Stereotypes and Social Interaction
When individuals interact, in formal or informal groups, with people from diverse social categories, their differences are more likely to be salient and, therefore, more likely to activate social stereotypes associated with that category (Hogg & Reid, 2006). For example, people are more likely to think of themselves in gender-stereotypical ways in mixed-sex as opposed to same-sex groups (Hollingshead & Fraidin, 2003) and more likely to think of themselves as members of a particular national cultural group when participating in mixed-culture rather than same-culture groups (Yoon, 2011). When stereotypes are well known, but individuals are not known personally to each other, those stereotypes may affect both how individuals treat one another and how they view themselves.