November Blog – Stereotypes

“Stereotypes-easy conclusions about people that reduce them from unique individuals to predictable types – can be both pervasive and persuasive.” (Warren & Fassett, 2011)

            Stereotyping is something that everyone does. Most of the time it is not out of malus but, to save our brains form being overworked by all of the information that bombards us on a daily basis. Unfortunately, this can have negative repercussions on the people around us. We can get to comfortable generalizing information for our lazy brains that it can transfer over to over generalizing people. Like this quote says, we take a unique person and make them fit into a box that does not accommodate them.

            Psychology Today has an article called “Where Bias Begins: The Truth About Stereotypes”.  It talks about how everyone has bias and even if you believe you view people equally, you don’t. These are unconscious reactions that have been studied for years and supported by science. There is very little we are able to do about this unconscious categorization until we learn where it comes from. There are other studies that are being done on this topic.

            Until we know how to stop stereotyping, we can make a conscious chose to not always trust our first judgment when it comes to people. It is difficult to make it and think about how you feel when most of your identity is striped from you so that you can be grouped in a nice little box.

            Our book covers this subject in two or three different sections. We also have several discussions throughout the semester that relate to our own stereotyping.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199805/where-bias-begins-the-truth-about-stereotypes