Page 161 - The Social Animal

Social Cognition 143

of Kuwait and Germany’s invasion of Poland and the Baltics, and
Saddam’s and Hitler’s buildup of armaments. Those who opposed
the war saw the situation in Iraq as paralleling that of Vietnam; they
saw both incidents as civil wars—a fight between North and South
Vietnam and between various Arab factions; they worried about the
U.S. military’s ability to fight in foreign terrain of swamps and
deserts; they characterized the war efforts as a war in support of “big
business” and “big oil.”
In a sense, the debate over whether to go to war with Iraq was
really a debate over whose categorization of ambiguous events was
correct. And with good reason. For once it is decided how an event
or person should be categorized, it becomes clear what course of ac-
tion should be taken. If Saddam is truly a “new Hitler,” then the pol-
icy of economic sanctions (which some considered a form of
appeasement) will only bring additional threats to peace and ulti-
mately a much worse war. If Iraq is another Vietnam, then interven-
tion would lead to a long and divisive war, becoming mired in a
quagmire with no clear victors and losers. 44
We “debate” how to categorize persons and events hundreds of
times a week, and although we often do not go to war over the re-
sults, the consequences of how we interpret and define events can be
significant. For example, I know a social psychologist who I consider
one of the best researchers of his generation. He is also a thoughtful
and considerate human being and a leading contributor to theory X.
However, he is rarely described as “a leading light in the field who
cares about people” or “a major proponent of theory X.” Instead, he
is primarily described as a “very talented black social psychologist.”
What are the consequences for this person to be referred to con-
stantly as black as opposed to any one of a number of other equally
applicable attributes? Later in this book, we will look in detail at the
nature and consequences of prejudice. For now, let us look at how we
categorize events and persons and with what effect.

Stereotypic Knowledge and Expectations One of the
most important consequences of categorization is that it can invoke
specific data or stereotypes that then guide our expectations. For ex-
ample, each of the following words probably invokes some very spe-
cific meanings: yuppie, college professor, party girl, racist, and liberal
democrat. Once we categorize a person or an event using one of these