Social cognition in stereotyping
By Indranil Enkhtuvshin
In this short academic essay, I would look deeper into the reasons that cause the stereotyping on a cognitive level of the human mind and its relation to social cognition. Though there are many ways to explain the causes of stereotyping, understanding the human mind and cognition would help us to gain more full and broader insights on stereotyping. Social cognition refers to the unique processes that enable human beings in a social setting to perceive social information and act appropriately. Our social cognition plays a big role in acquiring stereotypical tendencies and beliefs. Therefore, I will try to explain more how we gain our stereotypical beliefs and understandings through our social cognition.
In the following parts, I would talk about: 1) Stereotyping and its meanings, 2) Social cognition and its meanings, 3) Relationship between social cognition and cultural stereotyping, and 4) My interview results on stereotyping.
1) Stereotyping and its meanings
Growing up watching American movies I used to assume that everyone in the United States was rich and had an awesome life. The stereotypical assumptions that I held towards Americans were highly positive. As I grew older and started to see the world from a broader perspective, I began to understand that the United States is not as perfect as I used to think it was. I used to be influenced by stereotypical beliefs more when I was younger until I came to understand more about stereotypes. The term ‘stereotype’ was first used in 1922 in the modern psychological sense by Walter Lippman. According to social psychology, a stereotype is an over-generalized expectation and belief about a certain group of people. For instance, the expectation can be about the personality, interests, appearance, or ability of the other group.
There are two types of stereotypes which are 1) Explicit stereotypes and 2) Implicit stereotypes. Explicit stereotypes are the stereotypical beliefs that we know we have. For example, during World War II, the Germans had an explicit stereotypical view of Jews. They were fully convinced that Jewish people were bad people and a threat to Germans. Oppositely, implicit stereotypes are the stereotypical thoughts and perceptions that are embedded in the individual’s subconsciousness. One does not have control over these stereotypical beliefs because they are not even aware that those beliefs are stereotypical. For instance, even though we claim that both men and women are good at math, we tend to unconsciously associate math with men.
2) Social cognition and its meanings
Although there is no universal definition, social cognitions are the thoughts about other members of the society and awareness of one’s relations to others. Social cognitions help us to make sense of ourselves, others, and events in everyday life. More specifically, social cognition refers to how individuals deal with conspecifics (members of the same species) or even different species (such as animals and pets).
3) Relationship between social cognition and cultural stereotyping
All cultures have social norms that structure and organize social interactions and if one deviates from those norms, he/she would have a hard time fitting into society. Social cognition helps us to understand and perceive social norms, thus allowing us to successfully fit into society. Wanting to fit in is a basic human instinct of need for acceptance. In a simple sense, fitting in enables us to find a better job, earn better money, have good friends, and survive. It is an instinctual key feature of the human mind since evolution. Humans try to fit in by assessing situations and groups of people, then we try to mold our behaviors to be favorable to others which is the act of conformity. Through conformity, we act according to the matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of the group norms. From a young age, we learn about our country’s social norms and by the time we become adults we have learned everything about the social norms of our own culture. When it comes to interacting with people from different countries, we do not really have enough knowledge of the other person’s social values and norms and vice versa. When we move to different countries, we experience culture shocks and sometimes have difficulty interacting with foreigners. Because we have so little information and knowledge of the people of different countries, we are most prone to believing or relying upon stereotypical opinions. Stereotyping puts people into certain categories which means in a way it helps us to simplify and systematize information about people’ (Tajfel, Henri (1981). “Social stereotypes and social groups”. In Turner, John C.; Giles, Howard (eds.). Intergroup behavior. Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 144–167. ISBN 978–0–631–11711–7.). Stereotyping allows us to understand the categorized information more easily. To put it simply, in order to make sense of their social environments, people use stereotypes as shortcuts, and this makes a person’s task of understanding their environment less cognitively challenging.
To put it shortly, social cognition helps us to recognize and acknowledge the social norms, our relations to people, and the social world. Most importantly, the social cognition of the human mind helps an individual to fit with his/her own group’s people. Stereotypes make it easier for social cognition to know how to approach certain groups of people by simplifying and categorizing people.
4) My interview results on stereotyping
In order to gain more insight into how different people from different cultural backgrounds perceive the concept of stereotype, I did an interview with eight people from six different ethnic backgrounds. My interviewees were from Turkey, the USA, Malaysia, Japan, Pakistan, and Mongolia. They were a group of young people aged 18–23. All of my interviewees study at Nagoya University’s International Program. Nagoya University’s International Program is a diverse program that has more than 17+ nationalities’ student body. First, I asked their opinion on ‘Cultural stereotyping’ in order to gain perspective on their level of understanding of stereotyping. All of them had a correct understanding of stereotypes as generalized sets of beliefs we have towards the other nationalities. The majority of the interviewees agreed not to apply the stereotypical features on individuals because they can differ from their country’s stereotypes. Because they believed that everyone is different and therefore, they should not be treated based on their ethnicity. Most of them agreed that people should not be used to legitimize any discriminatory behavior in the name of stereotyping. One of my interviewees brought up the difference between stereotypes of Eastern and Western people. Eastern people are regarded as more collectivistic and group-oriented; however, Westerners tend to be stereotyped as more individualistic and cold-hearted.
The next important interview question that I asked my interviewees was “What do you think causes one to start stereotyping one another?”. One of my Palestinian interviewees answered that most people don’t know much about the world, so they tend to generalize knowledge about certain groups of people based on what they hear about them. For example, Japanese people don’t know much about India/Pakistan, but curry is something they associate with that region. So, they assume everyone eats curry there. Two of my interviewees answered that stereotypes make the world easier to understand. One of them said that brains are not good at handling complexities, so stereotypes help people to cut short certain thinking processes and make life easier. Another one answered that it gets easier for her to behave around foreigners if she knows the stereotypes of those people.
When I asked them “Can cultural stereotyping be good on some occasions?”, my interviewees were divided into two groups. Half of them regarded stereotypes cannot be good on any occasion and the other half regarded stereotypes can be good on some occasions. The interviewee who thinks that stereotyping can be good on some occasions answered that “When we go abroad and communicate with foreigners, understanding cultural stereotyping is good for communications. If we understand cultural stereotyping in other countries, we can adapt to the countries’ cultures easily”. Another one of my interviewees believed that “Certain ‘positive’ stereotypes might give someone an advantage. For instance, white men are often associated with being open, friendly, and successful. So, in Japan, he could have a major advantage due to the positive stereotypes that the Japanese have of Caucasian males. It would be easier for him to find a job, make new acquaintances and find a certain identity basis for himself”. However, on the other hand, one of my interviewees answered that negative stereotypes can be troublesome and that they can create undesirable outcomes for people.
In conclusion, we stereotype people because of our natural instinct of social cognition. Through our social cognition, we learn how to interact with people and follow social norms. Stereotyping aids social cognition in two ways: 1) It makes it easier for social cognition to know how to approach different groups of people, and 2) it makes a person’s task of understanding their environment less cognitively challenging. Though there are no single reasons and causes for why people stereotype we use stereotypes to interact with foreigners or adapt to a foreign culture is one of the main reasons that lead to stereotyping.
References:
1. (Tajfel, Henri (1981). “Social stereotypes and social groups”. In Turner, John C.; Giles, Howard (eds.). Intergroup behavior. Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 144–167. ISBN 978–0–631–11711–7.)
