Stereotyping Research Paper

Stereotyping often incurs a pejorative connotation; it becomes a word of abuse (Dyer, 1999). It has been considered as the term summing up category making, ethnocentrism, and prejudice (Ramirez-Berg, 2002) and has always been linked to discrimination (Hinton, 2000). The products of this act, called stereotypes, are commonly known as the negative generalizations subjected by the in-group to the out-group (Ramirez-Berg, 2002). <Define in-groups and out-groups.> This results from the in-group’s tendency to characterize and differentiate themselves from the out-group according to their own bias (Jost & Banaji, 1994). Due to miscommunication and uncontrolled emotion and tension, stereotyping becomes highly “prevalent and problematic” (Burgess, 2003). …show more content…
From here, one person or a group of people tries to process information about the stereotype target to create a sometimes overly simplified and easily learnable system of classifications (Jacobs, 2014). Stereotypes are beliefs that are essentially false, but because stereotyping is an ordinary human process, it should not be considered as “mental failings to be corrected” (Hinton, 2000). Stereotyping is a process that is natural and does not have any intention to harm (Jacobs, 2014). It just becomes bad because we limit people up to the point of disrespect to their abilities, adding a negative dimension to what is supposed to be simply human nature and a natural mental strategy (Fernandez, 2015).
Stereotyping has the ability to invoke categorization (Hinton, 2000). It has this significant role of making the boundaries of every categories clearer, sharper, and more stable given that these categories can be invisible or unrecognizable. “The role of stereotypes is to make visible the invisible, so that there is no danger of it creeping up on us unawares; and to make fast, firm and separate what is in reality fluid and much closer to the norm than the dominant value system cares to admit” (Dyer,

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