stereotype
What It Means
A stereotype is when people make broad assumptions about an entire group based on limited information, then apply those assumptions to individuals from that group. These mental shortcuts help process information quickly but are often inaccurate, unfairly negative, and hard to change even when presented with contradicting evidence.
Why Chief AI Officers Care
AI systems learn from data that contains human stereotypes, which can lead to discriminatory outcomes in hiring, lending, healthcare, and other business decisions. This creates significant legal liability under anti-discrimination laws and can damage brand reputation when biased AI decisions become public.
Real-World Example
A resume screening AI system consistently ranks female candidates lower for engineering roles because it was trained on historical hiring data where men were predominantly hired, leading the system to associate male names and experiences with job success and systematically disadvantage qualified women applicants.
Common Confusion
People often think stereotypes only matter when they're obviously offensive, but even seemingly neutral patterns in data can create unfair business outcomes. The real issue isn't intent but impact on decision-making.
Industry-Specific Applications
See how this term applies to healthcare, finance, manufacturing, government, tech, and insurance.
Healthcare: In healthcare, stereotypes can lead to biased clinical decision-making when providers make assumptions about patients ba...
Finance: In finance, stereotypes can lead to discriminatory lending, investment, or insurance practices where decisions are based...
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Includes:
- 6 industry-specific applications
- Relevant regulations by sector
- Real compliance scenarios
- Implementation guidance
Technical Definitions
NISTNational Institute of Standards and Technology
"a set of cognitive generalizations (e.g., beliefs, expectations) about the qualities and characteristics of the members of a group or social category. Stereotypes, like schemas, simplify and expedite perceptions and judgments, but they are often exaggerated, negative rather than positive, and resistant to revision even when perceivers encounter individuals with qualities that are not congruent with the stereotype."Source: APA_stereotype
"Contemporary social psychology typically defines stereotypes as mental representations of a group and its members, and stereotyping as the cognitive activity of treating individual elements in terms of higher level categorial properties "Source: Augoustinos_Walker_1998
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