Post-1954 cognitive research treated stereotyping as a byproduct of simplifying social information

Evidence

Researchers in the cognitive tradition (see Fiske, ch. 3 this volume) concentrated instead on the cognitive processes that underlie stereotype formation. They conceptualized stereotypes, both negative and positive, as social categories individuals develop as a byproduct of their need to simplify the vast amount of social information they encounter daily. Within this tradition, the mind was seen as a computer-like information processor; interest was directed toward how events in the outside world were consciously represented and processed by it. The unconscious, a concept integral to the psychodynamic approach, was no longer seen as relevant to understanding human cognition. Likewise, affect and motivation were generally ignored in favor of studying the cognitive processes that account for stereotyping and prejudice. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2375

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Lippmann coined the term stereotype to describe simplified narratives. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 165