Stereotyping

Human beings are interesting things.  What’s even more interesting are the ways we cope with the massive amounts of information that we encounter and process on a daily and hourly basis.  One way that we do this is by using something that has a negative connotation: stereotyping.

Stereotyping allows us to make generalizations about information and situations so that we don’t have to re-analyze them when we experience them over and over again.  It allows us to simplify, organize, and catagorize information so that we can respond to it quickly.  Using prior knowledge, we make make assumptions about new and future situations. 

As we communicate with each other via conversation, writing, and through the media of radio and television, we share our stereotypes, thereby standardizing them.  The result is that we, then, have standard stereotypes by which we filter our experiences.  Examples?  Sure!  There’s plenty:

• People with glasses are smarter than those who don’t wear them
• A person who is organized is competent in their profession
• Someone who talks fast is nervous
• A person who looks at his/her watch repeatedly during a meeting is not really listening and would rather be somewhere else
• Someone who avoid make eye contact while talking are not being honest
• Fat people are lazy
• A person who appears too relaxed does not care
• People who mispronounce words are uneducated
• A clean desk means an effective worker/manager/executive
• Jocks are not smart
• Geeks aren’t sexy (Ouch!)

True, there are small numbers of people who don’t share these perceptions, but, for the majority, these seem to be valid views, whether they are true or not.

An Example

I even did my own experiment.  I went to my local Wal-Mart dressed in a dirty, wrinkled shirt, sweaty pants, holey hat, uncombed hair, etc.  I made my purchase and on the way out, the lady at the door insisted on inspecting my purchase and looking at the receipt.  I guess I looked like someone who might steal.  The next day, I went back and made another purchase.  This time I was dressed in a suit, white shirt, polished shoes, and clean hair.  I walked out with my purchase unharassed.  I guess those of us who wear suits don’t steal from Wal-Mart.  Just for the fun of it, I went back the next week dressed in dress slacks, white shirt, no jacket, and a tie — with yellow smiley faces all over it.  I wore my school ID that was secured to my belt with an ID holder that also had a smiley face on it.  Yep, you guessed it, the smiley face is the unofficial logo of Wal-Mart as it is featured prominently in their commercials.  I carried a clip board and wore reading glasses pushed down to the bottom of my nose.  Yeah, I piled on the stereotypes.  So what happened?  Not only was I welcomed into the store by the greeter, but within three minutes, I was greeted by another employee who brought me a cup of coffee (I did not ask for one), asked if I would like an employee to accompany me while I toured the store, and was offered an office when I was done.  My wife sat in the fast food area, watched and laughed so hard she had to get up and leave.

Another Example

I happened to be in one of the cities in which the movie, Eddie, was filmed, starring Whoopi Goldberg.  The local radio station advertised it and said to come out as they needed extras for some of the basketball scenes.  The plot was that Whoopi was a fan of a professional basketball team who got a chance to coach it.  They needed fans in the stands for a pro basketball game.  The in-laws were in town, so, looking forward to a day’s fun, everyone got up and got ready to go.  Knowing this was a great opportunity for some action research, I dressed in a sports jacket and dress slacks.  Everyone else was in jeans.  My family asked why.  I said, this is the way they dress close to the court.  They laughed. 

When we got to the stadium, we wound up in the proverbial nosebleed section, not being able to see much of anything.  Suddenly, a person with a headset tapped me on the shoulder and said, “We’d like to ask you to come down and sit courtside.”  I bid my family and in-laws a fond farewell and spent the afternoon sitting next to the bench for one of the fictitious teams, talking to, among others, Whoopie, Dennis Farina, Dennis Rodman, and Rick Fox.

Hard to Believe

You say this information about stereotyping is hard to believe?  I’m not surprised.  Studies have confirmed that many are unconscious of their biases.  Psychology Today noted that,

Psychologists once believed that only bigoted people used stereotypes. Now the study of unconscious bias is revealing the unsettling truth: We all use stereotypes, all the time, without knowing it. We have met the enemy of equality, and the enemy is us.

It also noted that even those who feel they are so aware of the phenomenon that they can guard against it or feel that they are above the practice would be surprised to know that,

How progressive a person seems to be on the surface bears little or no relation to how prejudiced he or she is on an unconscious level.

Wow!  Eye opening stuff!

Summary

Some might say we need to just be ourselves and not play the stereotyping game and may even call the utilization of techniques to counteract it manipulative.  This is a naive choice because stereotyping is going to happen and it’s foolish to pretend that it doesn’t. 

I’m not afraid to use techniques and strategies to overcome the negative effects of stereotyping and you shouldn’t either. 

• I keep my office clean and organized
• I keep my car spotless inside because some employers have sent secretaries to spy out the prospective hire’s car.  Why?  Because, it is said, a clean car means a person is organized, which, stereotypically, means they are competent
• I dress well, even when I don’t have to
• I carry a briefcase, not a book bag
• I continuously improve my vocabulary

Let’s Play Some Games

1. Imagine you are on trial with a possible prison sentence possible if you are found guilty and your attorney advises you to dress up when you come to court and shave off your beard if you’re a man or advises you to wear a dress and and wear reading glasses to court if you’re a woman because they have been shown to bring out favorable responses from the jury.  Would you do it?
2. What stereotypes do you battle during your day and how do you counteract them?

Comments

[Hashim]

good stuff! Stereotypes are very powerful, and people make judgments about other people and situations within seconds. Why not use this as an advantage? If you don't it will be used against you, anyway.

[Scott]

That's a great article on stereotypes. I especially like your "experiments" -- they are creative and hilarious. :-D

I have exprienced quite a few stereotypical reactions myself. I attended a private high school, and thus the dress code required me to wear much more conservative clothes than the average teenager. I cannnot say how many times I would pay for something with a check, and the cashier would not require me to show my ID because "I didn't look like I would be a problem."

Though I didn't mind that sterotype, I am afflicted by another stereotype that works against me because of my major in college -- computer science. I generally try to avoid telling my major at all costs when I meet someone, as more times than not, his/her whole perception of me instantly changes upon hearing that I'm a computer major. Though the sterotype of computer science students as geeks is well deserved (judging from the correlation in my classes :-D), there are a few of us who aren't nerds. We really don't care for the stereotype! :-P

Stereotypes are certainly a powerful cultural phenomenon.

[Bruce Small]

Stereotypes are an ancient defense mechanism which allow us to survive in the real world. It wasn't until the thought police latched onto the term that it had any negative connotation.

[Bert]

I think it's interesting that some professions can get away with using stereotypes while the Average Joe/Jane is looked down upon when they use it:

- Doctors and their white coats
- Judges and their robes
- Any profession that uses uniforms (Police, EMS, Nurses, etc.)

These accessories don't do anything to enhance job performance, but lend a huge amount of authority to what they say and do due to stereotyping.

[Teri Lester]

I am the accountant for a small engineering firm, but I sit at the reception desk because we do not have a separate reception desk. We also have a casual dress code which I eagerly embrace - pantyhose make me itch.

It's always instructive to see how snotty some people are when they think I am the receptionist and the 180 they do when they find out I'm the one they have to go to if they want money from us.

They don't seem to have that issue with the similarly-dressed engineers - somehow an engineer in sneakers equals brains, but a receptionist in sneakers equals bimbo.

[jim collins]

I assume you've read or at least heard of Blink by Malcolm Gladwell? The book is devoted to studying exactly this phenonmenon.

[Rian]

Interesting article from the US Supreme court on this very topic ... it is unconsitutional for the accused to appear in schackles due to the impression it leaves on the jury.

[Bert]

I was aware that this ruling was coming down. I also figured it to go this way. I read somewhere earlier that in one instance, a defendant could not be brought into the court wearing an orange jumpsuit because of the prejudicial impact it would have. Street clothes were provided to the defendant when he appeared before the jury.

[mariah kennedy]

i don't understand!i don't understand why SOME people make fun of fat people!I know that sometimes that it's there fault for being fat but,sometimes it's other people making fun of "fat people." iF I had a say in it this wouldn't be happening.these so called "fat people" should be treated like a normal would be treated and not like a animal. So all those fat people out there that get amde fun of because your fat just stop and think just because i'm fat doesn't make me differnt from anyone ELSE!