A stereotype is a pre-concieved, fixed belief that applies to a group or individual. It's the idea that all people that look the same or belong to a group must have the same characteristics and beliefs as one another. The reason we stereotype comes down to our laziness as humans. Stereotyping allows us to form an opinion on a group or individual with little to no effort to get to know them. It can give you a false sense of security and idea of belonging by creating a 'them' and 'us' mentality that disassociates you from what you may see as an undesirable group of people. The media uses stereotypes to give the audience a basic understanding of the character without any character development taking place. They also like to create stereotypical characters so the audience know what to expect in the way of personality and story lines, and to have someone who they can recognise and identify with. In doing this the media generates a large audience which consequently earns them money.
You may claim to be the person that never stereotypes and keeps an open mind- I'm sad to say that you are most definitely not that person, nobody is. Psychologists used to believe that only the bigoted people stereotype, but now the ugly truth has come out, every single one of us uses stereotypes no matter how hard we try to avoid it. We can stereotype consciously and without even knowing it, for example you may be asked to write down your views on an ethnic group, but what you write consciously is only half the story. Psychologists believe that your true prejudiced feelings are being masked in in the depths of your mind at an unconscious level. Stereotyping is ingrained in our human nature, so it doesn't matter how or if you stereotype its what you do about it that counts.
You may claim to be the person that never stereotypes and keeps an open mind- I'm sad to say that you are most definitely not that person, nobody is. Psychologists used to believe that only the bigoted people stereotype, but now the ugly truth has come out, every single one of us uses stereotypes no matter how hard we try to avoid it. We can stereotype consciously and without even knowing it, for example you may be asked to write down your views on an ethnic group, but what you write consciously is only half the story. Psychologists believe that your true prejudiced feelings are being masked in in the depths of your mind at an unconscious level. Stereotyping is ingrained in our human nature, so it doesn't matter how or if you stereotype its what you do about it that counts.
Have you looked at any research that explains why we stereotype?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199805/where-bias-begins-the-truth-about-stereotypes
http://www.simplypsychology.org/katz-braly.html