The Justification-Deception: The Maintenance Of Stereotypes

Devine (1989) argues that stereotypes are inevitable on the basis that stereotypes and prejudice coexist and that stereotyping occurs automatically. Devine attempts to prove this hypothesis in three experiments. Devine reasons that “as long as stereotypes exist, prejudice will follow.” This hypothesis is rooted in a correlation. Prejudice and stereotypes are related, however there is no clear evidence of causality; Knowledge of a stereotype does not mean an individual agrees with it.

Many students, high school students especially, frequently hear stereotypes, whether it’s about themselves or others. These stereotypes can actually have an effect on these students, it can hurt their performance in various settings. As proven by Vedantam’s article, “How a Self-Fulfilling Stereotype Can Drag Down Performance,” where he tests out different races and see how they score when he mentions that a race is superior to them.

Stereotypes surround us everywhere we go; they are imbedded in our thoughts, conversations, and actions alike, and are simply regarded as “human nature”, but what if they are affecting us more than we think? Sometimes, they are so disguised or normal to us, that we forget what a stereotype really is, or how it began. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a stereotype is “to believe unfairly that all people

Stereotypes and generalizations have negatively depicted the image and character of individuals and groups throughout time. In making these stereotypes we forget about the true character of the individual or group. Somehow throughout time what we have gathered and decided through stereotypes has created the everlasting image we have of one another, it's been hard to change the viewpoint ever since. Through the reading of this article and attaining continuous information of the harm of stereotypes are placing in our world we can start to move away from these unfortunate depictions.

The presences of stereotypes are overwhelming and are developed by both the environment a subject is raised in and their family. Stereotypes, which are pervasive throughout different societies, become intertwined in the collective values of the society as justification for all forms of social, economic, and political inequality among groups (Devine and Elliot 2000;Kaplan 2004; Operario and Fiske 2004). As people become more exposed to stereotypes they start to become a permanent part of a person’s life, they begin to stereotype themselves almost always involuntarily.

In life, there is a common ground on which most every person can relate. At one time or another, we have all been promoters of or victims of the unremitting nature of stereotypes. According to the Webster’s dictionary, a stereotype is defined as “a simplified and standardized conception or image invested with special meaning and held in common by members of a group.” Most stereotypes take on a negative form and are based on characteristics such as age, gender, race, status, and personal beliefs. Generally speaking, the greatest problem that arises with stereotypes is that they judge group of people by the characteristics and actions of their ancestors, rather than on an individual basis. More often than not, these assumptions will

Stereotypes are socially constructed, over-generalized views regarding a particular group of persons with certain characteristics that are widely accepted, and usually expected, in a society. The dominant group of a certain society, which in this case is probably Caucasians and men, usually creates these social constructions. Claude M. Steele, a researcher from Stanford University, performed multiple research studies on the idea and psychological effects of stereotypes on its victims. In his studies, he coins the term “stereotype threat” as the “social-psychological predicament that can arise from widely-known negative stereotypes about one's group,” which implies that “the existence of such a stereotype means that anything one does or any of one's features that conform to it make the stereotype more plausible as a self-characterization in the eyes of others, and perhaps even in one's own eyes” (Steele 797).

How do you deal with stereotypes towards yourself or others that have experienced them? People are stereotyped by their physical features and by the information we know about a certain group. They are judged by their physical features instead of seeing what they are really capable of doing. Usually not being involved in such a diverse community can cause that because they are accustomed to what's near them. Exploring and learning about others will help shatter stereotypes. We'll explore in Sucheng Chan and Judith Ortiz Cofer essays on how they've been stereotyped and what they've done to shatter the quo.

Stereotyping and discrimination are very deeply ingrained in American culture. Even though there have been movements taken to combat stereotyping and discrimination such as the Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Rights movement, and the Black Lives Matter Movement, it still exists. This raises the question of, how do we end it? While there is no definite answer there is a way to avoid stereotyping and discrimination. The three essayists Bharati Mukherjee, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Brent Staples and show that by learning about stereotyping, people can also learn how to change themselves to avoid discrimination based on stereotypes. By comparing and contrasting these essayists experiences as well as outside research to show the theme of why people

During the time I was born, in the 90’s, stereotypes were taught to children through school, family members, and media. “A stereotype is a mental category based on exaggerated and inaccurate generalizations used to describe all members of a group” (Bennett 91). As a child, I obviously did not realize I was being taught these cruel definitions based to categorize people into which racial group they should belong to. To put it another way, Bennett states, “As psychologists have pointed out, stereotyping is a natural phenomenon in that all humans develop mental categories to help make sense of their environments” (91). Provided that, I stereotyped my interviewee the same exact way numerous people stereotype me. For this reason, to better understand both the interviewee and myself racial identity, I consequently analyzed how we each portrait the world we live in.

Furthermore, stereotypes are used to increase an individual’s self-esteem and strengthen their social identity. Social identity theory contributes largely to the formation of stereotypes, as it states that a person’s social identity is formed from being part of a group. To justify one’s own group, they often pick out real or imaginary differences and flaws in other groups and compare those to their own group (Ford & Tonander, 1998). This led Ford

Most people find stereotypes to be obnoxious, especially when they have to do with sensitive subjects like gender or race. “Stereotyping is a generalization about a group or category of people that can have a powerful influence on how we perceive others and their communication behaviors” (Floyd, 61). Because they underestimate the differences among individuals in a group, stereotyping can lead to inaccurate and offensive perceptions of other people. Although stereotypes are prevalent in almost every society, becoming aware of our perceptions of others, as well as differentiating between both positive and negative stereotypes can help us overcome those stereotypes.

There are numerous assumptions and stereotypes people fabricate about WIC participants. Some of these assumptions and stereotypes are that people on the WIC program abuse the system by being dependent on the system and not using government assistance programs as they were originally intended when it was created in 1972. Additionally, other assumptions are that the majority of minorities or people of color are using these government agencies. I believe the writer of this case study used this assumption when writing it because she made a point to give the readers the illusion that Mrs. Ortiz is of Hispanic origin. Another assumption that I perceived from this case study is the use of the name Rebecca obviously the author is trying to refer

Throughout the study of this unit, I have enhanced my understanding of discrimination and stereotyping in society. I am able to recognise how assumptions of people can affect how society functions, how individuals are affected by other’s perceptions and how these themes can be identified in today’s society.

Kevin D. Roberts talked about how supporters and opponents of stereotypes argued about why these stereotypes happen. Supporters of stereotypes used statistics in order to show a socioeconomic problem. They saw that “the high unemployment rates, the poverty levels, the imprisonment rate, the low rates of school graduation, and the two parent-families homes” caused violence to happen (Roberts 143). However, opponents of stereotypes agree that racism and discrimination has led African Americans to feel left out or to be separated from the other racial groups (Roberts 145). This is where Mark Noll explains how the church revolutionized communities into life-ending congregation among the African American people. Back in 1793, David George, a runaway slave from Virginia, left Savannah with his company of Africans to Sierra Lone where he established a Baptist church in West Africa. In addition, George Liele, another slave, also left Savannah to go to Jamaica where he