Stereotyping As Inductive Hypothesis Testing

Conventional social hypotheses tend to confirm themselves, which means they tend to resist efforts to revise or correct stereotypes. This monograph starts from that observation and builds an alternative route into the study of stereotyping and how people test their beliefs. Its central claim is that many stereotypes arise less from the workings of a single mind than from the surrounding stimulus environment, which shapes and is shaped by the social person.

Fiedler applies this cognitive-ecological perspective to language, sign systems and communication, showing how they can quietly steer hypothesis-testing and produce circular or self-reinforcing results. He examines how judgment, memory and expectation enter these tests and proposes ecological learning methods for addressing each. An original research project carried out in a classroom setting serves to illustrate and check the findings.

The book situates this approach against the traditional frameworks it aims to replace and against current statistical sampling practices, which it seeks to strengthen. It is aimed at readers who study stereotyping and at researchers who want their methods to be more reliable and self-aware.