We Are All Biased: Why We Stereotype
We Are All Biased: Why We Stereotype
We are hard-wired to be biased...
According to psychologists that is. As per them, even those of us who think that we do not stereotype, do so automatically: based on race, nationality, profession, sex, etc. But before you protest, there's an instinctive reason for this. Our survival made it important that we became social and so humans have for centuries needed to know who to trust. And since it is impossible to categorize every single person we interact with, we make snap judgements. We prefer people like us and that means that there is an unconscious bias that exists all the time, whether we like it or not, and whether we acknowledge it or not. This has been proven by rigorous scientific studies, again …show more content…
Close your eyes and imagine a courtroom, and unless you have visited enough and more real courts, the reel courtroom is what will come to mind. Reality is that we have never seen a judge in any Indian court say ‘order, order’ while banging a gavel. Most of the times though films only emphasise the stereotypes that exist in society. One should however point out that cinema has the ability to influence and pigeon hole, and thus film-makers should be careful about what they portray. Differences can be shown and jarringly, without being condescending or insulting. And comical stereotyping is acceptable provided it is not targeted.
The movie “Anwar” (2007) is about stereotyping, reactions and consequences. It is a story on some Muslims in Lucknow and was inspired by director Manish Jha's experience in New York just two days after the 9/11 attacks. Since he had long hair and was unshaven, cops assumed he might be a terrorist and he was held and interrogated for five …show more content…
This is not true, and is again scientifically validated. Research hints that, with a clear motivation, one can subdue these prejudices. But this will only work for those who accept that we have an implicit bias, and the jury is still out on the long term effectiveness.
What is obvious is that it requires a reasonable amount of critical thinking ability in order for someone to be able to recognize their shortcomings on this aspect. Being aware is not a sufficient condition for being unbiased but it is far less dangerous than a situation where anti-intellectualism is rife. Irrationality, racism, xenophobia, hatred, ignorance and intolerance leads to tribalism, violence, and ultimately destruction. We fear and want to destroy what we do not understand / do not want to understand. And it is this fear that ultimately obliterates us all.
What kind of stereotypes do you still see in Indian films? And what can we do to reduce them / their impact? Leave your thoughts in the comments
We are hard-wired to be biased...
According to psychologists that is. As per them, even those of us who think that we do not stereotype, do so automatically: based on race, nationality, profession, sex, etc. But before you protest, there's an instinctive reason for this. Our survival made it important that we became social and so humans have for centuries needed to know who to trust. And since it is impossible to categorize every single person we interact with, we make snap judgements. We prefer people like us and that means that there is an unconscious bias that exists all the time, whether we like it or not, and whether we acknowledge it or not. This has been proven by rigorous scientific studies, again …show more content…
Close your eyes and imagine a courtroom, and unless you have visited enough and more real courts, the reel courtroom is what will come to mind. Reality is that we have never seen a judge in any Indian court say ‘order, order’ while banging a gavel. Most of the times though films only emphasise the stereotypes that exist in society. One should however point out that cinema has the ability to influence and pigeon hole, and thus film-makers should be careful about what they portray. Differences can be shown and jarringly, without being condescending or insulting. And comical stereotyping is acceptable provided it is not targeted.
The movie “Anwar” (2007) is about stereotyping, reactions and consequences. It is a story on some Muslims in Lucknow and was inspired by director Manish Jha's experience in New York just two days after the 9/11 attacks. Since he had long hair and was unshaven, cops assumed he might be a terrorist and he was held and interrogated for five …show more content…
This is not true, and is again scientifically validated. Research hints that, with a clear motivation, one can subdue these prejudices. But this will only work for those who accept that we have an implicit bias, and the jury is still out on the long term effectiveness.
What is obvious is that it requires a reasonable amount of critical thinking ability in order for someone to be able to recognize their shortcomings on this aspect. Being aware is not a sufficient condition for being unbiased but it is far less dangerous than a situation where anti-intellectualism is rife. Irrationality, racism, xenophobia, hatred, ignorance and intolerance leads to tribalism, violence, and ultimately destruction. We fear and want to destroy what we do not understand / do not want to understand. And it is this fear that ultimately obliterates us all.
What kind of stereotypes do you still see in Indian films? And what can we do to reduce them / their impact? Leave your thoughts in the comments