The Impact of stereotype on People’s attitude
Abstract
This Article discusses about Stereotype themselves and its impact on people’s attitude
What is stereotype, why we use this word, what is the definition of stereotype?
In order to answer to the question, we will have to look through some materials, which will give us opportunity to understand the meaning of stereotype.
According to beliefs in social psychology, a stereotype is a thought that can be adopted about specific types of individuals or certain ways of doing things. These thoughts or beliefs may or may not accurately reflect reality. However, this is only a fundamental psychological definition of a stereotype. Within psychology and spanning across other disciplines, there are different
…show more content…
A person can start treating people a lot differently, both negatively and positively, depending on the stereotypes they believe in. Someone who has high expectations from someone who comes from a certain ethnicity may expect a lot of hard work from that person, but that person may be too lazy to meet his expectations. The opposite is also true, someone may expect very little from a person, when in truth that person might be hardworking. Anyone who believes something negative about a certain race or ethnicity will probably start harassing or completely ignoring them, while they might be very friendly and kind to someone of another ethnicity. Even before a person meets someone, stereotypes can alter the way they think of other …show more content…
Experiencing the prejudice of a stereotype can cause aggression, lack of focus and a lack of self-control.
Stereotyping can affect the way that people treat each other. If one person stereotypes another in a negative manner, it can lead to that person being treated negatively. Using stereotypes to define a person is a form of prejudice. This type of prejudice often leads to incorrect or incomplete assumptions about other people based on the way they look, act, dress or conduct themselves in a social environment. Stereotyping can have lasting effects on people subject to the prejudice, causing negative changes in mood and behavior even after the incident is
The perpetuation of stereotypes allows prejudice ideas to become a self-fulfilling prophecy, basically we see and believe stereotypes about individual races and when one person or a small percentage of people in that race exhibits that behavior, it reinforces our stereotypes and
This academic journal defines and goes in depth about stereotype threat. In the beginning of the journal, the authors give real life example of stereotype threats and how they negative affect people. They then go on to define what stereotype threat is. The rest of the journal explores the psychology behind stereotype threat and why people continue to fall victim to it. I picked this article people it spoke about and explained stereotype threat in an educational and scientifically way, while still making it easy to understand.
Over the span of hundreds of years these stereotypes have developed and now help define groups of people. A stereotype is not necessarily a true statement or it may not describe every person in a race but due to popular belief it has become this way. Some people tend to believe that stereotypes are correct and they judge races according to them. When a person is asked to describe someone from a specific race, they will most likely state multiple stereotypes that for most are not even true. This becomes the reason for most racial profiling and increases the barrier between people.
Class Stereotypes Stereotypes are seen as overgeneralized ideas, images, or beliefs of a person based on a group of people. Stereotypes can either be taken or said in a negative or positive way but mostly seen in a negative way. Stereotypes are formed on a life experience, idea or a belief a person may have towards one person based on the person’s gender, race, religion or social class. The most common stereotypes are of the social classes which are the: upper, middle and lower class.
Stereotyping is a general idea that someone uses to view someone before they actually get to know them. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout, Jem, and Dill stereotype people until Scout’s father tells her to stop stereotyping. Harper Lee suggests that in order to fully understand someone, you must learn to see the world from their point of view. Mrs. Dubose is an example of Harper Lee’s idea because at first she acts mean towards the Finch family which cause Jem to destroy her camellia flowers. When Mrs. Dubose dies, Atticus tells the kids that the reason she was so mean was because she had a morphine addiction.
A stereotype is a fixed set of beliefs upon of a certain group of individuals who share common traits. Stereotypes can be classified into a wide range of categories such as: race, culture, ethnicity, gender, social or economic status, and religion. A stereotype has to do with a group of people rather than an individual. Most stereotypes are biased and untrue. Stereotypes often lead to prejudice, meaning that one acts a certain way due to the fixed beliefs they have toward a certain group of individuals.
Hidden Stereotypes There is one hard and very evident fact that exists in the world we inhabit; that fact is that stereotypes are as common as rain. A stereotype, as defined by bing.com, is a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. They happen so often that we aren’t even aware that they occur. These atrocities appear in books, films, the news, and other worldwide forms of media.
Stereotypes are simple images or beliefs over the attributes assigned to a particular social group, are models of behavior that become schemes deeply rooted in our mentalities to the point that we adopt them as part of human naturalness. Stereotypes can be racial, religious, sexual and social. These could be the caused of a known incident or attitude years earlier, or simply the result of frequent rumors. Stereotypes can affect different spheres of society. These assumptions can filter into many aspects of life.
According to Lippmann, “stereotypes are ‘pictures in our heads’ that we use to apprehend the world around us” (16). Stereotypes can be formed due to effects of media, as Wood describes media as pervasive, powerful and influential (31). Hence, stereotypes can be defined as inaccurate perceptions towards a group of people or community that is strongly influenced by the media. Whether positive or negative, stereotypes are usually false as they are formed based on personal judgments, which are biased or exaggerated. When stereotypes are consistently portrayed in media platforms, they subconsciously form and maintain assumed identities for the stereotyped groups.
All Asians are good at math, all blondes are dumb, all Muslims are terrorists - these are all common stereotypes. Without even realizing it, stereotypes have undeniably played an enormous role in individual lives. Minds seem to already set a certain image in them based on the people they encounter. People judge others by their skin tone, ethnicity, and physical appearance unconsciously, and this have been proven by many social experiments. Of course, though these stereotypes might be accurate at times, there are situations where they are completely defied.
While some believe not all assumptions and stereotypes are bad, but they force people of the group to fit in a generalized description stripping individuals of their uniqueness. According to the article, “ Positive Stereotypes Are Pervasive and Powerful” by Alexander M. Czopp, Aaron C. Kay, Sapna Cheryan, “even norms that emphasize and encourage superficial attempts to demonstrate inclusiveness, diversity, and multiculturalism at personal and institutional levels...often come with subtle but substantial costs.” There no are such things as positive stereotypes because although affiliating one’s identity with the stereotypic strengths of their social group can have a more immediate response towards group pride and collective self-esteem,
In today’s society, individuals and groups are labeled with either positive or negative stereotypes. People encounter stereotypes everyday and everywhere. It is the picture people paint in their minds when approaching a group or individual when in fact it may be different in reality. Stereotypes affect a person’s way of living and thinking either in a negative or positive way. Stereotypes are based on truth but in an exaggerated way, while misconceptions are formed from having stereotypes.
The act of stereotyping is assuming that all members of a group have similar knowledge, behaviors, or beliefs simply because they belong to a group. Using stereotypes is one of the most common reasons why countless people are misjudged. It can occur with the person’s knowledge or it can happen subconsciously. Sometimes, in writing, authors will form stereotypes for their characters to fit into. By using a stereotype, it sets a base for the character to build off of and show change.
Today, we are living in a very complex social environment. In today’s society, people are stereotyped in many different ways depending which category an individual is located in. Haven’t you been stereotyped at some point in your life? Or you may have stereotyped someone without even noticing it. Stereotyping is actually more serious than we thought and it is becoming a major problem in our society today.
Stereotypes form when the brain makes snap judgments based on visible characteristics such as the group, class, or category of a