We tend to form stereotypes targeting certain social groups. For example, some people perceive Black as impoverished, aggressive, or uneducated, whereas Asian as hardworking, career-oriented, or intelligent. Surely, stereotypes reflect part of the truth in actual reality. However, their main problem is that they “generalize” individual members and “prescribe” their expected behaviors solely based on the members’ social groups. Where are these stereotypes from? There may be many different sources in our socialization process (e.g., books, schools, family, peers), but I would like to focus on a
Opinion | Jinhee Kim Professor, HSS | 2013-03-06 19:26