Stereotypes as Explanations

Download or read book Stereotypes as Explanations written by Craig McGarty and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002-08-08 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stereotyping is one of the biggest single issues in social psychology, but relatively little is known about how and why stereotypes form. This is the first book to explore the process of stereotype formation, the way that people develop impressions and views of social groups. Conventional approaches to stereotyping assume that stereotypes are based on erroneous and distorted processes, but the authors of this book take a very different view, namely that stereotypes form in order to explain aspects of social groups and in particular to explain relationships between groups.