Is Stereotyping Itself Bad?

Is Stereotyping Itself Bad?

Everyone has put stereotypes on people subconsciously or consciously, however, people aren't only subjecting people, but objects as well as locations (Dominguez). While some believe that stereotypes are only used negatively, to isolate individuals into sections, stereotypes are used in society to help aid people in everyday life, conversations, and profiling. However, stereotypes also have been used negatively in society as well to. Stereotyping is a widely held belief of someone or something, that society and nature have used to live (“Stereotypes”). From knowing a fire is hot, to suggesting a black man is a sex offender, Stereotypes themselves aren’t bad.

At age 1, babies begin to imitate and familiarize themselves with toys, objects, and behavior. It may not seem like it, but already they have already started to establish stereotypes (“Developmental Milestones”). Let’s use eating as an example. A child is given some applesauce to eat and gets to choose between a spoon, fork, or knife. The child looks at the tools at hand and picks up the spoon. Why does the child pick the spoon? This is due to the child’s brain stereotyping objects. The brain stores information in the temporal lobe and allows the child to think that the spoon is the right choice; also known as stereotyping (Dominguez). Imagine if the child had to relearn how to use a spoon or a pencil every time? Stereotyping is a tool a child uses to move through life simplistically, as it helps them recognizes objects or people and use prior knowledge to help them understand the situation.

Stereotyping also helps with friends and family. When the brain undergoes stereotyping, it looks for noticeable characteristics: Skin color, Gender, facial expression, and hair color to name a few (“Stereotypes”). After noticing these characteristics, the person uses past knowledge and experiences to traverse their conversation. However, not all people can be categorized. Each individual has there likes and dislikes, which leads them to be outliers from the rest. This can lead to a person’s negative outlook on their supposed “stereotype”. However, knowing general things about someone that they talk to, can help guide the speaker to be able to easily convey certain ideas or thoughts to whomever they are talking to. Despite popular belief, stereotypes are used daily in positive ways, but by the misconceptions of what stereotyping is at its core, negative outlooks have blanketed communities.

Stereotyping affects us in the real world, but also impacts our lives on the internet as well. When people stereotype, they have an idea of the person or object they stereotype, how they look or act, and applies these characteristic to an online profile. (Schultz). This spawns from an idea of “Stereotype boost” or “Stereotype threat”. Stereotype boost is the idea that if the person takes on the role of a character or object that they gain the traits and talents they possess (Schultz). Stereotype threat is the same concept if the person gains the traits and talents the object or character possess, but in a negative way. This can be seen as a negative way, as it would open up ways for people to achieve negative traits along with the ones they had before. However, people who are affected by stereotype boost tend to achieve success greater than before. In research done by APS (American Psychological Association), black students who are under the impression of stereotype threat, “were matched with Whites in their group by SAT scores -- did less well than Whites. In the no stereotype- threat condition-in which the exact same test was described as a lab task that did not indicate ability-Blacks' performance rose to match that of equally skilled Whites” (“Stereotype threat widens achievement