Nonverbal communication and culture. Identity, stereotypes and prejudices, страница 21

The so-called ethnic jokes (about Poles in the USA,  about Belgians in France about Chukchi men in Russia, and so on) are an example and a result of stereotyping.

Below is a U.S. student’s description of her parents’ stereotype:

My parents always explained to me that the Native Americans were the ones who committed the crimes in the city and for me to stay away from them. When I entered junior high school, I started meeting these so-called "bad" Native Americans. At first, I had a preconceived notion that they were all had people. But as time went by, I started realizing that they were not bad people. You just had to get to know them first before you could actually judge them. I explained this to my parents and they understood this concept but said that every Native American that they had ever met before had done something wrong to make my parents not like them. Eventually, I started bringing home some of my Native American friends and proved to my parents that all Native Americans are not bad people and that they do not commit crimes.

(Source: Martin, J. & Nakayama, Th. Intercultural Communication in Contexts. – Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company, 2000, p. 128.)

Stereotypes become dangerous when they are negative and held rigidly. Research shows that, once adopted, stereotypes are stubborn. In fact people remember information that supports a negative stereotype, but may not keep information that contradicts it (Hamilton et al.)

Because stereotypes often operate at an unconscious level and are so persistent, people have to work consciously to reject them. Then they must seek individual information that can counteract it.

Problems in Stereotyping. As indicated above, in most instances, stereotypes are the products of limited, lazy, and misguided perceptions. Their harmful effect on intercultural communication is clearly described by Adler:

Stereotypes become counterproductive when we place people in the wrong groups, when we incorrectly describe the group norm, when we inappropriately evaluate the group or category, when we confuse the stereotype with the description of a particular individual, and when we fail to modify the stereotype based on our actual observations and experience (Adler, 1990:74).

Let us look at a few additional reasons why stereotypes, as a form of negative classification, hamper intercultural communication.

First, it is not the act of classifying that creates intercultural problems, rather, it is assuming that all culture-specific information applies to all individuals from the cultural group (Lynch & Hanson, 1992:44). That is to say, stereotypes assume that all members of a group have exactly the same traits. They are rigid preconceptions which are applied to all members of a group or to an individual over a period of time, regardless of individual variations. This is the main reason to remind you that culture is one of the characteristics that determines attitudes, values, beliefs, and ways of behaving.

Second, stereotypes also keep us from being successful as communicators because they are oversimplified, overgeneralized, and/or exaggerated. They are based on half-truths, distortions, and often untrue premises. Therefore, they create inaccurate pictures of the people with whom we are interacting.

Third, stereotypes tend to impede intercultural communication in that they repeat and reinforce beliefs until they often become taken for "truth." For years, women were stereotyped as a rather one-dimensional group. The stereotype of women as "homemakers" often keeps women from advancing in the workplace.

Finally, stereotypes can serve as a "self-fulfilling prophecies." Once the stereotype is in place there is a tendency to perceive the stereotyped person engaging in behavior that corroborates our stereotype—even when the behavior is not present. That is to say, negative stereotypes confirm your expectations whether they are valid or not.