Members of social categories defined by attributes such as sex, race, and age occupy certain types of social roles much more than members of other social categories do. The qualities that define these roles become associated with the category as a whole, thus forming a stereotype. In a vicious cycle, this stereotype then hinders category members’ movement into roles with different demands because their stereotype portrays them as well matched to their existing roles but not to these new roles. This vicious cycle has important implications for stereotype change. Given the difficulties of producing enduring change by directly attacking stereotypes in the minds of individuals, a more effective strategy consists of policies and programs that change the distributions of category members in roles, thereby changing stereotypes at their source. If the vicious cycle is not interrupted by such social change, observations of category members’ typical social roles continually reinstate existing stereotypes.

由诸如性别、种族和年龄等属性定义的社会类别的成员比其他社会类别的成员扮演某些类型的社会角色要多得多。定义这些角色的品质与整个类别相关联，从而形成刻板印象。在恶性循环中，这种刻板印象会阻碍类别成员进入具有不同需求的角色，因为他们的刻板印象将他们描绘成与他们现有的角色相匹配，而不是与这些新角色相匹配。这种恶性循环对刻板印象的改变具有重要意义。鉴于通过直接攻击个人头脑中的刻板印象来产生持久变化的困难，更有效的策略包括改变类别成员在角色中的分布的政策和计划，从而从源头上改变刻板印象。