Stereotyping Research Paper

“She’s a dumb blonde, he’s a meathead jock, African Americans can’t swim, she wears a hijab so she’s a terrorist.” All of these are everyday stereotypes that people think when they look at someone. As we grow into the social ranks of our time, we are all subject to be stereotyped. Stereotyping is a way for people to classify new people by basing it off how they look, groups they are part of, and religions they believe in. When someone meets somebody for the first time, they automatically judge them based on their looks. It’s a sad, but true, thing about our society. If you meet a blonde, you think she’s scatterbrained, or dumb. If a male wears skinny jeans, he’s presumed to be gay. A female with really short hair is lesbian. A Chinese person is supposed to be smart and in all AP classes with A’s. Stereotypes are seen as a neccessary mechanism for making sense of information (Amodio). We are less confused upon meeting new people if we can put them into a category. In addition to looks, people are stereotyped by the groups or clubs they are a part of. It’s speculated that cheerleaders are superficial and trollops. Football players are supposedly all brawn, no brain. Theater people, along with the band and mostly choir, are nerds with no friends or outlandish.
We all use stereotypes, even when we don’t notice it. It’s called ‘unconscious bias’. The use of of stereotypes leads to social categorization. It’s been proven that after people are judged, they become more aggressive. Tests can be and have been done over the subconsciousness of stereotyping. The test is done on a computer and it gives a positive or negative adjective paired with a “white” or “black” sounding name. The person completing the test hits a key if the word sounds positive. Studies show that anyone who has taken the test has subconsciously paired “white” names with positive adjectives and “black” names with