Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • November 2016
  • Article
  • Quarterly Journal of Economics

Stereotypes

By: Pedro Bordalo, Katherine Baldiga Coffman, Nicola Gennaioli and Andrei Shleifer
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

We present a model of stereotypes based on Kahneman and Tversky's representativeness heuristic. A decision maker assesses a target group by overweighting its representative types, which we formally define to be the types that occur more frequently in that group than in a baseline reference group. Stereotypes formed in this way contain a "kernel of truth": they are rooted in true differences between groups. They are also context dependent: beliefs about a group depend on the characteristics of the reference group. Because stereotypes emphasize differences, they cause belief distortions, particularly when groups are similar. In line with our predictions, beliefs in the lab about abstract groups and beliefs in the field about political groups are context dependent and distorted in the direction of representative types.

Keywords

Prejudice and Bias

Citation

Bordalo, Pedro, Katherine Baldiga Coffman, Nicola Gennaioli, and Andrei Shleifer. "Stereotypes." Quarterly Journal of Economics 131, no. 4 (November 2016): 1753–1794.
  • Find it at Harvard

About The Author

Katherine B. Coffman

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • May 2025
    • Review of Economic Studies

    Imagining the Future: Memory, Simulation and Beliefs

    By: Pedro Bordalo, Giovanni Burro, Katherine B. Coffman, Nicola Gennaioli and Andrei Shleifer
    • April 2025
    • Management Science

    Gender and Preferences for Performance Feedback

    By: Katherine Baldiga Coffman and David Klinowski
    • 2025
    • Faculty Research

    Discrimination, Rejection, and Job Search

    By: Anne Boring, Katherine Coffman, Dylan Glover and María José González-Fuentes
More from the Authors
  • Imagining the Future: Memory, Simulation and Beliefs By: Pedro Bordalo, Giovanni Burro, Katherine B. Coffman, Nicola Gennaioli and Andrei Shleifer
  • Gender and Preferences for Performance Feedback By: Katherine Baldiga Coffman and David Klinowski
  • Discrimination, Rejection, and Job Search By: Anne Boring, Katherine Coffman, Dylan Glover and María José González-Fuentes
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College.