Our Own Worst Enemy as Protector of Ourselves: Stereotypes, Schemas, and Typifications as Integral Elements in the Persuasive Process

Much communication today argues a point. An argument, by definition, involves an attack and a counterattack not only using logic, but also incorporating non-logical feelings, attitudes, beliefs, and values. Much of the non-logical element in our argument taps the reservoir of unconscious understandings, feelings, expectations, and values that we have coded and stored in our unconscious minds in the form of stereotypes, schemas, and typifications.
Our internal packets of stored values and be...