Sterotyping: The Factual Science Behind Stereotypes

The world is full of stereotypes. Every person has been stereotypes at least once in their lives. There have always been people who walk around and stereotype just be first impressions. Yet, by seeing someone on the streets one can not make a complete perception of that person, for the constant emotions that vary just be a walk by. Stereotypes cause people to have an incomplete picture of others and can damage individuals and groups.

In conclusion stereotypes are everywhere affecting people everywhere and we only know one way to stop them. This is by your decisions if you are all against stereotypes like many are make the change and stop them by starting with

First of all, what are stereotypes? A stereotype is a quality assigned to groups of people related to their race, nationality, and sexual orientation, but there is not only one type of stereotype there are actually two types of stereotypes. There are positive and negative ones. For example, a positive stereotype about asians would be that they are smart and polite. A negative one would be something like asians have small eyes or they’re short. Some people may get offended by these and other people will not care about it at all. These are effects from the stereotypes.

Stereotypes hurt and persecute people in a very different way than most people think. It’s mostly unconscious, but their self-esteem is lowered when they are looked at differently than everyone else. We all are biased in some way, and we all stereotype people every moment of every day. We just have to be careful that what we say doesn’t hurt anyone.

The dictionary defines stereotypes as “a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.” Our world today is run by an infinite amount of stereotypes. They affect every aspect of people's’ lives. Members of society let others’ opinions affect their own, and people who go against stereotypes are frowned upon. Some stereotypes include those surrounding African Americans, people of Asian descent, and transgendered people. Most people look at an African American male and either get scared of him, assume he raps, our plays sports. However not every single black male in the world partakes in those activities. Some people look at Asians and assume they are all smart, and good at every subject in school, but that

Stereotypes have always been a problem in society. It starts when humans begin communication. It has always plagued society in many ways. It has grown so that now every person stereotypes one another. I have been stereotyped quite a few times.

Stereotypes occur everyday among all individuals. According to the Oxford dictionaries, stereotype is “a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing” (“Stereotypes,” n.d). Stereotypes are often negative and has been an issue within the American society. There have been a lot of stereotypical words used against a lot of races and culture especially through the media. The Media is seen as a very powerful source of information for people all over the world.

Stereotyping is very much a natural and unconscious process – we cannot help it. Stereotypes can come from situations we ourselves may experience, our values and attitudes as well as our perception of certain topics, but typically stereotypes are a result of media portrayals. We engage in stereotyping for a number of reasons – it makes life easier for us as it allows us to remember only certain features or parts of a stereotype, which is much easier than remembering each unique characteristic that makes up a person. We also stereotype because of our need for closure, and in particular our need for cognitive closure. This means that we tend to fill in the missing information

Although stereotyping is not always true, people did form the idea out of something, therefore stereotyping works to a certain extent. People many not have all of the same traits as their stereotype, but they usually have most of them. People are quick to judge the judges, which is a hypercritical judgement to make.

Stereotyping has been a normal occurrence since human beings have been able to do so to others, as tragic as that is. Although it has been through our history, nothing from the past can possibly compare to the amount of stereotyping going on in our world in the modern day, and how much it impacts us and others around us. Robert L. Heilbroner says it best in his article “DON’T LET STEREOTYPES WARP YOUR JUDGMENT (citation) “Stereotypes are a kind of gossip about the world, a gossip that makes us prejudge people before we ever lay eyes on them. Hence it is not surprising that stereotypes have something to do with the dark world of prejudice (Heilbroner Pg.19 number 5).” He then goes on to say that “Once we have typecast the world we tend to see people in terms of our standardized pictures.” He then goes on explaining about a demonstration he performed with a number of Columbia and Barnard students, showing

Stereotypes make us simplify our social world so it’s it becomes easier to recognize some situations. They make us understand basic groups of people to some extent of truth. “The most famous study of racial stereotyping was published by Katz and Braly in 1933, 100 university students were asked to indicate the traits most characteristic of ten different social groups. Students displayed a high level of agreement about the traits of certain racial and ethnic groups, such as Negroes (described as superstitious by 84% of the students, and as lazy by 75%), and Jews (described as shrewd by 79%).” All kinds of people of stereotypes about others.

Stereotypes are deeply embedded in every society in numerous ways. The dictionary definition of a stereotype is “one that is regarded as embodying or conforming to a set image or type.” Stereotyping or Labeling is a technique that “attempts to arouse prejudices in an audience by labeling the object of the propaganda campaign

By stereotyping we infer that a person has a whole range of characteristics and abilities that we assume all members of that group have. Stereotypes lead to social categorisation, which is one of the reasons for prejudice attitudes.

Stereotypes shouldn’t be used because they are unfair,harmful to a human’s well being,and they are used too often.Though some people use stereotypes in their everyday life.Sometimes they get stale and soon enough everybody will know what every single stereotype is .

However, most people do depend on on stereotypes nearly every day to help them function in society. For example, say a woman is walking home late from work alone in the city at night. Walking toward her is a group of young men talking loudly and acting rowdy. Her first thought in her mind is “I don’t feel safe, let me go somewhere that I know I would be safe”. The woman crosses the street and enters the closes convenience store until the young men all pass by. Most people would say she acted discreet, even though she relied on a stereotype to guide her behavior. Stereotypes can lead to misrepresentation and cause people to amplify differences among groups. They can lead people to focus selectively on information that come to an agreement with the stereotype and take no notice of information that disagrees with