Understanding the Influence of Stereotypes: Implications for the African American in Sport and Physical Activity

Abstract To stereotype suggests that we impose characteristics on people based on their perceived group membership (Oks, Haslam, & Turner, 1994). When stereotypes are based on a wealth of accumulated social and factual knowledge and are not used to make trait inferences about individual group members, they ure generally accurate and pose few problems. It is when stereotypes im based on fallacious, misleading, or limited information that they become problematic and therefore maladaptive. The purpase of this paper is to examine research that explicates the stereotyping process, review the psychological processes that operate in cognitive stereotype formation, and underscore the actual and possible detrimental consequences in the sport and physical activity domain, especially with regard to African Americans in general and African American males in particular. It is hoped that a more thorough understanding of the stereotyping process will be a deterrent to the perpetuation of maladaptive stereotypes.