A pervasive problem in mental life is that of exemplar selectivity or how o
ne isolates specific category members from other instances of a class. This
problem is particularly pronounced in person perception, where perceivers
may routinely want to personalize selected individuals while continuing to
respond towards other members of the category in a stereotype-based manner.
To realize these flexible effects, we hypothesized that, when perceivers e
ncounter a group member, they inevitably encode an exemplar-based represent
ation of the individual in mind. Part of this representation, moreover, is
information signaling the person's goodness-of-fit with respect to his or h
er salient group memberships. When the representation is activated on a sub
sequent occasion, these inferences of category fit moderate the extent of s
tereotypical thinking. The results of two studies provided converging evide
nce for this analysis of stereotype function. Exemplar typicality moderated
both the accessibility of stereotypic knowledge (Study 1) and the extent t
o which perceivers used a stereotype to organize information about a target
(Study 2). We consider the theoretical and practical implications of these
findings for our understanding of the role of stereotypes in person percep
tion.