What is the process of categorizing individuals based on a couple of traits called?

The correct answer is the process of stereotyping, which involves categorizing individuals based on specific traits or characteristics. This psychological process allows people to make assumptions about someone based on generalized beliefs regarding their group affiliation, such as ethnicity, gender, age, or occupation. While this can simplify social interactions by reducing the complexity of processing information about individuals, it often leads to oversimplifications and can perpetuate biases and inaccuracies.

In contrast, projection refers to attributing one's own feelings, thoughts, or motives to another person, which is different from categorizing based on traits. Closure is a cognitive process where individuals seek to resolve ambiguity and achieve a sense of completeness, while selective perception is the tendency to perceive information in a way that aligns with one's beliefs, filtering out what does not fit. These concepts do not directly pertain to the categorization of individuals based on traits, making stereotyping the most appropriate choice in this context.