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In 1982, the writer Tom Wolfe called Confidential magazine “the most scandalous scandal magazine in the history of the world.” During its brief history, the magazine outraged Hollywood movie studios and terrified the actors who worked for them. A press agent once accused it of starting a reign of terror. However, it also became one of the most popular magazines in the United States, with a circulation of more than four million, higher than that of such respected magazines as the Saturday Evening Post and Look.

Stereotyping is a particular form of social typing involving rigidly held beliefs that are frequently based on incomplete or erroneous information. Stereotyping involves generalizing the identifying characteristics of groups (such as Latinos, African Americans, women, gay people, or obese people) and applying those generalizations to individual members of the group. Common examples of stereotyping include such widespread notions, held at various points in time, that Italian people are passionate, Irish people fight and drink, women are very emotional, and obese people are jolly.

Erich Fromm’s The Art of Loving first appeared as part of Ruth Nanda Anshen’s World Perspectives series, published by Harper & Row. The series sought authors who treated their subjects from the viewpoint of the world community and who offered new vistas in human development. The series aimed at encouraging dignity, integrity, and self-realization in every individual.

SIGNIFICANCE: Social perception deals with how people think about and make sense of other people: how they form impressions, draw conclusions, and try to explain other people’s behavior.