Stereotypes are real group differences magnified into negative caricatures by prejudice.

Evidence

In thinking about where perceived groups differences come from, Allport argued that there exists a core of actual group differences which become magnified by prejudice so that the resulting stereotypic beliefs about outgroups are more extreme, negative, and overgeneralized than warranted by the data. He gave the example of mutual perceptions by the Russians and the Americans during the Cold War. Each group started with an observed difference rooted in reality, but these perceptions became negative caricatures of what the groups were actually like. The prejudiced person then comes to invoke group differences as a justification for his or her prejudiced attitude (see also Jost & Hamilton, ch. 13 this volume). According to Allport, “Difference alone does not make for hostility … and yet the prejudiced person almost always claims that some alleged difference is the cause of his attitude” (1954/1979, p. 87). Trying to alter the stereotype content is like treating the symptom rather than the root cause. Allport suggested that although beliefs can be challenged, typically “they have the slippery propensity of accommodating themselves somehow to the negative attitude which is much harder to change” (p. 13). — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 835

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the book’s ongoing themes about social categorization and to cognitive-consistency research (Festinger-style dissonance where beliefs accommodate to attitudes).
• APHORISMS: ‘Beliefs accommodate themselves to the negative attitude which is much harder to change’ reads as durable human-psychology advice: change the attitude, not the belief.