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Stereotypes probably do reinforce themselves somewhat. But this doesn't change my opinion that they are almost always true. Or at least, they are always groun
by rkts 19y ago
Stereotypes probably do reinforce themselves somewhat. But this doesn't change my opinion that they are almost always true. Or at least, they are always grounded in fact. They may be exaggerated, outdated or oversimplified, but even so I think they are usually correct.
- hugh 19y agoIf by "stereotypes are usually correct" you mean that if there is a stereotype that says "people of group G have property P" then people in group G are statistically more likely than average to have property P than the general population, then you may very well be right that stereotypes are correct more often than they're incorrect, but it kinda misses the point of why stereotyping is a bad idea.
- rkts 19y agoWhat point am I missing? That we should ignore reality to avoid hurting people? I object to the article's claim that > the roots of many handicaps actually lie in the stereotypes.... women’s performance on spatial and mathematical tasks is created by ... the stereotype of their spatial and mathematical inferiority Stereotypes may contribute slightly to group differences, but they are not the primary cause of them.
- joshvf 19y agoThe point is that stereotypes are almost always spurious on account of being greatly oversimplified. There's a big difference between applying proper statistics to a situation and applying a stereotype.
- yters 19y agoI voted you up not because I necessarily agree with you, but because you make a good point. We do ignore the basis of stereotypes when we shouldn't. We need to realize there is such a thing as natural and good elitism. This is an important "thing that is not said." That being said, while stereotypes do have some kind of basis in reality (something has to perpetuate them) the problem comes when we say certain people are inherently inferior and do not have a free, moral accountable will.
- a-priori 19y agoThe problem is that people are notoriously bad at inductive reasoning. They routinely ignore cases that contradict their hypothesis. If they see a woman who's bad at math, they think "aha! the stereotype is right!". If they see a woman who's good at math, they think, "oh well, there's bound to be exceptions" and promptly forget about her. They only remember the ones that fit the stereotype, so the stereotype is reinforced. You need to repeatedly hammer irrefutable evidence into people's heads before they'll start to forget stereotypes.
- lutorm 19y ago"Stereotypes may contribute slightly to group differences, but they are not the primary cause of them." No, they are probably not the primary cause. The proximate cause is probably bigotry, imho, with societal structure as the ultimate cause. It's definitely not genetic or something innate to the afflicted persons. In any case, an individual belonging to a group with a negative stereotype attached should not be punished merely for being a member of the group. In this case, yes, truth really can hurt you, and I don't think that's fair.
- deleted 19y ago[deleted]