The Stereotype Content Model.

The Stereotype Content Model is one of the most interesting pieces of social science that I've recently learned.

The model posits that we form our opinions of out-groups on two primary axes, warmth and competence. Ideally we'd like everyone to exhibit both these traits, of course. A negative stereotype emerges whenever we believe that a group has a deficit in either or both of them, such that individual members are to be judged by the collective deficit.

I'll give several examples from the present day and from the history of prejudice. AS A CAVEAT TO ALL OF THESE, I am NOT endorsing the stereotypes that I describe.

Repeat: I am not endorsing the stereotypes I describe.

Repeat again, just to be sure: I AM NOT ENDORSING THE STEREOTYPES I DESCRIBE.

Okay, here goes:

(1) Homeless people are often held to be neither warm nor competent. They are not able to hold a job, says the stereotype; that's from their low competence. And what's more, they're probably crazy and angry -- that is, they are also lacking in warmth. Others commonly placed in this category include people with certain diseases, including leprosy, schizophrenia, and HIV.

Out-groups in this category may be considered a threat, but usually their threat is thought to be minor. After all, they're held to be incompetent, so they shouldn't be too hard to deal with. Holders of this stereotype generally practice avoidance of the out-group in question.

(2) The elderly are often held to be warm but incompetent: Grandma means well, but she hasn't been on the internet very much, and so she gets stuff wrong all the time. Other groups of this type may include people with cognitive disabilities, people on welfare, and children. Out-groups in this category are generally not considered much of a threat. Holders of this stereotype generally practice paternalism toward the out-group in question.

(3) The most dangerous form of stereotype arises when an out-group is held to be cold but competent. Both historical and present-day stereotypes about Jews generally place them in this category. By this form of stereotype, Jews are held to be calculating and shrewd, but they also don't care about the interests of others and may even seek to harm those around them.

Within (3), there are two sub-types: One is an emotionless, calculating, machine-like type, while the other is a violent, perhaps quite irrational and animalistic type that is nonetheless still held to be quite competent at doing harm. Holders of this stereotype often treat the out-group in question as an existential threat.

At times of social stress, groups in the cold-but-competent category have been among the worst victims of genocide and other forms of organised, state-sponsored mass killings: Besides Jews, think of Kulaks in the Soviet Union, wealthy peasants in Mao's China, or "intellectuals" under the Khmer Rouge.

(Please remember my repeated caveat here: I am not endorsing any of this. I am simply describing it.)

The Stereotype Content Model has enormous implications for immigration policy, as can be seen in how advocates and opponents of stronger border security and tougher immigration laws describe the people whom they seek to exclude. It is notable that immigrants are commonly described as gang members, human traffickers, terrorists, drug dealers, and similar. All are groups that score high in competence, but low in warmth. Once again, we are in dangerous territory.

The Stereotype Content Model suggests that there are at least three ways to challenge this view. The first is to suggest that immigrants of the type described are quite rare.

Now, this may be true, but it's little comfort. Even a small number of cold-but-calculating individuals can, to this way of thinking, perhaps dominate the whole world, as Jews are still sometimes said to be doing.

The second is to point out that these gang members/human traffickers/terrorists/drug dealers aren't really all that competent after all. They just aren't raising the crime rate very much; it's still at near-record lows, and while immigrants do commit some crimes, on the whole they are relatively bad at crime, even when compared to native-born citizens. They still do some of it, just a whole lot less of it. They're like the grandmas of crime.

And the third is to call attention to all the immigrants who are both warm and competent: They're friendly. They have nice food. They do hard jobs that the native born will not do. We ought to LIKE these people and welcome them.

Of course, each of these is a stereotype in its own way. Each will be inaccurate when applied to certain individual cases. What is proposed here is not even rationality, per se, but rather an intervention at the level of the emotional and the irrational. If we must be irrational, let us seek out that type of irrationality that inclines us away from the worst forms of harm. The cold-but-competent should be thought of as less competent than we generally imagine, even if that's somewhat unflattering in itself. And we should remember the warm-and-competent, who, though often voiceless, are hoping that we won't fail to see them.