Automatic Stereotype Activation Part of the power of stereotypes is they can bias our perceptions and responses even if we don’t personally agree with them. In other words, we don’t have to believe a stereotype for it to trigger illusory correlations and self-fulfilling proph- ecies or to influence how we think, feel, and behave toward group members. Sometimes just being aware of stereotypes in one’s culture is enough to cause these effects. Moreover, stereotypes can be activated in our minds without our awareness.
In a very influential line of research, Patricia Devine distinguished between automatic and controlled processes in stereotyping. She argued that peo- ple become highly aware of the content of many stereotypes through socializa- tion from their culture. Because of this high awareness, people may automatically activate stereotypes whenever they are exposed to members of groups for which popular stereotypes exist. Thus, just as after hearing “bacon and . . . ” many of us are automatically primed to think “eggs” even if we personally don’t eat bacon and eggs, when we think of a particular group of people, we are also primed to think of the popular stereotypes associated with that group, even if we don’t agree with the stereotypes.