stereotyper

Stereotyper is a historical and occasionally used term that can refer to two related but distinct concepts: a person who creates or operates stereotype plates for printing, and a person who forms or promotes social stereotypes. In modern usage, the term is far more common in historical contexts related to printing, while in social science the act of stereotyping is described rather than attributed to a single role called “stereotyper.”

In the context of printing, a stereotype is a solid metal plate cast from a mold taken of a page of movable type. A stereotyper, or stereotype founder, would prepare the mold (traditionally from gypsum or another matrix material) of the composed page and then cast a durable metal plate from it. This plate could be used to print multiple copies, enabling longer print runs and easier distribution. The stereotyping process helped printers reproduce pages with greater speed and consistency and played a significant role in the development of mass printing before the widespread adoption of reusable type and photomechanical reproduction.

In social psychology and everyday language, stereotyping describes the cognitive process of ascribing generalized traits to members of a group. Although someone may be described as a “stereotyper” in casual speech to denote a person who tends to form or express stereotypes, the term is not a standard technical label within scholarly literature. When discussing stereotyping, scholars focus on mechanisms of cognitive bias, social consequences, and strategies for mitigation, rather than on a specific occupational title.