Bias: Stereotype and People

She believes that stereotyping is driven by “our need for vast amounts of information in nanoseconds” (Ericsson 164). Using characteristics that may be true for some individuals, forms the basis of an opinion of all of a certain group. Stereotypes create divisions among people, by creating assumptions that are often deemed as fact. As Ericsson describes it, “They take a single tree and make it a landscape” (Ericsson 164). Stereotypes are overly broad and marginalize a group based on the characteristics of a few, that are often falsehoods for the

Bias and stereotyping can both be harmful for self-esteem and the developmental process in children. Bias is not only harmful for the target group since it lowers the self-esteem, but the group who feels superiority over the other is also harmed. The feeling of being superior disconnects a person from reality. Too much of self-esteem reduces the appreciation of others and may even slow down progress for the beholder. Stereotyping creates preconceived notions in the minds of children and adults due to which they fail to see others for what they actually are and rather judge them on the basis of information that is misguided and obsolete. Stereotyping results in developing strong perspectives of people who are different and causes prejudice.

According to many, “stereotypes” are outdated. As Americans, “everyone is equal and everything is fair”. However, digging deeper into the construction of society shows that this is a blatant lie: stereotypes are alive and well in modern-day life. Stereotypes appear in every aspect of society-from one’s gender to their sexual orientation to the color of their skin. The list is never-ending.

Doll, S. (2002). Creating your project budget: Where to begin? Retrieved September 08, 2014, from TechRepublic: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/creating-your-project-budget-where

The news is here to inform the public about current events and issues around the world. However, each news station has its own bias towards certain events. Where some news stations are far left and others are far right, the viewers seem to be affected on both sides either way. Nonetheless, the viewers themselves are not completely innocent in this situation. The viewers will watch specific news stations to have their ideas or biases validated. People usually do not like to be challenged, especially after a hards day of work. This group of people consists of adults above the age of thirty. It would be nice to come home and have something to can agree with. The reasoning behind this, people tend to be more fond of news stations that gives them

Newspaper journalist shankar vedantam, in his article, “How a Self-Fulfilling Stereotype Can Drag Down Performance,” argues that stereotypes can affect how people perform on tests. He supports his claim by first explaining that when administered a vocab test black people would do worse than whites when administered a test from a white person and blacks would do just as good when given the test from a black person . He then explains that stereotypes affect peoples performances because they psychologically incap them. Vedantam’s purpose is to inform about how the stereotypes affect people and persuades you to put a stop to it. He adopts a serious and urgent tone

On a daily bases people make excuses for everything. Everything meaning our actions and the things that we say. Common things that we make excuse for deal with sexist, racist, and heterosexist comments. Sexist is classified as saying that one sex is better than the other. An example of this is someone calling a male or female something that they are not. I do not like this because we are all humans and deserve to be respected and not called something that is degrading. We all know that racist is downgrading one race compared to another. An example of this is, saying that all black people are loud and ghetto. We all act the same but some people do certain things different from others. That’s just there way of living. I do not think that just because one person acts one way the whole race does also. Heterosexist is defined as heterosexuality is better than all other expressions. An example of this would be talking about how a guy dresses and calling him gay. I do not agree with this as well because it is good to stand out and be your own person not matter how others see you.

Devine (1989) argues that stereotypes are inevitable on the basis that stereotypes and prejudice coexist and that stereotyping occurs automatically. Devine attempts to prove this hypothesis in three experiments. Devine reasons that “as long as stereotypes exist, prejudice will follow.” This hypothesis is rooted in a correlation. Prejudice and stereotypes are related, however there is no clear evidence of causality; Knowledge of a stereotype does not mean an individual agrees with it.

Stereotyping leads to prejudice. If I am walking in a park and I see a group of people walking towards me (lets say all are white males) and they are dressed up and look very nice. I do not panic, now another group is walking towards me and now this group is all men (African Americans) and they are dressed and conduct themselves just the same as the first group, but I panicked with this group. Why because I stereotyped the second group and if I was prejudice no matter how they dressed or acted I would be afraid of them because they are black. I judge them based on skin color and not on individuality.

The first step to solving the problem is to admit that it exists. Many people hide in the sand by claiming that stereotyping ended with the increased globalization and the increased Awareness of diversity in the country. However, from the behaviors of people in the country, it is evident that stereotyping is alive and well. From this point, it will be possible to acknowledge the reasons around stereotypes and people will be able to observe their behaviors around people (Kay et al.,

What if I were to tell you that you that for the rest of your life, you would be unfairly judged, and possibly even discriminated against, based on false perceptions and ideas gathered from influences that only resemble you in the vaguest of ways, most likely being, skin color? And what if no matter how an individual person chooses to carry oneself, they will still commonly be regarded as a member of said misconceptions? Enter, stereotype: “A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.”(1)

Stereotyping and discrimination are very deeply ingrained in American culture. Even though there have been movements taken to combat stereotyping and discrimination such as the Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Rights movement, and the Black Lives Matter Movement, it still exists. This raises the question of, how do we end it? While there is no definite answer there is a way to avoid stereotyping and discrimination. The three essayists Bharati Mukherjee, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Brent Staples and show that by learning about stereotyping, people can also learn how to change themselves to avoid discrimination based on stereotypes. By comparing and contrasting these essayists experiences as well as outside research to show the theme of why people

The results from STEP are noteworthy not only because they complement the literature of successfully conquering stereotype threat, but also because it goes beyond the act of simply informing individuals on the phenomenon. Interestingly and in contrast of the two-pronged approach, the mere knowledge of the phenomenon of stereotype threat can negatively impact the performance

Zora Neale Hurston’s Moses Man of the Mountain is one of the most successful novels where she expresses various characteristics of an ideal leader through her main character Moses. At the same time, she addresses other leaders such as Aaron and Miriam and explains how they fail to contribute as leaders because of their selfish attitudes. Hurston highlights Moses as an old man with great lawgiver. In her novel, Hurston turns the biblical character Moses into a spiritual African –American leader who can uses magic (hoodoo) and folklore to guide his people.

Over the course of history, a steadfast desire for knowledge has galvanized humanity. Today, countless individuals embrace their ambitions and attend college in hopes of furthering their educations. For this reason, an abundance of attractive options is being offered to vehement learners. In particular, numerous schools across the United States have implemented living-learning communities. Within these programs, enthusiastic students reside alongside others who share similar passions and beliefs. Gradually, the popularity of these groups continues to increase and generate public interest. Joining a living-learning community is certainly a beneficial experience because the approach eases tensions, promotes engagement, and inspires success.