Stereotype: what it is, types, origin, summary

You stereotypes they are the crystallized images that are usually applied to a human group. Statements such as “Americans are individualistic” or “nurses are caring and dedicated people” are examples of stereotypes. Social psychology considers that the content of stereotypes is a social construction, since they are produced by the group and not simple individual representations.

The social construction of stereotypes aims to tame the unknown, that is, classify new facts into known and stable categories. Stereotypes are also a way of forging identities and guiding action by defining, in advance, what is good or bad, favorable or unfavorable, fair or unfair, desirable or not.

On the one hand, stereotypes are essential to social life because they allow a group to define itself, positively or negatively, in relation to another group. On the other hand, they also play an important role in social oppression based on characteristics such as race, gender, ethnicity and age. We will understand the formation of these stereotypes and how the categorizations, schemes or prototypes provided by them impact our daily lives.

Read too: Social roles — previously stipulated forms of behavior for individuals of a specific social position

Topics of this article

• 1 - Summary about the stereotype
• 2 - Video class on stereotype
• 3 - What is a stereotype?
• 4 - How are stereotypes constructed?
  • → Examples of stereotypes
• 5 - Types of stereotypes
• 6 - Differences between stereotype and prejudice
• 7 - What is the origin of the term stereotype?
• 8 - Main aspects related to the construction of stereotypes

Summary about the stereotype

• Stereotypes are socially constructed mental representations to categorize people with easily recognizable labels.
• Stereotypes are fundamental to social life, because they facilitate the cohesion of groups, but they also serve as a basis for prejudiced attitudes of its members and can be problematic.
• The construction of stereotypes involves mechanisms of the human brain, socialization processes and, currently, mass media communication.
• There are many different types of stereotypes such as gender stereotype, religious stereotype, ethnic or racial stereotype, age stereotype, ableist stereotype and stereotype socioeconomic.
• The word stereotype was borrowed by social psychologists from a printing technique invented in the eighteenth century.

Video lesson on stereotype

What is stereotype?

the stereotype it is a mental shortcut that shapes the perception of the world and the social groups that exist in it in a simplified and generalized way.They are culturally reproduced and interfere — mostly unconsciously — in social relations, producing a rigid belief, sometimes exaggerated, about a group of people with common characteristics, but which can also be applied to each individual belonging to the same group.

There are both positives and negatives to the stereotype. From a psychological point of view, the human being depends on the stereotype to interact with the world.. With this mechanism of cognitive simplification, the individual formulates an initial perception of the world and its elements, which is fundamental for him to make decisions. If the complex data that we receive from reality, mainly about groups of people, were not categorized and classified in a simplified way by our brain, probably our interaction with the environment would be “stuck” by the overload of information.

Unaccompanied by critical reflection, the stereotype sediments a solid base for the construction of prejudices. And prejudices, in turn, are used to justify discrimination and attitudes towards generic groups of people such as “immigrants”, “indigenous people”, “the poor” or “the French”.

Finally, the stereotype can be defined as a mental construction resulting from cognitive mechanisms that help to process complex information. It has sociological relevance because it is often taught and shared within a community as a way to generate interactions between people. Due to the impact on the individual's perception of the world and social oppression, it is very important to understand what is behind stereotypes and how they are forged.

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How are stereotypes constructed?

The stereotype is the standardized and generalized image about something or someone, coming from common sense, that society builds to classify people or social groups. The understanding to understand how these social representations are formed goes through three factors: the functioning of the human brain, the socialization of individuals and the performance of the means of communication of pasta.

→ Examples of stereotypes

Below are some examples of stereotypes, which have the belief that:

• “men don't know how to take care of children” (gender stereotype);
• “women are more capable of taking care of people” (gender stereotype);
• “Jews are greedy people” (religious stereotype);
• “Kenyans are all talented in road racing” (ethnic or racial stereotype);
• “indigenous people are lazy and don't like hard work” (ethnic or racial stereotype);
• “the French, in general, are all grouchy” (ethnic or racial stereotype);
• “the elderly cannot learn new things” (age stereotype);
• “young people are irresponsible and rebellious people” (age stereotype);
• “politicians are all thieves” (professional stereotype);
• “teachers are, by definition, boring and uninteresting” (professional stereotype);
• “people with disabilities are incapable of doing things for themselves” (enableist stereotype).

types of stereotypes

Stereotypes can be classified into several types. The most important are racial, gender, and class stereotypes. These are considered system-justifying stereotypes, as they can be used to make sense of maintaining the status quo and reinforcing existing inequality in a society. In addition to system-justifying stereotypes, which can perpetuate inequalities, there are several other types of stereotypes. Below, get to know some of them and see examples of how they manifest themselves:

• System justification stereotypes:
  • racial stereotype: is the type of stereotype related to generalizations about the race or ethnic group to which a person belongs. The belief that black people are naturally less intelligent or more likely to commit crimes, for example, can be used to justify mass incarceration policies and discrimination in areas such as sport and education.
  • gender stereotype: it's the kind of stereotype related to crystallized images about the feminine and the masculine. For example, the idea that women are emotional and sensitive while men are rational and strong can be used to justify lack of women in leadership positions or the undervaluing of their contributions in areas such as science and business corporate.
  • Class or socioeconomic stereotype: it is the type of stereotype related to the social representation about the social origin of the individual. For example, the idea that poor people are lazy or don't work hard enough can be used to justify the lack of access to services and opportunities, as well as the maintenance of policies that perpetuate inequality economical.
• professional stereotype: it is the type of stereotype related to generalizations about the individual's occupation. For example, the belief that lawyers are greedy and don't care about ethics.
• Capacitist stereotype: is the type of stereotype related to standardization about an individual's physical capabilities. For example, believing that people with disabilities are inspiring just for living their normal lives.

Differences between stereotype and prejudice

Until the 1970s, social psychologists spoke more about prejudices than about stereotypes. Behind this change of term, there was a change of theoretical orientation: the truth value of a stereotype is no longer judged. The stereotyped statement came to be seen as more neutral and comprehensive, a general mechanism for connecting collective thinking and individual thinking.

If the stereotype provides general schemes for categorization of a social group, the prejudice is a positive or negative cultural attitude towards individuals perceived as members of that same group. For example, let's look at the racism that whites direct toward blacks or other people of color. This discrimination can include stereotypical beliefs about racial differences in areas such as intelligence, motivation, moral character and diverse abilities. These differences are then judged against beliefs and values ​​that demean black people while elevating the status of white people.

When a white person practices a prejudiced attitude, he adds emotions such as hostility, contempt or fear to the black social representation. These emotions of the individual, along with stereotyped beliefs, create a predisposition in that person. white people to treat black people oppressively and to perceive their own social category as higher.

Therefore, stereotypes are constituted by mental representations that generalize and standardize people belonging to a certain social group. They form an initial set of beliefs that serves as the basis for prejudiced attitudes. Prejudice, in turn, is the foundation of discrimination, that is, the act of treating individuals who belong to a particular group or category unequally.

See too: What is social class prejudice?

What is the origin of the term stereotype?

The term stereotype comes from two Greek words, “stereos” and “typos”, which together mean “solid print”.

The word was borrowed from a graphic printing process, created at the end of the 18th century, in which a single impression is used to produce many identical copies of metallic plates that allowed the mass printing of books, newspapers and magazines.

Later, Social psychologists have broadened its meaning to describe the idea of ​​a fixed, generalized image or impression of a group of people.. The idea of ​​automatically repeating something that was prepared beforehand was retained. Currently, these simplified and generalized social representations of a group can be the basis of prejudices and other shared social beliefs.

Main aspects related to the construction of stereotypes

◦ The generalized other and socialization

Socialization is the name given to the processes that prepare a person, from childhood, to participate in social systems.. From the point of view of individuals, participation in these systems is important for the creation of a self, a social identity, something that is only possible to build by interacting with others.

From a social systems perspective, socialization is necessary for the system to continue to function with effectiveness, since they all depend on motivated and prepared individuals to perform the various roles distributed. For this reason, the individual is socialized to perceive a social system as a natural reality, which it simply is what it seems to be, and not to analyze it as something that society has constructed and can rebuild.

Stereotypical generalizations act by facilitating the simplified perception of a social group to which the individual wants to integrate or from which he wants to differentiate himself.. The individual uses a generalization, for example, when he enters a situation in which he does not know any of the individuals and must have some basis for knowing what he should expect from others and what others should expect. from him. In order to accomplish this purpose, we rely on what is called the generalized other.

For example, when a person enters a warehouse for the first time, without any particular knowledge of the owner of the place, who is on the other side of the counter to serve him, the Her expectations are based solely on her knowledge of the relationship between warehouse owners and customers in general, and what she commonly expects to happen when she initiates such an interaction. type. It is the experience of the generalized other that enables the first interactions.

The generalized other allows the individual, in advance, to formulate a general understanding about the roles played by each person within a given social system.. In this way, when we interact in an unprecedented social situation, our only knowledge base, which comes from common sense, is the generalized other. It is important, however, to distinguish between generalization and stereotype.

Generalization is the cognitive process that allows us to transcend the particular situations of everyday life to a general and abstract context. A generalization is any statement intended to describe a category or group of individuals as a whole. The example of generalization would be a sentence like: “many black people are victims of violent death”.

The fact that Black people are more likely to be victims of violence does not at all mean that all, most, or even many Black people will experience a violent death. However, people who mistake generalizations for stereotypes may assume just that about any and all black people they meet.

◦ Simplification and cognitive bias

The second factor to understand the construction of stereotypes is cognitive simplification. In order to process all information and allow us to understand the world and make decisions with relative speed, the human brain simplifies everything by creating mental shortcuts and cognitive biases, but cognitive biases lead to errors in judgment that can reinforce stereotypes.

Stereotypes also arise from the need to reduce complexity and identify patterns in social experiences. In that sense, the cognitive confirmation bias, for example, is a tendency of the brain that leads us to interpret and value information that confirms or reinforces our preexisting beliefs, hypotheses or expectations. An example of this would be a math teacher who believes the stereotype that women are less skilled in their subject. Due to confirmation bias, this mathematics teacher may be led to highlight cases of female students underperforming on exams given throughout their career, ignoring the evidence contrary.

Another cognitive bias that leads individuals to reinforce stereotypes is the cognitive bias of availability. Availability bias is the thinking pattern that leads people to trust easily accessible information. in their memories when making decisions or assessing situations, rather than seeking more comprehensive information or impartial. The effect of the availability bias is greatly influenced by the actions of the media, advertising, the dissemination of false and sensationalist news.

◦ Mass communication and media

Mass communication is another factor that, currently, can reinforce the social construction (or deconstruction) of stereotypes. The information society is made up of specialists trained to transmit immense volumes of information to a large and diverse audience spread over a large territory. Therefore, the use of generalizations and stereotypes is typically found on television, radio, cinema, newspapers, books, magazines and, mainly, social networks on the internet.

According to the theory of labeling, developed in interactionist sociology by names such as Ervin Goffman and Howard Becker, the impact of the means of communication is very great in the processes of construction of meanings through interaction. We can observe the significant influence that these media have in the construction and propagation of social labels.

The media has the power to portray and amplify certain groups or individuals, creating stereotyped representations that can influence public opinion and reinforce social prejudices.. For example, if the media labels a particular community or ethnicity as "criminal" or "dangerous," that label can create a perception generalized negative opinion about all members of this group, even if only a few individuals were involved in criminal activities.

This labeling can lead to increased stigmatization, discrimination and marginalization of these groups in society. And this occurs because the media often portrays groups in a simplified and exaggerated way, based on social conventions and prejudices, contributing even more so that social systems label individuals in “little boxes”, dictating their behavior and standardizing their image in a well-defined way. prejudiced.

Sources

BECKER, Howard. Outsiders: studies in the sociology of deviance. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 2008.

GOFFMAN, Erving. Stigma: notes on manipulation of spoiled identity. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 1980.

JOHNSON, AllanG.dictionary of sociology: practical guide to sociological language. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 1997.

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