Stereotypes function as cognitive shortcuts that conserve mental effort

Evidence

In sharp contrast with a simple-minded “energy-saving device” view sometimes advocated by social-cognition researchers, a view by which cognitive resources would be associated with a decreased impact of stereotypes, the work on hypothesis confirmation suggests that, when confronted with contradictory evidence, people may devote considerable resources in order to save the structure and content of their categories. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1176

As Allport anticipated, applying stereotypes saves intellectual resources. Not only do stereotypes intrude more on judgments when there is a dearth of cognitive energy (Gilbert & Hixon, 1991; Macrae, Milne, & Bodenhausen, 1994) but access to categorical labels may free intellectual resources that can be redirected toward other tasks. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1169

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Reframes stereotypes as motivating cognitive labor — the energy-saving account is inverted. This is a genuine paradigm shift in how to think about prejudice’s persistence.
• XREF: Connects to the motivated reasoning literature and to Allport’s own ‘stereotype preservation’ framing that the chapter opens with; also echoes the effortful ‘fencing off’ described at location 1178. — connects to: Allport defined stereotypes as cognitive profile construction under data scarcity — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1316
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1176; , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1169