Existing theories of stereotype change have often made use of
categorisation principles in order to provide qualitative explanations
for both the revision and maintenance of stereotypical
beliefs. The present paper examines the quantitative methods
underlying these explanations, contrasting both rational and
heuristic models of stereotype change using participant data
and model fits. In a comparison of three models each simulating
existing descriptions of stereotype change, both empirical
data and model fits suggest that stereotypes are updated using
rational categorisation processes. This presents stereotype use
as a more rational behaviour than may commonly be assumed,
and provides new avenues of encouraging stereotype change
according to rational principles
