Can Stereotyping Be Helpful?

Never before has human society exhibited so much diversity as in the 21^st century where we encounter people of different cultures, race and ethnicity, nationality, religion, language, and origins in our everyday tasks, ranging from social interaction and communication to work and play. This opportunity has afforded us a richness that has yielded both positive and negative experiences. Indubitably, it is out of this profusion of diversity or differences that both our conflicts and misunderstandings emerge, and as social beings, in our quest to more fully appreciate and make sense of this, we imitate others, make assumptions, and draw conclusions even from brief and immature encounters thereby giving birth to stereotypes to fill the gaps in our knowledge of each other or each new situation.

Our society is preoccupied with stereotypes and stereotyping when it comes to social interaction and the way we perceive others. This should lead us to some important considerations: In what ways can stereotyping be a helpful process? Can a stereotype be useful, even if it is not entirely accurate? Are we better off by getting rid of our stereotypes or by making them more accurate?

Stereotypes are universal; meaning, they exist in every community, society, and culture. This means that they are socially significant and reflect something about human traits and character. According to Ivancevih, Konopaske, and Matteson (2011), stereotyping refers to a translation step in the perceptual process that people use to classify or categorize people, events, and situations.

Stereotypes are often seen as negative in today’s world. However, they are helpful in guiding us and shaping our attitudes and behaviors toward other peoples, races, and cultures. They provide us with conscious awareness of differences and the need to understand that different norms and values exist regardless of our assumption of the common. In this way, we eventually learn to be anticipative in social interaction and communication and consciously seek to verify our beliefs regarding others.

Stereotyping can be helpful to individuals approaching new cultures because it provides them with a refrained and restrained state of mind that potentially cautions and saves them from making social and cultural blunders. Moreover, stereotypes help us as individuals to organize our social experiences as it helps us to more meaningfully categorize and classify people, events, and situations in ways in which we can best remember them, identify with them and relate to them (Ivancevih, Konopaske, & Matteson, 2011). Thus, while stereotypes are not entirely accurate, they are useful in guiding our social experiences as we enter complex and diverse environments of languages, places, races, and people. While not entirely accurate, stereotypes are not entirely inaccurate either, and even the slight accuracy in some of the stereotypes we hold cautions us in how we regard others and relate to them.

Stereotypes are stereotypes and if they were to become accurate, or more accurate, then they are no longer stereotypes as we use the term negatively. In fact, what many people hold as stereotypes sometimes prove to be social experiences despite them being generalized across entire groups or populations. Stereotypes in many cases are insufficient ideas and beliefs about people and events. However, we would not be better off by getting rid of our stereotypes or by making them more accurate because they are stereotypes by virtue of the fact that they represent something credible and real about us as human beings – we have incomplete knowledge and understanding of people, events, and situations, and must depend on generalizations and assumptions to fill the gap while we seek learning experiences and opportunities to further our knowledge and understanding of things, people, situations and events.

The major negative aspect of stereotypes is when they are persistent despite newly discovered facts, truth, information and knowledge.

When stereotypes persist even after learning has taken place then we enter the territory of prejudice, bias, and discrimination.

What do you think? Is it wrong or unethical to view stereotypes and stereotyping in a positive way?

Reference

Ivancevich, J., Konopaske, R., & Matteson, M. (2011). Organizational Behavior and Management (9^th Ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Donovan A. McFarlane, M.I.B., M.B.A., Ed.D., is an educator in the fields of Business and Political Science. He can be reached at drd.a.mcfarlane@gmail.com