Stereotypes shape our perceptions of ourselves and those around us. In doing this, you rob them of other aspects of their identity and self. It may not be intentional or non-deliberate at most times, however it creates paths of self-doubt and identity turbulence. After all, how do you really forge your identity when you're constantly battling the stereotypes thrown at you?
A very common example is one associated with body types. Essentially, identity is a social construct produced from interactions and experiences with others.
How do you figure out which ones to keep and which ones to discard? You can read more on how identity is ruled by stereotypes here. Stereotypes can plant seedlings of insecurity which flower over time. This is referred to as a Stereotype Threat. People who face a stereotype threat are always in fear of doing something that could potentially confirm a negative stereotype. In the process, it can harm the self-esteem and performance of affected individuals as they believe their abilities or traits are restricted to the moulds of their stereotype.
According to Psychology Today , research shows that stereotypes often pave way for intergroup hostility and toxic prejudices around age, race, and other social distinctions. The first step is to identify stereotypes. Bryan Stevenson talks about the need to get proximate. Once stereotypes are challenged repeatedly, it makes it harder to stereotype in the future. Blog Topics Videos Podcast Archives. But the reality is, they can be very harmful. Read on. By Momentous Institute Oct 23, Additional resources: What about Reverse Racism?
Liberal-minded types are good at spotting, and calling out, this kind of stereotype. But we're less good when it comes to "positive" stereotypes: the idea that black people are just naturally better at sports, say, or that women are more in touch with their emotions.
These don't seem so pernicious, since their content, after all, is complimentary. But a fascinating new study led by Aaron Kay, a psychologist at Duke University and brought to my attention via Eric Horowitz's ever-interesting blog Peer Reviewed By My Neurons , suggests they might be worse. The study centered on fake articles purporting to show evidence for three of the most time-honoured stereotypes about black people: that they're less intelligent, more prone to violence, and better at sports.
None of the study participants were black themselves. Unsurprisingly, being exposed to this phony "evidence" made people more likely to believe the stereotypes. But the surprise was in the differences between people exposed to the negative stereotypes and the positive one.
First, the article claiming to show superior athletic ability among black people was more likely to be unquestioningly accepted as true: it seemed to fly under people's stereotype-detecting radars. Also, it should be noted that this study has relied entirely on verbal reports and is therefore extremely low in ecological validity. Just because participants in a study will trot out stereotypes when asked does not mean to say that people go around acting on them.
People do not necessarily behave as though the stereotypes are true. The limited information that the experiments are given is also likely to create demand characteristics i.
Finally, there is the problem of social desirability with questionnaire research — people may lie. A stereotype threat arises when one is in a situation where one has the fear of doing something that would inadvertently confirm a negative stereotype. It is cued by the mere recognition that a negative group stereotype could apply to you in a given situation.
It is important to understand that the person may experience a threat even if he or she does not believe the stereotype. Steele and Aronson conducted an experiment involving African American and White college students who took a difficult test using items from an aptitude test American GRE Verbal exam under one of two conditions.
In the stereotype threat condition, students were told that their performance on the test would be a good indicator of their underlying intellectual abilities. In the non-threat condition, they were told that the test was simply a problem solving exercise and was not diagnostic of ability. Performance was compared in the two conditions and results showed that African American participants performed less well than their white counterparts in the stereotype threat condition, but in the non-threat condition their performance equaled that of their white counterparts.
In another study Shih, Pittinsky, and Ambady, Asian women were subtly reminded with a questionnaire of either their Asian identity or their female identity prior to taking a difficult math test. Students taking the test under stereotype threat might also become inefficient on the test by rereading the questions and the answer choices, as well as rechecking their answers, more than when not under stereotype threat.
McLeod, S.
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