Heterostereotypes

Heterostereotype refers to a group's perception of another group's members’ traits, characteristics, or values with a tendency to define others as rigid ethnic characterizations and strong generalizations about group membership. Different national or cultural assumptions can be described as either simple or projected. A simple heterostereotype asserts egocentric statements making claims regarding another group (i.e., “We think they are …”). On the other hand, projected heterostereotypes are centered in emotional assumptions of another group's self-perception or identity (i.e., “We believe that they think they are …”). Heterostereotypes suggest more about one's identity than about the stranger, even more than the autostereotype, while the autostereotype, or a group's views about the traits or characteristics of its own members, is more differentiated than the heterostereotype, with dominating positive attributes.