Allport defined stereotypes as cognitive profile construction under data scarcity

Evidence

On the side of psychology Allport’s theory was heavily cognitivist, drawing on and further elaborating the notion of stereotypification advanced by gestalt psychologists and phenomenologists in the 1920s and 1930s. Stereotypes are here considered as a form of profile construction applied to information processing under conditions where there is either too much or too little data to work on. Stereotyping is regarded as both functional, in reducing cognitive dissonance between expectation and perception, and dysfunctional in reducing the flow of new information generated by social interactions. Stereotypes might be benign - and sustain positive images - or they might be negative, underwriting all manner of social discrimination, depending upon the circumstances in which they operated. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1316

Categorization

• DEFINE: Gives a crisp working definition of ‘stereotypification’ as information-processing profile construction — useful definitional grounding that race-as-category critique (Omi & Winant) pushes beyond.
• ADDENDUM: Relevant to vaulted race-vs-ethnicity definitional distinctions, illustrating the cognitive-individualist account of prejudice that structural racial-formation theory critiques.
• XREF: connects to: Allport reframed stereotypes from group descriptions into cognitive structures actively shaping thought — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 112; Stereotypes function as cognitive shortcuts that conserve mental effort — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1176; Stereotyping functions as profile construction for information processing under data scarcity or overload (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Stereotyping functions as profile construction for information processing under data scarcity or overload #corroborates (0.90)
• Allport reframed stereotypes from group descriptions into cognitive structures actively shaping thought #expands (0.80) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 112
• Stereotypes function as cognitive shortcuts that conserve mental effort #qualifies (0.75) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1176
• Allport framed prejudice as a byproduct of normally functional cognition #complicates (0.72) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 143