ABSTRACT
With theoretically limitless long-term memory, but limited online processing capacity, human beings tend to process lots of information efficiently but not very thoroughly. Such schematic processing (versus controlled, elaborative processing) involves processing information rather quickly using pre-existing information, what we currently know and think about a topic or subject. Processing information schematically is highly efficient, which is why our cognitive system evolved this way. However, overreliance on schematic process leads to a short-circuiting of the social interaction process and can lead to use of negative stereotypes in processing information about people and treating them unfairly. Negative stereotypes are used throughout a culture to legitimize oppression of subordinate groups. Gender stereotypes all over the world depict women as communal and emotional; men are viewed in terms of qualities associated with agency and instrumentality. Ideas about what women and men are like stem from the social roles which they typically occupy, largely roles linked to physical, biological differences between women and men, including differential roles involved in reproduction. In addition to becoming internalized into individual self-concepts, gender stereotypes are promulgated and reinforced by culture and social institutions (media, religion, government), largely in service of maintaining hegemonic patriarchy, described by social dominance theory.
