Retention and Transmission of Socially Shared Beliefs: The Role of Linguistic Abstraction in Stereotypic Communication

As a counter view against such skepticism, we discuss in this chapter the possibility of empirically approaching the collectively shared aspects of stereotypic beliefs. In particular, we will emphasize that understanding why and how communication works is a key to clarifying some critical aspects of shared cognition. This approach should be a reasonable choice because the high consensus in stereotype contents is typically formed through communication processes taking place both at interpersonal (e.g., through parents and peers) and at macro levels (e.g., mass media, arts and literature, and religious texts; e.g., Maass, 1999; Mullen, Rozell, and Johnson, 1996; Norenzayan and Atran, 2004; Ruscher, 2001; van Dijk, 1987). Incorporating the theoretical and empirical perspectives of communication studies will provide a useful framework for the understanding of how stereotypes are shaped and maintained as shared representations and, in turn, influence communication among people.