Stereotypes and Prejudice * Stereotypes are beliefs about a certain group of people based on their membership in a particular group or a small sample of these people. Like any time you grouping races or individuals together and make a judgment about them without knowing them is called a stereotype. It can be positive, negative, or neutral.
For example, Jeff thinks that vegetarians are healthy and peace-loving. Those are positive stereotypes because they reflect well on the group. On the other hand, he also thinks that vegetarians are pedantic and holier-than-thou, which are negative stereotypes. Eddie thinks that meat eaters are all strong, due to all the protein they eat - that's a positive stereotype. But he also thinks that they don't care about the environment, which is a negative stereotype.
Another example, it may be a stereotype that Asian people love to eat rice. So according to this stereotype, if you are Asian, that automatically means that you will unconditionally love to eat rice. This can already show that generalizations made from stereotypes are not the most reliable to base your judgment on.
Both positive and negative stereotypes can have a negative effect on a person. For example, one racial stereotype is that Asian students are really good at math. This is a positive stereotype, but it can make an Asian student feel pressure and feel like a failure if he isn't good at math, which is a negative outcome.

* Prejudice is a feeling towards a person based on their affiliation with a group. When someone is prejudice it usually refers to their thoughts, feelings and beliefs about a certain group of people.
For example, Eddie thinks that meat eaters don't care about the environment, which is a stereotype. But if he decides that he doesn't like Jeff just based on the fact that Jeff eats meat, then he is being prejudiced. His feeling of