Conclusion

This chapter has argued that stereotypes must be understood at multiple levels of analy- sis to appreciate their complexity and understand their universality. At the cognitive level,

stereotypes are functional mechanisms for thinking about the world. At the interpersonal level, stereotypes reflect the structural relationships between groups – particularly groups’

relative status and interdependence. At the societal level, stereotypes reflect the larger context of group life. This analysis of stereotype content, structures, processes, and context indicates that stereotypes are both (a) basic human tendencies, inherent within our mental architecture; and (b) potentially damaging belief systems, depending on the power of the situation. Both principles of stereotypes must be acknowledged in theory, research, or intervention.

Social psychology’s understanding of stereotypes and stereotyping has evolved consid- erably from Lippmann’s (1922) introduction of the word. Aided by advances in theory and technology, more complex and multifaceted models guide our insight into stereo- typing and group phenomena. Future research will undoubtedly capitalize on the recent body of work, spanning levels of analysis to understand and ameliorate the dilemmas rooted in stereotypes. But while social psychologists continue to seek sophisticated reso- lutions for stereotype-based problems, we are reminded of Lippmann’s (1922) earlier wisdom:

What matters is the character of the stereotypes, and the gullibility with which we employ them. . . . If our philosophy tells us that each man is only a small part of the world, that his intelligence catches at best only phases and aspects in a coarse net of ideas, then, when we use our stereotypes, we tend to know that they are only stereotypes, to hold them lightly, to modify them gladly. (p. 90)

Social psychologists and lay people alike, we hope, will uncover ways to achieve Lipp- mann’s ideal.

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Category Dynamics and the Modification of Outgroup Stereotypes

Myron Rothbart

The tendency to disparage groups different from our own represents a social problem of enormous proportion, and one whose solution needs little justification. The last hundred years of this millennium may come to be described as a century of genocide, in which mass murder of outgroup members, thought to be a monopoly of impoverished third world countries, reached peak efficiency when practiced by the most advanced and civilized nation on earth. Few nations of the world, whether first or third world, re- main untarnished by the dehumanization or mistreatment of outgroups. The goal of this chapter is to explore the nature and modifiability of outgroup stereotypes, with particu- lar emphasis on the role of categorization processes in stereotype change. Given the strength – and often the fury – of outgroup hostility, is it possible to do justice to this by focusing on those causal mechanisms most removed from human emotion and from the conflictual nature of intergroup relations? No single approach is adequate to explain the complex, multi-faceted nature of intergroup hostility. Stereotypes play an important role in intergroup relations, and categorization processes play an important role in stereo- typing. The approach taken in this chapter regards categorization as playing a very impor- tant – although by no means exclusive – role in the process of stereotype change.

The focus of this chapter is on the modification of outgroup rather than ingroup stereotypes. It is not assumed that the processes governing ingroup and outgroup stereo- types are fundamentally different, but that the more negative and more homogeneous image of the outgroup is in greater need of change.

This chapter explores three basic, related questions about the nature of outgroup stereotypes: (1) To what degree do image and reality correspond in our perception of out- groups? (2) When does our contact and/or experience with individual outgroup members

This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH40662. I wish to thank Ellen Peters and Mary Rothbart for their astute comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript.