PSYC12H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Cognitive Dissonance, Stereotype Threat, Cognitive Load
Document Summary
Automatically, we assess the person we see on the basis of a person"s features. We categorize because we have limited-capacity cognitive system that cannot simultaneously process all available information in our social environment. Aristotle"s principle of association: similar things on the basis of one feature may have other notable similarities. The basis of categorizing people can be very logical or illogical. Stereotypes are not automatically activated for all stimuli. If primed with category label, work of categorization is done for us, automatically evokes associated stereotype. If primed with a member of a group, we must make the categorization and since there are so many, it does not immediately evoke the same types of stereotypes. Macrae et al suggest the way a person categorizes an individual depends on the perceiver"s mtotives, cognitions and affect. Only when a person wants to quickly evaluate the target do stereotypes become activated as a useful means of arriving at an attitude toward the target.