Stereotypes are widely shared cognitive representations of social groups that encompass beliefs about the characteristics, traits, and behaviors typical of group members, as well as implicit theories about why these attributes co-occur. Stereotypes serve important cognitive functions by enabling quick judgments in complex social environments, yet they often exaggerate or distort reality, can lead to unfair judgments, and can perpetuate social inequalities.
Stereotypes emerge from multiple sources: observations of groups’ distributions across social roles, transmitted cultural narratives, and media representations, among others. However, even when stereotypes contain elements of truth, they frequently mistake consequences of structural inequality for inherent group characteristics. Nonetheless, stereotypes persist because they are cognitively efficient, help make social interactions predictable, and serve system-justifying functions that legitimize existing hierarchies. Despite these advantages, stereotypes can unfairly disadvantage individuals and lead to poor decision making.
Four major theoretical frameworks guide most contemporary stereotype research in sociology and sociological social psychology. The stereotype content model proposes that stereotypes are organized along two fundamental dimensions—warmth and competence—that predict emotional reactions and discriminatory behaviors toward different groups. Status characteristics and expectation states theory focuses on how beliefs about groups’ competence and respect-worthiness create and maintain hierarchies in task-focused interactions, emphasizing culturally shared beliefs rather than personal opinions. Social role and role congruity theory explain how stereotypes emerge from observing groups disproportionally represented in different social roles and how mismatches between group stereotypes and role requirements produce prejudice and discrimination. Normative theories distinguish between descriptive stereotypes (beliefs about what groups are like) and prescriptive stereotypes (beliefs about what groups should be like), with violations of prescriptive norms producing social penalties and backlash.
These four theories vary along two key dimensions: whether they emphasize descriptive versus normative content, and whether they focus on personal beliefs versus cultural perceptions of what “most people” think. Stereotype research employs diverse methodologies including surveys, laboratory and field experiments, observational analyses, and qualitative approaches. Understanding stereotypes requires recognizing them not as individual biases but as culturally shared beliefs that emerge from social structures, shaping interaction patterns and reproducing inequality across generations.