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Cognitive functions[edit] Stereotypes can help make sense of the world. They are a form of categorization that helps to simplify and systematize information. Thus, information is more easily identified, recalled, predicted, and reacted to.[13] Stereotypes are categories of objects or people. Between stereotypes, objects or people are as different from each other as possible.[1] Within stereotypes, objects or people are as similar to each other as possible.[1]

Gordon Allport has suggested possible answers to why people find it easier to understand categorized information.[22] First, people can consult a category to identify response patterns. Second, categorized information is more specific than non-categorized information, as categorization accentuates properties that are shared by all members of a group. Third, people can readily describe object in a category because objects in the same category have distinct characteristics. Finally, people can take for granted the characteristics of a particular category because the category itself may be an arbitrary grouping.

A complementary perspective theorizes how stereotypes function as time- and energy-savers that allow people to act more efficiently.[1] Yet another perspective suggests that stereotypes are people's biased perceptions of their social contexts.[1] In this view, people use stereotypes as shortcuts to make sense of their social contexts, and this makes a person's task of understanding his or her world less cognitively demanding.[1]

The wikipedian omitted a significant part of the studies. The negative consequences of stereotypes. Pro quest article:

In addition to the survey research mentioned above, laboratory research also provides a great deal of compelling evidence demonstrating the subtle but continuing influence stereotypes have on information processing (Hamilton & Sherman, 1994). Stereotypes make cognitive processing about our complex social worlds easier and more efficient. However, the negative consequences of this increased efficiency are reflected in the numerous studies indicating that stereotypes can significantly bias our judgments about other people (e.g., Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968; Sagar & Schofield, 1980). For example, Rosenthal and Jacobson's (1968) work on teacher expectancies suggests that a priori expectations about a student's academic ability can easily lead a teacher to treat the student differentially and in accord with those expectancies (perhaps causing the student to conform to the expectancies, regardless of his or her natural ability).