Title: What are the consequences of stereotypes? - Getting Race Right
Headings: What are the consequences of stereotypes?
What are the consequences of stereotypes?
It’s so easy to see in an experiment
And so difficult to see in real life
Stereotypes influence how we think about other people
Stereotypes influence how we behave toward other people
Stereotypes perpetuate inequality and place a significant burden on those affected
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Content: We wait, we interact, and we draw judgments on the basis of what we learn about that person. However—and here’s the kicker—we don’t require much evidence before we come to a stereotypical conclusion, and we require quite a bit of evidence before coming to a non-stereotypical conclusion. In one study ( Biernat and Ma, 2005 ), Black people who believed that White people tend to be “phony” or “sheltered” didn’t describe specific White people in that way in the complete absence of corroborating data. However, it didn’t take much—just a comment or two—for them to decide that a specific White person did, in fact, fit their stereotype. Similarly, Whites in this study did not always decide that a Black person was “athletic” or “streetwise,” but it didn’t take much evidence for them to come to that conclusion, either. Furthermore, lots of contradictory information was necessary before the participants came to a counter-stereotypic conclusion about someone. A White person had to be really genuine in order to be seen as not phony by Black people, and a Black person had to be really naïve in order to be seen as not streetwise by White people. Think of this as the difference between the English and the French systems of justice—are you innocent until proven guilty or guilty until proven innocent? When it comes to deciding that someone fits our stereotypes, we go with the French—it doesn’t take as much evidence to decide that they are “guilty.” But when it comes to deciding that someone doesn’t fit our stereotypes, we go with the English—we need enough evidence to get beyond a reasonable doubt.