Introducción a los Estereotipos

Introduction to Stereotypes

• Stereotypes are defined as mental images of social groups.
• Walter Lippman first introduced the term in social sciences.
• Lippman argued that definitions precede observations.
• Stereotypes are information storage structures.
• Stereotyping is a cognitive process used to interpret social contexts.
• Stereotypes can influence behavioral reactions towards groups.
• Stereotypes are group definitions within a specific culture.
• Allport (1954) linked stereotypes and prejudice, but stereotypes are more about justification than the rejection itself.
• Categorization is at the base of the process of stereotyping, where information is grouped.
• Stereotypes have a long history rooted in political, economic or social circumstances.
• Stereotypes are learned through explicit and implicit channels, which include family, friends and social groups.
• The process of socialization plays a key role in the formation of stereotypes.

How Stereotypes Are Formed

• Stereotypes are acquired through socialization.
• Media representation often portrays biased images of groups.
• Socialization, especially early childhood experiences with media, significantly influences stereotype formation.
• Gender stereotypes are formed in childhood via exposure to media content.
• The socio-cognitive theory describes two mechanisms that develop gender stereotypes: modeling, which involves observing behaviors, and direct instruction where children are rewarded for gender-appropriate behavior.

Development of Stereotypes Through Personal Experience

• Stereotypes can form from direct interactions with individuals from other groups.
• Salience of the stimulus (the unusual nature of an observation) is a strong factor in initiating generalization.
• The accessibility heuristic (easily retrievable information) impacts how information is remembered and how that information is generalized across a group.

Stereotypes in Different Theoretical Perspectives

• Evolutionary psychology suggests that stereotypes are a product of evolutionary mechanisms to identify social groups and navigate social relationships.
• Social identity theory emphasizes the positive aspects of stereotyping for identifying with in-groups and to contrast with out-groups.

Models of Stereotypes

• Prototypes view stereotypes as generalized representations of expected characteristics, rather than individual instances of group members, and rely on the schema structure of the categories.
• Exemplar modeling emphasizes the importance of a variety of stored examples and instances to represent a group.
• The network models suggest that stereotypes are stored cognitively in the form of interconnected nodes, and activation of one node can spread to other connected nodes.