by Stasia Anne (Author)
Stereotype is a simplified, standardized concepts or images that are given special meaning and commonly held by members of a group. In social psychology, a stereotype is an established, overgeneralized belief about a particular group or class of people. By stereotyping, we infer that a person has a set of traits and abilities that we assume all members of that group possess. One of the stereotype's advantages is that you can react quickly to situations because you may have had similar experiences before. The downside is that it ignores differences between individuals. So we think about people (that is, generalize) that may not be true. Using stereotypes is an important way to simplify our social world. Because it reduces the amount of processing (i.e., thinking) required when meeting new people.