Social Cognition
...Expectancy-Congruent Memory in Relation to Social Stereotyping
Throughout history, the topic of how we think about others has been the subject of much attention by psychologists, philosophers, theologians, historians, and laypeople alike. Despite our best efforts in recent decades to create a diverse, egalitarian society, stereotypes still haunt every corner of American life. Though many theories and explanations exist, a common consensus in the realm of psychology is that cognitive processes lie at the root of this ubiquitous conundrum. These processes are often automatic, nonconscious, and even unreflective of our true beliefs (Chen & Bargh, 1997). In this paper, I will discuss three such cognitive processes—the availability heuristic, self-fulfilling prophecies, and expectancy-congruent memory—in terms of how they relate to social stereotyping. By understanding these processes, we may be able to gain more headway in reducing and even overcoming social stigma altogether.
The Availability Heuristic
Heuristics, often referred to as “rules of thumb,” are shortcuts used to arrive at a satisfactory, albeit not always accurate, decisions or judgments (Kunda, 1999). One such guide, the availability heuristic, judges the likelihood of certain occurrences or behaviors based on the ease with which we can bring examples to mind (Myers, 2008). If an instance is particularly simple to conjure up a mental representation of, we often assume it to be commonplace. This can serve us well as, many times, we tend to recall information that actually is frequently occurring. For example, when one is told to think about a politician we frequently imagine a man, which is fitting as the proportion of male politicians is significantly higher than that of their female counterparts (Kunda, 1999).
Biases and Visual Cues
The availability heuristic, however,...
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