Human beings have always divided themselves into groups due to a variety of reasons. These groups gradually developed peculiarities, which bred stereotypes. In some cases, the stereotypes led to the development of prejudices. By definition, stereotypes are generalized beliefs about a specific group of people (Bhatia, 2017). Generally, stereotypes carry an element of truth with regard to a majority of the group. However, oversimplification and generalization are commonly offensive. On the other part, prejudice is a preconceived notion about an individual or a group. The primary prerequisite of prejudice is the lack of evidence or ground to believe regarding the aforementioned notion (Madva & Brownstein, 2018). Many modern prejudices have resulted from common stereotypes. For example, out of prejudice, many white people consider African Americans as violent. On the other hand, many African Americans consider their white counterparts as aloof and proud. The two sets of prejudice emanate from stereotypes about some members of each of the two groups. Stereotyping and prejudice are major social ills in the modern rapidly integrating world that need a substantive solution as they carry potential for social conflict .
How Attitudes and Behaviors of a Group Influence Prejudice and Stereotyping
In most cases, prejudices emanate from stereotypes, which have come about due to a common behavior about a certain group. Humans are highly social animals who will generally organize themselves into groups. Some of these groups are natural such as families while others grow due to philosophical similarities, such as religion. Different groups gradually develop their own peculiar sets of behaviors depending on a variety of factors (Madva & Brownstein, 2018). People who live in dangerous places, for example, may develop a high level of caution. Communities who live in hardship areas may develop gradually develop smaller, leaner bodies over the course of centuries. Conversely, religious people may develop certain mannerisms due to respective religious doctrines. Normally, other groups who do not understand or share the peculiarities of a group might either misunderstand or exaggerate them (Bhatia, 2017). Exaggeration and generalizations gradually create stereotypes. Conversely, not all groups get along thus some groups will develop negative opinions about other groups. In many cases, these negative opinions have a basis on truth with regard to some peculiarities of the said group. Prejudices mainly stem for the presumption that because people are different, they are bad, which is not necessarily true. Based on the above, the specific behavior of a group is a bearing factor to the development of prejudices and stereotypes about the group. These facts do not justify the development of either stereotype of prejudices.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Media Perpetuation of Stereotyping
The media has always been sensationalist in nature a fact the commercialization of news media has exacerbated. The sensationalizing of news is to some extent a social problem, as media houses focus on the kind of news that the readers would want to hear. For example, if there is animosity between two groups, the media house serving one group will propagate negative news about the other group since this news is marketable to its target audience (Foreman, Arteaga & Collins, 2016). Over time, many media houses lost objectivity in order to please its base. It is important to note that a news story does not need to be false to be perpetuate stereotyping. For example, when reporting about a fight in a small town, where fighting is common, a news article can mention only the previous fights involving members of a segment of the community thought to be violent. By selectively focusing on that group, the news story will be propagating a stereotype (Foreman, Arteaga & Collins, 2016). Unfortunately, news stories that propagate stereotypes about minorities such as immigrants, the LGBTQ community and the colored community are common in America.
How Group Membership Influences Social Judgement
The membership of a group influence social judgment based on the stereotypes associated with the specific group. Unlike traditional society, modern communities do not have enough time to interact with one another socially. As a means of compensation, people develop schemata that they use to quickly judge and evaluate others (Madva & Brownstein, 2018). Most of the schemata stem from generalizations and in some cases, stereotypes. For example, many Asian Americans are highly intelligent thus; most Americans assume that every Asian American is highly intelligent. Conversely, homeless people abuse drugs thus most people assume that homeless people are junkies. The kind of judgment visited upon American Asians and homeless people as outlined above is not necessarily right. However, it stems from the behavior or a large number of members of the respective group (Madva & Brownstein, 2018). These examples explain how members of a group influence social judgment.
Subtle Stereotyping and Social Dissonance Inhibiting Social Change
Most communities will move to mitigate and solve outright and extreme cases of stereotyping and prejudice but subtle stereotyping and social dissonance inhibits positive social change. For every few people who hold extremely prejudicial views of a different community, a large number who hold a social dissonance about the same group (Kite & Whitney, 2016). Social dissonance is a kind of fence seating based on contradictory ideas. Similarly, subtle stereotyping mushrooms extremities and stereotyping thus making it look like less of a problem than it actually is. If the community were to be open about its prejudices and stereotyping, its members would take a stand and find ways to solve these social problems. However, the mild and conflicted versions of the problem among the majority limit the ability to take the problems seriously hence inhibiting social change (Kite & Whitney, 2016).
Ethical Challenges for Sensitive Social Research
Researchers who undertake social research about sensitive issues such as stereotyping and prejudice face a variety of challenges. Key among these challenges is the issue of respect for privacy. Humans have a right to keep their private thought private, more so when they do not act upon these thoughts. Research on sensitive issues may involve asking people to devolve information about their private thoughts, which poses major ethical challenges (Kite & Whitney, 2016). The concept of beneficence is also a major challenge to sensitive social research. Many people have social prejudices but do not realize so. Some would be heartbroken if they realize that they carry racial prejudices or sexism. Asking such people some questions may lead them to come to terms with their own prejudices, in some cases to their detriment. The results of research on sensitive issues such as prejudice may also propagate animosity between different social groups (Kite & Whitney, 2016). These ethical challenges may sometimes be debilitating for social research.
Implications of Failure to Mitigated Prejudice and Stereotyping
In 2016, two white police officers shot and killed an unarmed African American Alton Sterling in Boca Raton Louisiana. In the protests that followed, an African American former military officer Micah Johnson shot and killed five police officers (BBC, 2016). Six people died while tens of lives changed negatively and irrevocably because of these events. Irrespective of who may have been at fault, stereotypes and prejudices clearly played a role. Two white officers assumed that a black man was a violent criminal, which is a prejudice drawn from a stereotype. Similarly, a black man assumed that all police officers have a bias against black people, yet another prejudice borne by a stereotype. The unfortunate events at Boca Raton in 2016 are examples of what can happen in the absence of proper mitigation for prejudices and stereotypes. One clique will take prejudice and stereotyping too far. Another clique will feel obliged to respond in kind and the situation may escalate resulting in violence, bloodshed, and death. It is thus important to have known prejudices and stereotypes properly and promptly resolved and diffused to avoid such escalations.
References
BBC. (2016, July 9). Dallas shooting: Who was gunman Micah Xavier Johnson? Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36751387
Bhatia, S. (2017). The semantic representation of prejudice and stereotypes. Cognition , 164 , 46-60.
Foreman, K., Arteaga, C., & Collins, A. (2016). The Role of Media Framing in Crime Reports: How Different Types of News Frames and Racial Identity Affect Viewers’ Perceptions of Race. Pepperdine Journal of Communication Research , 4 (1), 12.
Kite, M. E., & Whitley Jr, B. E. (2016). Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination . East Sussex, United Kingdom: Psychology Press.
Madva, A., & Brownstein, M. (2018). Stereotypes, prejudice, and the taxonomy of the implicit social mind1. Noûs , 52 (3), 611-644.
