CHAPTER ONE The Cognitive and Motivational Aspects of Stereotypes and Their Impact in the United States Jessica L. Cundiff Across U.S. history, stereotypes have been used to justify social inequality and discrimination against certain groups (Allport, 1954 Lippmann, 1922). Slavery, for example, was justified by stereotypes of Blacks as savage, primi- tive, and intellectually inferior to Whites (Duckitt, 1992 Smedley & Smed- ley, 2005). Exclusion of women from the workplace and higher education in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was justified by stereotypes of women as emotionally irrational and unfit for intellectual pursuits (Shields, 1975, 2007). Restrictive immigration policies have been justified with ­ stereotypes that depict immigrant groups as destitute, immoral “invaders” who threaten American society (O’Brien, 2003 Shinozuka, 2013). These ste- reotypes result from motivational processes that serve to promote and pro- tect the self from threats, as well as from cognitive processes that serve to save mental energy by simplifying our social world. Today, motivationally and cognitively driven stereotypes continue to shape public opinion and pol- icies on a broad range of topics, including welfare reform, immigration, affir- mative action, sexual harassment, and law enforcement.
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