31. β’ As humans we use our own unique storehouse of knowledge about people when we judge them. β’ Our past experience is more important than the true features of the actual personality that we are judging β traits exist more in the eye of the beholder than in reality. β’ We have each a system of rules that tells us which characteristics go with other characteristics. β’ We categorise people into types (e.g. workaholic, feminist etc.) to simplify the task of person perception. β’ Once we have in our minds a set of linked traits which seem to us to go together, they form a pattern of connections that can be called a prototype. In other words the mix of traits that we may consider βtypicalβ of feminists are a prototype of what a feminist is like to us. β’ If we encounter someone in reality or in the media who seems to fit neatly into a prototype, we feel reassured. It confirms our stereotyped view β we do not need to think further.