The Psychology of Stereotypes

Sept. 15, 2006 — -- In a world of survival of the fittest, it makes sense that animals are hard-wired with a basic instinct that has them making snap judgments about their predators.

Some chimpanzees attack chimps that are of the same species, but not a part of their group. And some fish attack their own kind simply because they weren't hatched in the same lake.

But what about human beings?

Psychologists say we categorize -- or stereotype -- by age and race and gender, because our brains are wired to do so automatically.

Click Here to Find Out How You Stereotype People

"When you're a social animal, you need to be able to distinguish who's a friend and who's a foe. You need to understand who's a member of your pack, who's a member of a different pack," said John Dovidio, a professor of psychology at the University of Connecticut.

According to Dovidio, even those of us who believe that we don't stereotype, do. "We categorize people automatically, unconsciously, immediately, based on a person's race and based on a person's sex."

It begins in childhood. "20/20" brought together three groups of kids and showed them pictures of two men -- one Arab, the other Asian.

When we asked the children which man they liked better, over and over, more kids said they preferred "the Chinese guy."

One child preferred the Chinese man "because he looks nicer and he has a smile on."But both men were smiling.

Several children weighed in on the Arab man's personality, basing their opinions on just seeing his picture. One child said, "I think he's weird." Another child said, "He's like the scary dude."

Next, "20/20" showed the kids pictures of a black man and white man. This time the pictures were different. Here were some of the comments the kids made about the photo of the black man.

One said, "He looks mean." Another referred to him as "FBI's Most Wanted." Another commented, "He looks like he's a basketball player."