Thursday, February 5, 2009
Allison's DQ week 5
It's states in the book "Public Opinion" that the notion of stereotypes usually evokes a negative image in peoples minds. Is this always the case? In Walter Lippmann's classic discussion of stereotypes he argued that, in some sense, stereotyping is a necessary condition for functioning in this world. You can find his notes on page 173-174 of the text. Do you agree with this agruement? Give examples that support your agruement and explain why you agree or disagree.
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I agree with Lippman's view of stereotypes as a necessary tool used for understanding people in a broad sense. It is impossible to really understand someone completely so stereotypes are used to form an understanding of the other person.
ReplyDeleteAlthough stereotypes can often evoke negative thoughts, there are also positive feelings that can be associated with people. For example, grandmas are usually stereotyped as "nurturing", graduates of Harvard are "smart", and animal activists are "compassionate."
Regardless whether you think stereotypes are good or bad, they are inevitable. Everyone has opinions and experiences that shape their views of individuals. I feel it is important to embrace stereotypes but move to understand where they are coming from and the characteristics in people that lead to the formation of your view of them.
I agree that when stereotyping groups we are not members of, the image does tend to be negative. There are also positive stereotyping images, such as the example that the Chinese are all intelligent. Not very many would take intelligence as having a negative connotation.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with Lippmann’s argument that stereotyping is a necessary condition for functioning in this world. On page 177 of “Public Opinion” the authors write “stereotypes are necessary if we are going to generalize about others. Without stereotypes, we cannot even begin to discuss culture, which is a reflection of all the characteristics a group of people has in common.”
Stereotyping makes it easier for researchers to pick their target audience and allows us to gather general information about a culture. Without doing this we may never be able to understand another culture.
I believe that stereotypes are generally negative, but not always. I’m sure the majority of us has had a “blonde” moment and understands this stereotype, blondes are ditzy. Or we have referred to a guy as a ‘typical guy’ if he forgets to call. These are negative stereotypes but are generally understood by our society. Some positive stereotypes are ‘all blacks are great basketball players,’ ‘all Asians are smart,’ or ‘the French are romantic.’
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lipmann’s view on stereotypes and they are fundamental to the way we understand society. They are so commonly used that we often do not realize we are even stereotyping. Stereotypes can be positive in the way they allow individuals in society to conform and identify with a certain group. The downside of this is the negative aspects these groups can be associated with through stereotyping.
Stereotypes allow us to see similarities and differences among people and are used to categorize individuals into a common understanding among society. I believe stereotypes are part of understanding each other and will always be used in our society.
The idea of stereotyping has affected me a lot through the years, which is why I do not think it can ever be good. We are constantly told as children to “not stereotype” or “see through the stereotypes placed on people.” Even though our text states that there are positive purposes to stereotyping, I would have to strongly disagree that the positives do not outweigh the negatives.
ReplyDeleteFor example, post-9/11 people of Middle Eastern decent were judged, humiliated, interrogated, etc. They were taken from flights, given extra security precautions at airports, and were the butt of many racist jokes. The stereotype that somehow all Middle Easterners are a threat to the United States is ludicrous.
Racial stereotypes are also incredibly negative and hurtful. Before coming to school at NDSU I could honestly not recall a time I was insulted and stereotyped, and I’m from Duluth, which is neither small nor large. I have experienced so much racism and stereotyping in Fargo that now it is not surprising to hear it.
I believe that instead of relying on typical stereotypes about others, people should take the time to get to know about other cultures, people, experiences, etc. I believe that becoming a better person involves opening oneself up to new ideas and situations. I do not feel this can be done if people are constantly stereotyping and judging others. As stated by other posts, there are plenty of blacks that aren’t great athletes, Asians that aren’t smart, etc. If we constantly stereotype, we are making judgments about others that could possible hurt feelings or create rifts.
I agree with Lippmann’s ideas about stereotyping. Stereotyping may not always be appositive thing, however, sometimes stereotyping can benefit us. By observing that all people in Thailand bow to show a respect when they meet something new, we are stereotyping. When we travel across cultures, this stereotyping is important. If we didn’t assume all people in Thailand bow, then if we choose to travel there we would like very disrespectful to their culture.
ReplyDeleteLippmann says that if we do not stereotype, than the only alternative is to treat people as unique, as if no two people have to same interests or dislikes. He further states that if this were the case, we would not be able to develop cultures and groups because this is a reflection of common characteristics. Therefore, I agree with Lippmann that we have to form stereotypes in order to make sense of the world around us.
Another example is if you were to travel to an unsafe neighborhood. How do you know it is unsafe and to be cautious if you didn’t stereotype that the neighborhood was filled with crime? Even though not all stereotypes may be positive, I believe we need to develop stereotypes to try to understand other people.
I agree with Walter Lippmann's argument. Stereotyping is something that we all take part in and it has definitely become a part of our functioning world and will always remain that way. I do, however, lean more towards the notion that stereotypes do bring a sort of negative aspect with them.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the above example that if you are traveling to an unsafe neighborhood and you might be more cautious if you're stereotyping your surroundings. However, I believe that if this is how our thinking process is always working with everything, we all could be missing out on things. An example of this is when I began hiring this year for employees. It is very difficult to not stereotype, however it was so important for me to overlook my first reaction stereotypes because usually the outcome is more positive than negative.
With that said, however, I know that this "positive" outlook to overlooking stereotypes may not always occur, therefore that brings me back to my first point that I agree with Walter Lippman's argument that stereotyping is not only a necessary condition, but also a permanent part of society.
I agree with Walter Lippmann's argument. Even thought most stereotypes have negative connotations, there are also some positive ones such as "all Blacks are great athletes" and "all Asians are intelligent." I think that stereotypes are unavoidable in this world today.
ReplyDeleteI believe stereotyping is one of the only ways that people can try and understand all of the different types of people in our world. Even though stereotypes are often negative, I think they can be positive too--Such as Sarah's description of "positive outlook to overlooking stereotypes."
I think stereotypes are a necessary condition in our world, but especially in our country. America has become such a "melting pot" of different cultures that it is inevitable for stereotyping to occur. Even though stereotypes are not always positive, I believe they will always play a large role in our society.
I would have to agree with Lippmann's argument that stereotypes are necessary. Our brains can only process so much information at one time. We fill in what we don't know based on past experiences. At times, our stereotypes are utilized to make quick decisions about people, which in some cases is a necessity.
ReplyDeleteFor example, if you see a man dressed in dark clothes and carrying a gun, you might stereotype him as "unsafe," and get away quickly. In such an instance, your stereotype of him could have saved your life. Though you stereotyped this person negatively, the outcome was positive.
In other instances, I would agree that stereotypes are problematic and unfair; however, I feel they are unavoidable. Without stereotypes, our brains would be so focused on attempting to process every message that is coming in, we would be useless for anything else. By allowing our brains to put people in groups, we also reduce our uncertainty of them. As C.R. Berger and Calabrese stated in their Uncertainty Reduction Theory, uncertainty is uncomfortable for us. Stereotypes allow us to feel more comfortable, because we feel we know more about people who we don't really know.
I believe that the author is completely wrong. Stereotyping is a crutch for people that do not wish or want to investigate into the issue or victim of the stereotype.
ReplyDeleteIn order to avoid stereotypes, a person must have a high level of cognitive complexity. In other words, people must will themselves into analyzing the issue or victim of the stereotype.
If people would take the time analyze the stereotype, the amount of stereotypes would decrease by a great number.
Rebecca Owen listed off numerous examples of stereotypes. Stereotypes are usually not a representative of the majority of the population. Instead they are a representative of a small group of people's personal opinion.
Stereotypes will never be removed from society. The only way to decrease stereotypes is to promote education and intercultural communication.
I agree with Lippmann's stance because I think that stereotypes help us make sense of our complex world. Stereotypes provide a generalization for certain groups of people. The word "stereotype" is typically associated with negative connotations. However, I can think of many cases where they can simplify a confusing topic or situation. We have to stereotype in order to function. There is no possible way our minds could remember every single characteristic for every individual person. Stereptyping is like a mental short cut. I'm not saying I agree that stereotyping is always good. For example, I'm one of the few Mexicans here on campus. Therefore, someone could look at me and assume a number of things based on their previous experiences with other Hispanics or even the way they are portrayed in the media.
ReplyDeleteStereotypes can be helpful in many ways, but they can also be very hurtful to the individual being stereotyped.
I do believe that people have a tendency to believe stereotypes as being a negative thing, but that might not always be the case. For example, when I went to Texas I imaged that all the girls there were going to be stick thin, large chested, big hair and have cute little accent. In other words a desirable women you would see in the movies. This was my stereotype of what all southern Texan women looked like. I don't consider that bad. A bad stereotype would be, well the man there is black so he must be in a gang.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I agree with Lippmann when he said that stereotyping is necessary condition for functioning in the world. I believe that you can't help but to create some stereotypes, but can control them to an extent. The only way I can see it helping our world function is if you meet someone you have a stereotype of and they don't match your thoughts you can be a few things. Either you are going to be pleasantly surprised, semi disappointed or you're right on and that could be good or bad.
I just watched the movie Crash for my Race in US History class and the whole movie was about stereotypes. It showed the hatred, the realization, and the effects of stereotypes. When Lippmann says the world function, he means the world just doing around in its circle and as it goes we can see that sometimes people surprise us and it gives us hope or people can let you down and it can bring you disappointment. That is what stereotypes are.