What is the nature of the relationship between stereotypes and the features of the social world that they purport to represent? Is it true that stereotyping necessarily involves a perceptual or cognitive distortion of social reality? Most students (and many researchers) embark on the topic with the assumption that in stereotyping the perceiver activates fixed images (eg "women are passive", "the French are arrogant") which both reflect and bolster prejudice through the misrepresentation of people's "true" character. The present book aims to challenge this view, and in doing so it presents a theoretical analysis of stereotyping based on research the authors have been conducting over the past decade. At the same time, the book offers a comprehensive review of previous research on the topic, including the often neglected but fascinating work carried out in the years before the modern cognitive approach was developed. The book is thus designed to function as both an advanced-level student text and a research monograph. Issues addressed within the overall theme include: the relationship between stereotyping and social identity; the functioning of the categorization process in social perception; the contribution of principles from the social-judgement literature to understanding the apparently "exaggerated" nature of stereotypes; and the perennially difficult question of the relationship between stereotyping and prejudice.
