Our class
discussion was very interesting on Monday regarding stereotypes. We specifically discussed how and when they
are created, and by whom. I argue that
we create stereotypes because our minds naturally categorize incoming
information into schemas. Furthermore,
the information we receive based on cultural norms are categorize into
stereotypes. In class, one thing we
agreed on was that in order to a stereotype to become a stereotype it must be
acknowledged by a large group of people.
Once a stereotype is established whenever a certain action or phenomena
relating to the stereotype occurs we automatically believe the two are
related. The common saying that I hear
constantly that explain this is phenomenon is “correlation does not mean
causation”.
A common
stereotype that I encounter frequently is old people are horrible drivers. Although many bad drivers you might encounter older
people does not mean all old people are bad drivers. Although stereotypes like this might allow us
to categorize people, it does not mean that it is necessarily the right thing
to do. Stereotypes are created by one
group of people based on characteristics that found among a different group of
people. Once a stereotype is
established, every time we see someone conform to the stereotype we
automatically assume they are old if they are a bad driver. I am constantly guilty of this. When I am driving and I see someone driving
extremely slow I automatically start swearing and saying things like, “I bet
this chick is like 90 years old!” More
often than not, I am wrong and it is someone my age or younger who is in
drivers-ed or someone on their phone. I,
like many others, jump to conclusion and pass judgments in the form of
stereotypes because they make us feel better about the situation. Stereotypes are an unnecessary part of the
culture we live in, but I believe it is a natural part of how we operate. We naturally arrange information into schemas
in order for us to absorb and understand information.
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