The Prevelence and Influences of Stereotypes - 1741 Words

Almost everyone has heard phrases such as blondes are dumb, Canadians live in igloos, females are better drivers than males, students who do well in school are nerds and always sit in the front of the class, etc. All of these sentences are examples of stereotypes. Stereotypes-as one can conclude from the above sentences-are very broad generalizations targeted towards a group of individuals. They usually target minorities based on the habits and actions these minorities engage in. Even though many people find stereotypes to be funny, and some individuals will even argue that a class of stereotypes can be proven to be correct because of research, they are nonetheless morally degrading and therefore, are not grounded in truth because of lack of knowledge about one’s culture/background, personal experiences, and the roles of research and media in today’s society. To start off the discussion on stereotypes, one must first analyze how humans of today’s society think. E ver since the dawn of civilization, humans have had the ability to categorize things based on their looks, actions, etc. Hence one can conclude that it is human nature to categorize different things, be it other humans. It is the society’s way of making a complex world simpler ((Division of Student Affairs)). The notion of categorization of other human beings is programmed in a human’s brain since childhood. As humans age, their tendency to categorize different racial group as superior/inferior increases