BRITISH IDENTITY AND THE GERMAN OTHER A Dissertation ...

were also found to involve objective cultural factors and seemed at times to operate on a rational
or pseudo-rational level. 95 This realization inspired the cognitive approach, spearheaded by
Henri Tajfel in 1969, which explained stereotypes as a function of categorization processes
linked to perception but not necessarily prejudice. 96 The cognitive school drew inspiration from
the “economy of effort” hypothesis in Lippmann’s initial description.
Current identity theory builds on the cognitive definition with studies of group dynamics
which focus on levels of consensus and the unconscious transmission and self-reproduction of
stereotypes. 97 While cultural norms and the avoidance of cognitive dissonance continue to be
regarded as sources of bias, social psychologists have begun to analyze language itself as a
“social product.” 98 Researchers attempt to quantify stereotyping in personal narratives or
inability to “put oneself in another’s shoes,” combined with resistance to objective self criticism.
95 Ibid., 655, 752, 754. See also H. D. Forbes, Nationalism, Ethnocentrism and
Personality (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), 21, 35, 52, 57-58, 97, 176-77, who
contrasts contemporary authoritarianism with Plato’s Timocratic society (i.e., Spartan, warlike,
authoritarian, conformist, honor-loving). Forbes also distinguishes between liberationist and
authoritarian nationalism, the former being characteristic of democratic revolutions, the latter of
imperialistic ventures. In either case propagandistic stereotypes might appear, but their use in the
second instance would more likely be pathologically based on irrational fear, or an aggressive
desire to dominate, rather than the genuine need for liberation from an oppressor. Ideally, a
democratic revolution would seek to broaden, not narrow, the base of the ingroup (i.e., humanity
over nationhood).
96 Pettigrew, “Extending the Stereotype Concept,” 313.
97 See, for example, Yoshihisa Kashima, Klaus Fiedler, and Peter Freytag, Stereotype
Dynamics: Language-Based Approaches to the Formation, Maintenance, and Transformation of
Stereotypes (New York; London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2008).
98 Linda H. M. Coenen, Liselotte Hedebouw, and Gün Semin, The Linguistic Category
Model (Amsterdam: Free University, 2006), 4, online at http://www.cratylus.org/resources/
uploadedFiles/1151434261594-8567.pdf.
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