Theory Of Stereotypes

ONE of the most familiar concepts in the
fields of political science, sociology, and
social psychology is that of stereotypes.
Within twenty-five years it has taken on the
homely characteristics derived from time and
usage. The word has become so common that
there is doubt whether we should classify it among
the concepts which are recognized as part of our
professional jargon. The concept has also become
academically entrenched; it now has an air of
dignity and respectability as a result of empirical
studies. For some of us it is an explanatory concept,
for others it serves as a descriptive one. No
one has yet been so rude as to investigate the idea
that it might be part of the spate of words and
phrases which intellectuals have developed over
the past several decades in their responses to
rapidly mounting social change. We have needed
and still need explanations of our inter-group
tensions and national difficulties; we sense feelings
of urgency and haste which have resulted in leaving
much of our work in the shadowland of doubtful
theory, a shadowland from which the concept of
the stereotype has not yet emerged.
Our earliest statement of stereotypes was limited
essentially to the analysis of Lippmann as set
* Read before the thirteenth annual meeting of the
SouthernS ociologicaSl ociety,B iloxi, MississippiA, pril
14, 1950.
258 SOCIAL FORCES
forth in Public Opihtion, published in 1922.1 In
amplifying his point of view, Lippmann cited the
Platonic "Fable of the Cave," thus beginning the
notion that stereotypes are "distortions," "caricatures,"
and "institutionalized misinformation."2
As part of this still widely held definition of
stereotypes, we have the easily remembered Lippmann
statement that they are "pictures in our
heads." Other characteristics have been enumerated,
but suffice it to say here, the emphasis of
the Lippmann point of view is upon distortion and
behavior based upon something which is contrary
to fact....