Stereotypes In Social Groups

Humans enjoy organizing things. More specifically, we enjoy grouping other humans. Many social categories are formed based on the similarities of people in them. Stereotypes are clusters of characteristic that are associated with all members of a specific social group, often including qualities that are unrelated to the objective criteria that define the group. They are based on the assumption that people have certain characteristics because of their membership in a particular group. Attributing a stereotypic cause for an outcome or event can often blind us to the true causes of the event. The book gives an example of parents who assume their daughter’s poor computer skills are due to her gender, rather than a lack of instruction. The issue with stereotypes is that once they are formed, they are hard to shake. A reason for this is that …show more content…
Humans have a very strong tendency to perceive other humans in terms of “us” and “them”. “Us” refers to the in-group, which is the group we belong to. On the other hand, “them” refers to the out-group, and is the social group we do not belong to. Neither are limited to racial, ethnic, or religious boundaries. Any characteristic can be used to make in-group and outgroup distinctions (rock vs. pop, Apple vs. Windows, etc…). Since the in-group is the one we belong to, we can see the members of our in-group are very diverse. However, the members of the out-group tend to all look pretty similar to us. This is called the out-group homogeneity effect. Another idea that arises with the in-group is the in-group bias. This is our tendency to make favorable, positive attributions for behaviors by members of our in-group, and unfavorable, negative attributions for behaviors by members of the out-group. For example, we are late because there were circumstances out of our control (traffic, an accident), but they were late because they are stupid and did not plan