Why Stereotypes Are Bad

Labels exist everywhere in society and people tend to judge others according to their beliefs, social standing, appearance and actions. When a person places a label or has a fixed thought about another person, it means that they are stereotyping them. A stereotype is a label placed upon an individual according to his society’s beliefs and norms. This occurs as people don’t take the time to know and actually understand the person; they just put him into classifications along with others sharing a similar characteristic. Thus, stereotypes mask the true character of an individual; yet reveal a false, standardized image of who he/she is.
Stereotypes trigger social categorization - classifying people into groups based on similar characteristics - which is one of the reasons for prejudice attitudes since it leads to the formation of in-groups and out-groups (i.e. the “them” and “us” mentality). According to the article
Through the article, “Why Stereotypes are bad even when they’re ‘good’”, Oliver Burkeman sheds light on the fact that good stereotypes, meaning stereotypes regarding appealing traits, can also be harmful. He illustrated this through a study by the Duke University, which stated that good stereotypes might even be worse, due to the fact that people don’t actually realize the harm they cause while stereotyping. The study compromises two of the most long-standing stereotypes about black people: that they’re more prone to violence and better at sports. When white people were asked to estimate the probability that an African-American might commit a crime, people exposed to the positive stereotype (better at sports) rated the probability higher than those exposed to the negative one (more prone to violence) did, drawing attention to the conclusion that the so-called good stereotypes led stronger negative beliefs about black people than the bad ones