Stereotypes and Stereotyping

Where do stereotypes come from? How accurate are they, and how do they affect interpersonal and intergroup relations? Can stereotypes be changed? Stereotypes structured sets of beliefs about the characteristics of members of social categories influence how people attend to, encode, represent, and retrieve information about others, and how they judge and respond to them. A comprehensive overview of contemporary research, this volume highlights important approaches that have considerably expanded our understanding of stereotyping in recent years. Integrating cognitive, motivational, emotional, and linguistic perspectives, Stereotypes and Stereotyping demonstrates the diversity and richness of the field today and illuminates new directions for future research.

C. Neil Macrae, Ph.D., is a Reader in Psychology at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. His current research interests focus on the role of inhibitory processes in stereotyping, behavioral self-regulation, and mental control. He is an Associate Editor of the European Journal of Social Psychology.

Charles Stangor, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park. His current research interests focus on the cognitive and motivational determinants of stereotyping and prejudice, the influence of ethnicity on academic performance, and the perception of prejudice by, and effects of prejudice on, stigmatized target persons.

Miles Hewstone, D.Phil., is Professor of Psychology at the University of Wales, Cardiff, and has published widely on attribution theory, social cognition, stereotyping, and intergroup relations. He is a co-founding editor of the European Review of Social Psychology, and a former editor of the British Journal of Social Psychology.