Stereotypes

Stereotypes

We are all too familiar with stereotypes of other people—people of other races, people of other sexes, people with other accents. We are less familiar with stereotypes of other animals, but we don’t need much persuading that they exist—say, rats. But I want to ask a stranger question: do we harbor stereotypes of ourselves? We each belong to certain general categories, say white European male, and we know it—do we stereotype ourselves according to such stereotypes? It might seem that we don’t and couldn’t, because we have direct access to our own personality and proclivities; but that is superficial, since we really don’t have full knowledge of our nature—we can be wrong about it. People don’t have infallible access to their own character and motivations; self-deception is common. We evidently need a self-conception, but it may not come, wholly or partly, from the faculty of introspection. Where does it come from? The OED gives us for “stereotype”: “an image or idea of a particular type of person or thing that has become fixed through being widely held”. Stereotypes are social constructs, often fictional, that are picked up from others, sometimes positive, more often negative. They become “fixed”—rigid, unquestioned. They don’t come from actual acquaintance with the category of person to which they become attached; they come from representations by other people of that category, verbal or pictorial. They are essentially descriptions—typically, brief and pungent. They purport to be true universally and hence preceded by “all”. They are believed by dint of repetition, prejudice (pro or con), and insistence; the move from “some” to “all” is characteristic. They indicate intellectual ineptitude, oversimplification, and bias.

Given all this, it would not be surprising if members of a certain group found themselves believing the general stereotype associated by others with that group, by virtue of elementary conformity. This would be especially true if the stereotype were positive: “My group is generally good at X, so I am good at X”. That belief might then lead to futile attempts to do X, or to motivation that actually produces some ability at X even though the individual’s talent at X is rather minimal. In either case the person’s self-conception is driven by an inaccurate stereotype absorbed from the surrounding culture: for example, “Ukrainians are naturally good pole vaulters; I am a Ukrainian; therefore, I am a naturally good pole vaulter”. We learn by imitation and testimony, as well as by direct perception. And other minds are not perceivable anyway, leaving a gap easily filled by verbal means. Stereotypes thrive in a state of ignorance.

The interesting case is the negative socially inculcated stereotype that is absorbed by those to whom it is applied. Here an internal battle is going on: on the one hand, the person has personal evidence that the stereotype is untrue and so rejects it; on the other hand, the stereotype is so entrenched that it is accepted as true even by those to whom it is applied. This might even lead to the stereotype becoming true, or somewhat true. I won’t give any examples, but the idea is not psychologically unrealistic: if people keep telling you that you are X, Y, and Z, you might become X, Y, and Z. At the same time, you might know quite well that you are not X, Y, and Z, thus producing cognitive dissonance, which will in turn lead to attempts at dissonance reduction. The evil of negative stereotyping is thus not confined to mistreatment by others but extends to a person’s self-image. How many potentially great composers have not gone into music because of the stereotype associated with them, which they have absorbed and accepted as true, maybe even shunning music altogether? Even if the stereotype is broadly true of their group, they may be an exception to it; that use of “all” discourages them. The trouble is that the weak-minded are too easily led by stereotypes; they seem unable to function without them. There should be anti-stereotype lessons in schools. We might say, charitably, that stereotypes result from the economy of thought and we all need to economize on our intellectual resources; but even still, we should be trained to exercise a little more discretion in our mental economies. In truth, it is sheer laziness backed by a tendency towards prejudice—and the cause of much evil in the world. It should be regarded as more shameful than it actually is. Anyway, I suggest, as an exercise, that you ask yourself whether you stereotype yourself in any way. You might be holding yourself back.[1]

[1] It is an interesting question what social relations would be like without stereotypes, so that we had to fall back on individual direct evidence. It might seem like a kind of heaven, but maybe things would be more chaotic and nebulous without firm stereotypes to go by (and rebel against).