Stereotyping and Convenience Stores

So I worked (and still come in to do occasional tech consulting for) a convenience store in Collegetown Ithaca, home of the Ivy League Cornell. I worked there regularly all through high school, four years, and as I worked there, I discovered that as soon as someone walked into a store, I made a few assumptions about them:

1) What kind of things they would buy (Beer, frozen yogurt, cigarettes, grocery items?)
2) How they would pay (Cash, Credit, City Bucks (the Cornell off-campus dining plan)
3) If they were buying beer or cigarettes, would they have their ID?
4) Would they ask for a bag?
5) Would they be polite, or would they give me a hard time?

It's amazing, based on a five second analysis as someone walks in, I've unconsciously made a determination about a person's demeanor based on their appearance and nothing else. I like to think that it's based on some sort of knowledge and experience, and to some degree it is. There is definitely a stereotype of the "fro-yo girl" (affectionately called "fro-yo hoes" by the store staff). She's always on her cell phone, pays with City Bucks, and buys frozen yogurt regardless of how cold it is. My store has gone as far as creating a "fro yo hoe of the month" promotion, which has been surprisingly successful. The recipients (with their consent) are awarded free frozen yogurt for a month, a t-shirt, and allowed to choose one of the flavors all because they fit a stereotype well. It's quite interesting to see how receptive most of the girls are to receiving this "honor."

Seeing how easily I formed my own stereotype about who tries to buy beer without an ID and who will ask for a bag based only on appearance seems to really speak to the way that stereotypes are so easily formed. It should be interesting to see if I can model this automatic behavior in my cognitive neural net; this is the topic I hope to study for my final project.