Tendency to Stereotype

The cognitive process of categorizing individuals based on group membership—attributing group characteristics to individual members without evaluating them individually. Stereotyping is a cognitive shortcut: the brain uses category information (profession, nationality, age, gender) to generate rapid predictions about individuals, which is efficient when group averages differ but harmful when it overrides individual-level evidence. The base rate fallacy in social cognition: even when a group average is accurate, the variation WITHIN groups is almost always larger than the variation BETWEEN groups, meaning the stereotype tells you less about any individual than individual-level information would.

When to use it

When evaluating people and notice category-level assumptions are driving the assessment; when hiring processes need to minimize bias; when strategic assessments are based on category assumptions rather than specific evidence; when first impressions are heavily influenced by demographic or professional categories.

How it can help

When evaluating individuals: notice when group-level assumptions are substituting for individual-level assessment. The diagnostic: are you predicting this person's behavior based on information about THEM or based on their category membership? In hiring: structured interviews with standardized criteria reduce stereotyping by forcing individual-level evaluation. In strategy: competitor analysis based on 'they're a big company, so they'll be slow' is stereotyping—evaluate the specific competitor's actual capabilities. The practice: gather individual-level data before applying category-level assumptions.