ABSTRACT

Stereotypes about people are widespread and play a crucial role in social perception and interaction. An important question is how stereotypic expectancies about social categories are transmitted and maintained interpersonally. Although stereotypes and prejudice may be shared explicitly (e.g., racist speech, derogatory group labels; Leets & Giles, 1997; Simon & Greenberg, 1996), most people disapprove of the explicit expression of stereotypes and especially racism (Castelli, Vanzetto, Sherman, & Arcuri, 2001; Monteith, 1993), and it appears that stereotypes are predominantly shared at a largely implicit level (see also Chapter 6, this volume). Research on linguistic bias has revealed a number of subtle systematic variations in language use that not only refl ect stereotypic expectancies, but may also strengthen them in both sender and recipients. Research on this topic, however, has predominantly-and rather narrowly-focused on one linguistic aspect (i.e., language abstraction), where knowledge on other linguistic biases is scarce and scattered in the literature. This chapter reviews and aims to integrate the knowledge on the role of linguistic bias in stereotyping. It fi rst reviews existing evidence for linguistic biases and the effects they have on recipients, the sender, and the collective. Subsequently, it discusses potential underlying mechanisms that these biases (may) have in common and explores future areas of research.