Compared the importance of stereotypical beliefs (SBs) about and affective responses to Americans, Whites, Asians, Jews, Blacks, Hispanics, Russians, Arabs, and Homosexuals as predictors of favorability and preferred social distance toward the groups. Exp 1 (178 adult Ss) investigated cognitive and affective responses to 9 social groups. Because SBs can reflect culturally shared beliefs or individual beliefs, both types of SBs were assessed. In Exp 2 (53 undergraduates), only 4 social groups were used, and the individual stereotyping measure was changed to constrain Ss to express only personality characteristics of the groups. In both studies, emotional responses were a more consistent and stronger predictor of attitudes and social distance than were social stereotypes. This was true whether stereotypes were assessed in terms of percentage assignment, as a likelihood ratio, or as personal beliefs about group characteristics.