Stereotypes include "introvert," "party animal," "police officer,", "Ivy Leaguer," "physician," "cowboy," "priest." Such stereotypes come with rules about the customary way that we behave, or should behave, toward people who are characterized by the stereotypes.
In common parlance, the word "stereotype" is a derogatory term, but we would get into trouble if we treated physicians the same as police officers, or introverts the same as good-time Charlies. There are, however, two problems with stereotypes: They can be mistaken in some or all respects, and they can exert undue influence on our judgments about people.
It's sad but true that you're actually more likely to get a correct read on [her] if you know her social class than if you don't. In general, it's the case that upper-middle-class children perform better in school than working-class children. Whenever the direct evidence about a person or object is ambiguous, background knowledge in the form of a schema or stereotype can increase accuracy of judgments to the extent that that the stereotype has some genuine basis in reality. The much sadder fact is that working-class Hannah starts life with two strikes against her. People will expect and demand less of her, and will perceive her performance as being worse than if she were upper middle class.
We know about spreading activation effects because conitive psychologists find that encountering a given word or concept makes us quicker to recognize related word and concepts. For example, if you say the word "nurse" to people a minute or so before you ask them to say "true" or "false" to statements such as "hospitals are for sick people," they will say "true" more rapidly than if they hadn't just heard the word "nurse."
Incidental stimuli that drift into the cognitive stream can affect what we think and what we do, including even stimuli that are completely unrelated to the cognitive task at hand. Words, sights, sounds, feelings, and even smells can influence our understanding of objects and direct our behavior towards them. That can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending.
Which hurrican is likely to kill more people? One named Hazel or one named Horace? Certainly seems it could make no difference. What's in a name? Especially one selected at random by a computer. In fact, however, Hazel is likely to kill lots more people. Female-named hurricanes don't seem as dangerous as male-named ones, so people take fewer precautions.
It's possible to make fewer errors in judgment by following a few simple suggestions.
Remember that all perceptions, judgments, and beliefs are inferences and not direct readouts of reality. This recognition should prompt an appropriate humility about just how certain we should be about our judgments, as well as a recognition that the views of other people that differ from our own may have more validity than our intuitions tell us they do.
Be aware that our schemas affect our construals. Schemas and stereotypes guide our understanding of the world, but they can lead to pitfalls that can be avoided by recognizing the possibility that we may be relying too heavily on them. We can try to recognize our own stereotype-driven judgments as well as recognize those of others.
Remember that incidental, irrelevant perceptions and cognitions can affect our judgment and behavior. Even when we don't know what those factors might be, we need to be aware that much more is influencing our thinking and behavior than we can be aware of. An important implication is that it will increase accuracy to try to encounter objects and people in as many different circumstances as possible if a judgment about them is important.
Finally, be alert to the possible role of heuristics in producing judgments. Remember that the similarity of objects and events to their prototypes can be a misleading basis for judgments. Remember that causes need not resemble effects in any way. And remember that assessment of the likelihood or frequency of events can be influenced simply by the readiness with which they come to mind.
