Soziale Kategorisierung, Stereotype, Vorurteile

When humans are no longer seen as individuals but as members of a certain group, this can contribute to the development of conflicts between groups. Psychological mechanisms such as social categorization, stereotyping, and the application of prejudice towards other social groups are responsible for this. This chapter deals with the functions, the development, and the possible negative consequences of these mechanisms. Social categorization, stereotyping, and prejudice towards other groups constitute useful tools for humans. Social categorization and stereotyping, for instance, fulfill basic cognitive functions such as reducing complexity in dealing with the social world. Prejudice can foster the maintenance of a positive image of oneself and one’s own group, thereby fulfilling a motivational function. However, these mechanisms have their downsides. Once activated through social categorization, stereotypes can negatively influence the behavior towards the respective group. Although stereotype activation runs automatically and is hard to control, there are possibilities to prevent its consequences and even activation itself – for instance, through high internal motivation to behave unprejudiced. Likewise, ingroup enhancement can lead to social discrimination and outgroup derogation, if promoted by situational factors like threat perceptions or personality variables like authoritarianism. Besides the functions and consequences, in this chapter we will illuminate the factors that contribute to the development and maintenance of stereotypes. These are, among others, the subjective perception of factual relations between group memberships and characteristics or behaviors, the usage of certain linguistic patterns, and the role models that are prevalent in society. Furthermore, people use global dimensions of characteristics to evaluate others as part of a group.