Looking at Stereotypes

Kanazawa, Satoshi. "All stereotypes are true, except I: What are stereotypes?" April 24, 2008.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/200804/all-stereotypes-are-true-except-i-what-are-stereotypes.

This interesting article, which comes from an evolutionary psychologist, examines the topic of stereotypes. I felt that the author made some good remarks about this subject in which some of it resembles what we went over in class. He says that most scientists describe stereotypes as being empirical generalizations, which are general ideas that come from experiences or a widespread amount of evidence and that are usually true in most instances. Even though, I do know that stereo-typing doesn't just come from our first hand experiences. It also comes from things that we see in movies and television as well as coming from experiences from people that we are associated with. I definitely agree with the author that stereotypes aren't necessarily a good thing or a bad thing. I do realize that we all do hold stereotypes in some form or another. Even though, we don't admit this at times. Just like we discussed in class, it helps us to find a way to deal with unfamiliar situations when we are around an individual of a certain group or a group that we aren't around too much. One thing that gets us in trouble when it comes to stereotyping is that we might look too much into the beliefs that we have about the individual of that certain group. This can limit our chances to get to know them in which we don't realize that not everyone in a certain group fits underneath our beliefs that we have about that certain group. We do know that most times, stereotypes about someone in a certain group or a group are true. Different types of evidence throughout history has shown this. The author makes the statement referring to this that stereotypes won't last long if proven to be wrong. He also says that research has actually ended up proving some stereotypes to be untrue in the past. It would be interesting to see in the future if other stereotypes will be proven to be wrong.

The author makes a fascinating statement about how stereotypes are formed. He says that when empirical generalization comes about from an observation that is clarified to be true in most cases, then an individual or a group might end up disagreeing with how they or their group are being percieved by others. This ends up forming a stereotype. When most people think about stereotypes just like prejudice, they usually think of it as a bad thing. Many people worry that others would hold negative beliefs about them based on them belonging to a certain group. It takes a lot of energy out of them and can hamper them from achieving certain things. This definitely shown through the idea that we looked into from our readings, which was the stereotype threat. Also just like prejudice, stereotypes can either be good or bad. Just like I said earlier, many people don't consider certain beliefs about groups or individuals to be stereotypes unless someone or others in a certain group is negatively affected by those beliefs.