ABSTRACT
Given the current human historical context, it is perhaps not at all surprising that stereotyping is a pressing concern in social psychology. In today’s globalizing world, we are faced with the circumstances in which we not only interact with individuals who belong to a variety of different social groups, but also have to make significant, even history-defining, decisions about social groups without first-hand experience about them. How do we decide whether to support a policy that can affect refugees and asylum seekers; how do we decide whether to support our government’s proposal to send troops to a foreign country; and how do we decide whether to support an international organization such as the United Nations, the European Union, and the like? Events around the world can change international alliances and transform the global scene in a matter of weeks or months. Citizens in this fast-changing world are faced with momentous decisions that could affect tens of thousands of people, with whom they have little direct contact. One wonders whether such judgments and decisions are well informed by all the known facts, or shaped in some way by stereotypes.
