ABSTRACT
Discrimination based on social group membership is ubiquitous in human cultures (LeVine & Campbell, 1972). Despite an increase in people’s awareness of, and concern about, discrimination based on race, gender, and other demographic categories, such biases are still ubiquitously evident in personal behavior and institutional practices. Examples abound in the popular media as well as the scientific literature. A national restaurant chain was recently required to pay more than $50 million to African-American customers who had been systematically mistreated by the company’s employees (Kohn, 1994). A careful investigation of automobile dealerships in the Chicago area revealed a consistent pattern of bias against African-American and female customers in retail car sales negotiations (Ayres, 1991). Observation of the classroom behavior of school teachers has revealed alarming disparities in the treatment of boys and girls, consistently putting the girls at an educational disadvantage (Sadker & Sadker, 1994). The litany of such injustices is extensive. The present chapter considers the role played by stereotypic beliefs in the development of such patterns of discrimination.
