Have you ever heard someone say something like “girls are bad at math” or “all people from that city (or country) are rude”? If so, you’ve heard a stereotype. Stereotypes are everywhere, and they’re more harmful than most people realize.
What Is a Stereotype?
A stereotype is a fixed, oversimplified idea about a group of people based on their race, gender, nationality, religion or other identity. For example, someone might meet a few quiet people from a particular country and then assume that everyone from that country is quiet. The problem is that one person—or even a handful of people—can’t represent an entire group. Every group is made up of individuals who are all different from one another.
It’s important to note that not every generalization is a stereotype. A stereotype is a widely repeated oversimplification, one that gets passed around in society until people believe it’s true, even when it isn’t.
Even “Nice” Stereotypes Are Harmful
You might be thinking: what about positive stereotypes? Surely those are OK, right? Actually, no. Even so-called positive stereotypes cause real damage. Here’s why: they take away a person’s individuality.
Imagine a student who belongs to a group that is stereotyped as being very smart. But this student struggles in school because of a learning disability. If his teacher assumes he must be doing fine—because “kids like him are always smart”—she might never dig deeper to find out what’s really going on. That student could go years without getting the help he needs, simply because a stereotype got in the way.
All stereotypes, good or bad, put people in boxes. And no one fits perfectly inside a box.
Stereotypes Can Hurt Your Performance
Here’s something scientists have discovered that might surprise you: being reminded of a stereotype about your own group can actually affect how well you do on a test or task. Psychologists call this “stereotype threat.” It’s the fear that you might accidentally prove a negative stereotype about your group to be true.
Research shows that this kind of stress takes up mental energy that you need to do your best work. In one study, Black students who were simply asked to write down their race before taking a test performed worse than when that question wasn’t asked (Zawisza). Women who were reminded of the stereotype that “girls are bad at math” before a math test also tended to score lower. Even men were affected. They performed worse on tests involving reading emotions when they were told the test measured a “typically female” skill.
Stereotype threat creates a vicious cycle: anxiety leads to lower performance, which seems to confirm the stereotype, which creates even more anxiety the next time around. This cycle can affect immigrants, elderly people, low-income students—any group that faces negative stereotypes.
Are Stereotypes Ever Based on Truth?
Some people argue that stereotypes must come from somewhere, so there must be some truth to them. This argument doesn’t hold up. If one group of people has historically been associated with a certain skill or behavior, it’s almost always because of social and historical factors, not because of anything natural or built-in about that group.
For instance, if a group of people was once excluded from certain jobs and allowed to work only in specific fields, people might start associating them with those fields over time. But that connection came from unfair rules created by society, not from any real difference between people. Stereotypes ignore these important historical facts and make false connections between groups and supposed abilities.
Think About It This Way
The next time you’re tempted to stereotype a group, think about the groups you belong to—your gender, your background, your hometown. Now think about the stereotypes tied to those groups. Do all of them describe you? Probably not. Just like you’re more than any stereotype about your group, so is every other person you’ll ever meet.
What Can You Do?
Stereotypes don’t have to be permanent. Awareness is a powerful first step. Simply knowing about the damage stereotypes can cause helps us push back against them, in both ourselves and in others. When you hear a stereotype, you can speak up, ask questions and remind people that individuals deserve to be seen as individuals.
The goal isn’t to sort people into categories. The goal is to get to know them, one person at a time.
Work Cited
Zawisza, Magdalena. “The Terrifying Power of Stereotypes—and How to Deal with Them.” The Conversation, 28 Aug. 2018, https://theconversation.com/the-terrifying-power-of-stereotypes-and-how-to-deal-with-them-101904.