Discrimination remains a global challenge. Stereotyping can be defined as the oversimplified attitude that individuals hold towards others persons who are outside one’s experience. The act happens due to incomplete information being accepted as a fact without question. The issue persists both within the society and in the country as a general. It occurs when a particular group is viewed to be posses some unfavorable characteristics because of belonging to a particular group. A general example of stereotyping is where the male is considered to be powerful and independent while females are seen as inferior and sentimental. The various groups that exist in stereotyping include sex, gender, race, and religion. The paper discusses the reasons why stereotyping persists within the society.
There are several factors contributing to stereotyping. To start with, stereotyping emanates from selectivity in social perception. People tend to see what they expect to see. They have behavior to distort other people’s characteristics until they fit the stereotype of a particular group. Usually, stereotypes are functional. As an audience, people are often bombarded with a lot of information than they can process. Their nature is to diminish complexity to simplicity. People trade-off for simplification that can contribute to inaccuracy and they are often ignorant of the deduction. Besides, prejudice is a significant factor in stereotyping. People’s insights are highly subjective, and as a result, they subscribe to the offensive labeling of ethnic groups (Jackson 7). Regrettably, the people’s perception results in people viewing others as unequal and inferior. These disparities exist in employment, politics, and healthcare, which in turn hinder the growth of a nation. Discrimination can be either direct or indirect. Direct discrimination occurs deliberately to a particular group such as poor treatment based on race and culture. Indirect discrimination may occur unintentionally where a group may be affected because of lack of understanding and blind actions. Stereotyping is not only a problem to the directly affected but also to all individuals.
Stereotypes often have a pervasive influence on the way people respond to others and how people behave. Research shows that people’s stereotypes contribute to stereotype threat and poor performance, which results from the knowledge of cultural stereotypes. According to Mannix, Elizabeth, and Margaret (2005) when women are constantly reminded of the stereotype that they are inferior and sentimental, they tend to perform poorly than when they are not reminded of the stereotypes. It is also clear that stereotype threat in other multiple domains also persists in the society.
In one particular finding of the impacts of stereotype on behavior, Correll, Park, Judd, " Wittenbrink, had white persons engage in an experiment where they were to view photographs of Black and White individuals on a screen. In the research, the photographs portrayed these individuals holding either a harmful thing such as a gun or a harmful thing such as a phone. Ones the participants were asked to press a button to “shoot” when a person in the photos held a gun and to “no shoot” when a person did not hold a weapon, they tended to shoot more on the blacks even when they did hold any weapon. This showed a lot of white stereotyping where they have a perception that the black individuals are violent.
The issue of people stereotypically discriminates against others is a major societal problem as it is pervasive. It also takes numerous forms, which usually have negative effects on many individuals. Even persons who are paid to be unbiased may show prejudice. Prejudice occurs even in games such as basket ball and football where white players receive fewer fouls when referees are whites while also black players receive fewer fouls when the referees in the game are black. You may be in a condition where you are forced to respond to another individual on the base of a stereotype. In normal cases, an individual must like and dislike others since it is natural. However, people have exaggerated this by letting a person’s race, color, gender, and religion be the key determinations for them.
Several dynamics contribute to stereotyping. One the key cause of discrimination is the existence social inequality. Social groups like African Americans and other ethnic minorities still face disparities in employment, politics, and healthcare. They face linear social inequality where they are deliberately left out or mistreated within the society. They suffer deprivation of human rights such as health, education, food and physical integrity rights. Moreover, they are easy targets for discrimination, and they lack the chance to prove their potential and worthiness in the community. They have been robbed of their chance to contribute positively towards the growth of the nation because of their social nature.
The complexity lives of the people lives is also another contributor to discrimination. Minority groups face racial discrimination, gender biases, and social class oppression and as a result, leading difficult lives. The social problems contribute to their inability to access competent care, excellent education and many other services since they feel isolated and unworthy in the society. Most of these individuals live in miserable surroundings with poorly paying jobs. Issues of cultural sensitivity in schools, hospitals, and workplaces have become rampant where these people since they are the least considered. The issue of legislative changes that are unfavorable to some group has also contributed to discrimination. For example in the UK, there have been implementations of health professional ethics, which limit the delivery of care to black immigrants (Fiske " Tiane 20). Such laws restrict the provision of care to migrants and in turn, influence the ability of individual races to attain medical care. Moreover, some laws limit the participation of the African Americans in some activities such as in politics and as a result, portraying discrimination.
People suffering from deprivation of human rights are the most affected by stereotyping. In most cases, the ethnic minorities face numerous problems since they have been denied their rights. Some of the denied rights include health, education, food and physical integrity rights. The socially discriminated individuals lack the opportunity to show their potential and make their contribution to the community. Discrimination robs people’s potential to contribute positively towards the growth of the nation.
The vulnerability is also a significant factor that makes people to discriminate against others stereotypically. The vulnerability is the ability to be susceptible to adverse events. Vulnerable individuals are people who have a high risk of being negatively affected by stereotyping. They are faced with multiple cumulative risks such as poverty, lack of education and poor health. Vulnerable population includes immigrants, the unfortunate in the society, the mentally ill and substance abusers. In most cases, the exposed group tends to suffer health disparities as compared to the general population. The difference is depicted by their inability to afford health services. Power, control and social capital are the major contributors to health disparities among different groups.
Power, control and social capital have a great deal to do with discrimination. Power is the ability to behave in a certain way. Power may also be described as the capacity to influence others. On the hand, control is the capacity to dominate over others. Vulnerability mostly occurs when people feel that they have no power or control (Shapiro " Steven 125). Powerless individuals include black and ethnic minorities, young children and low income generating people. In cases of black and ethnic minorities, they are profoundly affected by discrimination and prejudice. These people are mostly immigrants, and as a result, they have no one to care for their needs. They face isolation from the public since they are powerless. Moreover, the government has set unsuitable laws that limit the provision of health care to such individuals. Because of their lack of power and limited control they are discriminated by others who fill are superior to they are.
The conflict perspective explains why people stereotypically discriminate against others. It assumes that people and groups who struggle or compete with each other over rewards and resources end up with particular distributions of power and wealth, which in turn contribute to discrimination. The conflict perceptive focuses on the negative and changing nature of the society on the issue of prejudice. Conflict theorists dispute the status of the society and encourage social changes and believe in the characteristics of different groups and individuals. The diverse and unequal groups within the community often possess conflicting values, and agendas cause the behaviors of stereotyping and prejudice. The influence of conflict perspective brings about the several aspects of the social world. They key aspect under conflict perspective is religion, which is a tool that offers happiness, and takes away suffering from the people. Religion is also a reflection of present social inequalities in society. When men dominate in the society, women’s roles in religion were menial. Now that women s roles have changed, they have more power in religion and as a result, contributing to the escalating discrimination.
Fighting against stereotyping is discrimination is essential. Multiculturalism can be a valuable tool to bridge the gaps that exist in the society. It advocates for unity where people can celebrate individualism and plurality. Currently, trends have emerged within the society where members engage in acts of multiculturalism while being able to understand and appreciate the diversity among groups. Multiculturalism gives room for diversity that allows the harmonious existence of people with different education levels, different genders, ethnicity, diverse races, religions, and socio-economic backgrounds. Through diversity, people can now travel anywhere they want and engage different actions freely. As time passes by, more and more immigrants relocate to the new world with an aim to seek for freedom and ideals that they supposedly stand for; and yet, are so frequently ignored. But this is changing as people learn to appreciate and value every person’s characteristics.
In conclusion, to eliminate the issue of social inequality, the government should implement strong consensus and policies. The right policies and legal frames can be of great use in curbing the problem of social inequality. Successful reforms will need a broad-based social policy that will not show preference to particular groups. The social policies should go along with concerted action that will address the adverse effects and create a worldwide demand for equality. Besides, attitudinal change is necessary to eliminate the vice.
Works Cited
Correll, Joshua, et al. "The influence of stereotypes on decisions to shoot." European Journal of Social Psychology37.6 (2007): 1102-1117.
Fiske, Susan and Tiane Lee. "Stereotypes and prejudice create workplace discrimination." Diversity at work (2008): 13-52.
Jackson, Lynne. The psychology of prejudice: From attitudes to social action. American Psychological Association, 2011.
Mannix, Elizabeth, and Margaret A. Neale. "What differences make a difference? The promise and reality of diverse teams in organizations." Psychological science in the public interest6.2 (2005): 31-55.
Shapiro, Jenessa and Steven Neuberg. "From stereotype threat to stereotype threats: Implications of a multi-threat framework for causes, moderators, mediators, consequences, and interventions." Personality and Social Psychology Review 11.2 (2007): 107-130.
