Is stereotyping inevitable when designing with personas?

User representations are central to user-centred design, personas being one of the more recent developments. However, such descriptions of people risk stereotyping. We review the genesis and application of personas and kindred representations, and discuss the psychological roots of stereotyping and why it is so powerful. It is also noted that user stereotypes may be broadly accurate. This raises a number of questions. On practical level, as stereotyping is deeply engrained and resistant to circumvention, what are the instrumental approaches to its avoidance? Or, do we simply hope that its effects are not particularly prejudicial or detrimental? We argue that stereotyping in the design of interactive technology may be usefully thought of as comprising a number of tensions (or dialectics).