Stereotypes

What is stereotype?

Stereotyping involves forming fixed and oversimplified perceptions or expectation of individuals or groups based on traits like race, skin tone, gender, sexual orientation, age, and more. It is usually created based on one or a small number of experiences, which are then placed onto the whole group. An example, in the first year of school, Jimmy had a classmate who was an exchange student from china and excelled in mathematics. In the following year, he met another exchange student from china who also happens to excel in mathematics. Now Jimmy has developed a stereotype about foreign student being good at mathematics.

In what ways do stereotypes affect the way that we communicate with each other?

While stereotype can be funny and harmless as long as they are not taken at face value, it can also have a significant impacts on the way we communicate with each other. Negative stereotypes can leads to discrimination, while positive stereotypes can leads to unrealistic expectation, and thus might result in conflict due to misunderstanding and limited perspectives. An example of positive and negative stereotype based on race.

Positive stereotype (race): Chinese are good at maths!
This creates an expectation that all chinese are good at maths, and it overlooks the differences in each individuals within the chinese community. There’s a famous quote “Expectation leads to disappointment”, and this sits well with positive stereotype. It can unknowingly bring in unnecessary pressure to other individuals who may be struggling. Moreover, it can leads to discrimination if said chinese were terrible at maths, resulting is an unfair treatment.

Negative stereotype (race): Ching chong ling long ting tong When people assume that asian looking individuals are chinese, they might use such offensive slurs to imitate the chinese language. This behaviour not only disrespect the chinese culture but also the individual who may not be chinese. This may result in conflicts due to the nature of offensive interactions as seen in the video below.

One experience I had witness

It is very common to witness stereotypes in our day to day life. Even in some cartoon shows, unknowingly we are being fed to stereotype people.

I have encountered many instances where stereotypes happen. This particular story dates back to June 2022 when my friend was working as a food delivery rider. I met him for a quick lunch during his break. It was then I overheard a conversation between a mother and her child. She was telling her child to study hard, or else he might end up delivering food like my friend. Words cannot describe the anger and the urge I felt to educate this woman. However, my friend remained surprisingly calm about it like he is used to this type of comments. He is still studying at NUS with full private scholarship, which itself is an impressive feat. To top it off,  that he is getting married at the end of the year too. (I know what you are thinking, and answer is no, it’s not a shotgun marriage). Yet, he was being judged solely based on the green uniform he was wearing, all because of stereotypes.

• 

• 

• 

• 

What are the implications of such events occurring in our social life?

It can have an impact on personal well being as it will cause emotional distress if the individual could not take such mean comment.  It can definitely also lead to hostile interactive. Using the example given above, my friend could get defensive and confront the mother and the situation will have a downward sprial effect.

Conclusion

When we stereotype, we draw conclusion about entire group of people based on personal assumption without know each of them individually. Whether it is the positive or negative stereotypes it brings no good. By succumbing to stereotypes, we could be missing out on a valuable experiences, relationships and connecting with others on a genuine level.

References

By, S.M. et al. (2023) Stereotypes in psychology: Definition & examples, Simply Psychology. Available at: https://www.simplypsychology.org/katz-braly.html (Accessed: 27 July 2023).

Leonard, K. (2021) Advantages & disadvantages of different types of communication, Bizfluent. Available at: https://bizfluent.com/info-8090058-advantages-disadvantages-different-types-communication.html (Accessed: 27 July 2023).

Storyboard created: https://www.storyboardthat.com/storyboard-creator