Craig McGarty is a Senior Lecturer at the Australian National University. Previous books include Categorization and Social Psychology (1999). Vincent Yzerbyt is Professor of Social Psychology at the Catholic University of Louvain. He has published numerous books and been associate editor of the British Journal of Social Psychology. Russel Spears is Professor of Social Psychology at Amsterdam University. He has published numerous books and been associate editor of the British Journal of Social Psychology.

• Preface; 1. Social, cultural, and cognitive factors in stereotype formation Craig McGarty, Vincent Y. Yzerbyt and Russell Spears; 2. Stereotype formation as category formation Craig McGarty; 3. Subjective essentialism and the emergence of stereotypes Vincent Y. Yzerbyt and Steve Rocher; 4. The role of theories in the formation of stereotype content Patricia M. Brown and John C. Turner; 5. Illusory correlation and stereotype formation: making sense of group differences and cognitive biases Mariëtte Bernsden, Russell Spears, Joop van der Pligt and Craig McGarty; 6. Dependence and the formation of stereotyped beliefs about groups: from interpersonal to intergroup perception Olivier Corneille and Vincent Y. Yzerbyt; 7. Four degrees of stereotype formation: differentiation by any means necessary Russell Spears; 8. From personal pictures in the head to collective tools in the world: how shared stereotypes allow groups to represent and change social reality S. Alexander Haslam, John C. Turner, Penelope J. Oakes, Katherine J. Reynolds and Bertjan Doosje; 9. Conclusion: stereotypes are selective, variable and contested explanations Craig McGarty, Russell Spears and Vincent Y. Yzerbyt.