The Spontaneous Formation of Stereotypes via Cumulative Cultural Evolution

All people share knowledge of cultural stereotypes of social groups—but what are the origins of these stereotypes? We examined whether stereotypes form spontaneously as information is repeatedly passed from person to person. As information about novel social targets was passed down a chain of indivi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPsychological science Vol. 25; no. 9; pp. 1777 - 1786
Main Authors Martin, Douglas, Hutchison, Jacqui, Slessor, Gillian, Urquhart, James, Cunningham, Sheila J., Smith, Kenny
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.09.2014
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Concept Formation
Cultural change
Cultural Evolution
Cultural stereotypes
Culture
Generalization
Generalizations
Humans
Knowledge
Learnability
Memory
Perception of others
Personality psychology
Social cognition
Social factors
Social Perception
Social psychology
Stereo
Stereotypes
Stereotyping
Training
Z score
stereotype formation
stereotypes
person perception
social cognition
cultural evolution
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Summary:All people share knowledge of cultural stereotypes of social groups—but what are the origins of these stereotypes? We examined whether stereotypes form spontaneously as information is repeatedly passed from person to person. As information about novel social targets was passed down a chain of individuals, what initially began as a set of random associations evolved into a system that was simplified and categorically structured. Over time, novel stereotypes emerged that not only were increasingly learnable but also allowed generalizations to be made about previously unseen social targets. By illuminating how cognitive and social factors influence how stereotypes form and change, these findings show how stereotypes might naturally evolve or be manipulated.
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ISSN:0956-7976
1467-9280
DOI:10.1177/0956797614541129