Reducing Prejudice: Lessons From Social-Cognitive Factors Underlying Perceiver Differences in Prejudice

This article describes research findings on individual differences in stereotyping and shows how these findings have been and can be further applied to prejudice reduction efforts. A notable strength of this “new” generation of individual difference work is its dynamic nature—that individual differences can be both stable and malleable. The first section of this article reviews work showing that both adults and children differ in social-cognitive factors related to stereotyping, namely the way they process social information and their endorsement of social ideologies. The second section describes intervention strategies that target these factors. In the final section, limitations and future directions of basic and applied research on individual differences and stereotyping are discussed.