BRITISH IDENTITY AND THE GERMAN OTHER A Dissertation ...

the assignment of negative qualities to an outgroup. More recent surveys that concentrate on
some subtler nuances of stereotyping have also shown an enduring tendency among respondents
to differentiate nationalities on the basis of traditional stereotypes. 87 And while national
stereotypes are unlikely to be found in twenty-first century didactic treatises, they continue to
pervade fiction, visual media and comedy. 88
The Psychology of Stereotyping
Research on stereotypes since the 1920s has followed three basic theoretical approaches:
socio-cultural, psychodynamic and cognitive. 89 The first two defined stereotypy as a
phenomenon of cultural conditioning and personality, while the third sought the initial
motivation for stereotyping in the perceptual process itself. According to the socio-cultural
definition, stereotypy precedes the use of reason and imposes its stamp, replete with traditional
cultural values, on the evidence of our senses. Walter Lippmann first stated that culture defines
perceptions—“we define first and then see.” He compared the function of the stereotyping mind
to “the doorkeeper at a costume ball who judges whether the guest has an appropriate
masquerade.” 90 A Princeton University study done in 1933 by Katz and Braly, which tested
87 See, for example, Richard H.Willis, “Ethnic and National Images: Peoples vs. Nations,”
Public Opinion Quarterly 22 (Summer 1968): 186-201, and Alice H. Eagly and Mary E. Kite,
“Are Stereotypes of Nationality Applied to Both Women and Men?” Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology 53 (September 1987): 451-62.
88 Satirical exploitation of this mother lode of comedic material can be seen, for example,
in adult television cartoons like “The Simpsons” and “South Park.”
89 For a detailed discussion of these theoretical perspectives on stereotypes see Richard D.
Ashmore and Frances K. Del Boca, “Conceptual Approaches to Stereotypes and Stereotyping,”
in Hamilton, Cognitive Processes, 2-8.
90 Lippmann, Public Opinion, 81, 98. Current research bears out the idea that believing is
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