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We hold beliefs about how certain traits belong together so that if a person holds one of these it is inferred that they also have (some of) the others.

Although our impressions may be based on second-hand information - we usually try to explain why the person behaved as they did by identifying the cause of their behaviour - in particular was it something to do with the person or with the situation?

Schematic processing is the perceiving and interpreting of incoming information in terms of simplified memory structures for schemata. Research confirms that schemata help us to process information: e.g. if people are explicitly instructed to remember as much information as they can about a stimulus person, they actually remember less than if they are simply told to form an impression of the person ( Hamilton, 1979) - forming an impression induces subjects to search for various person-relevant data that help them to organise and recall material better.

Schemata of classes of persons are called stereotypes; schemata of events and social interactions are called scripts.

Schemata constitute miniature theories of everyday objects and events. They allow us to process information efficiently by permitting us to encode and to remember only the unique or most prominent feature of a new event or object. But simplifications of reality produces bias and error - in forming impressions of other people.

For example, we are prone to the primacy effect - the first information we receive evokes an initial schema and, hence, becomes more powerful in determining our impressions than does later information.

We are not very accurate at detecting covariations or correlations between variables - when our schemata or theories lead us to expect two things to covary, we overestimate the actual correlation, but when we do not have a theory we underestimate the correlation.

Stereotypes are resistant to change - can be self-perpetuating and self-fulfilling because they influence those who hold them to behave in ways that actually evoke the stereotyped behaviour.

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