Stereotypes
Stereotypes represent a broad and general topic in psychology and other social sciences. The bulk of the theorizing and empirical data on stereotypes, however, comes from social psychology. As this annotated bibliography will show, there is widespread disagreement in emphasis, tone, and even data regarding the extent to which stereotypes are inaccurate, irrational, and a source or result of prejudice and discrimination. Stereotypes (the contents of people’s beliefs about groups) and stereotyping (the processes by which people—consciously or not—use their stereotypes to make sense of the world) have been studied by social psychologists for almost a century, and they remain hot topics. Although laypeople often seem to use the terms “stereotype,” “prejudice,” and “discrimination” nearly synonymously, social psychologists draw significant distinctions between each concept. Stereotypes are usually defined as beliefs about groups, prejudice as evaluation of or attitude toward a group, and discrimination as behavior that systematically advantages or disadvantages a group. This article focuses on stereotypes.