public Opinion (1922), described stereotypes as relatively fixed mental images through which individuals perceive and interpret a complex social world. Such representations may simplify social reality while also limiting the perception of individual differences (Lippmann, 1922).
Stereotypes may contain positive, negative, or apparently neutral characteristics and are not necessarily based on conscious prejudice. Gender stereotypes, for example, attribute certain qualities, abilities, behaviours, and social roles to individuals on the basis of their perceived gender, thereby contributing to the reproduction of conventional expectations concerning masculinity and femininity.
See also: Gender Stereotype, Prejudice, Sexism, Discrimination, Gender Roles.
References
Hilton, J. L., & von Hippel, W. (1996). Stereotypes. Annual Review of Psychology, 47, 237–271. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.47.1.237
Lippmann, W. (1922). Public opinion. Harcourt, Brace and Company.
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