Heibroner's Essay

1. Causes of Stereotypes

1.1. They start to form in early childhood with something as simple as watchin a TV Western, we then learn to spot the "good guys" from the "bad guys." It then continues on into our lives as an adult with friendly jokes involving the "illegal Hispanics" or "terrorist Muslims." Not to mention the influence of movies, TV shows, advertisements, and books. All written and created by people like us who have had certain stereotypes instilled in them since childhood.

2. Heibroner's Stereotype Theory

2.1. Stereotypes are one way in which we :define" the world in order to see it. They classify the inifinite variety of human beings into a convenient handful of "types" towards whom we act in stereotyped fashion. Life would be a wearing process if we had to start from scratch with each and every human contact.

3. Effects of Stereotypes

3.1. Stereotypes make us mentally lazy. "Begin with an individual, and before you know it you have created a type; begin with a type, and you find you have created--nothing." -F.Scott Fitzgerald. Most of the time, when we typecast the world we are only reveling the embarrassing facts about the pictures that hang in the gallery of stereotypes in out own head.

4. Power of Stereotypes

4.1. Columbia & Barnard students were shown 30 photographs of pretty but unidentified girls, and asked to rate each in terms of general liking, intelligence, beauty, and so on. Two months later the same group were shown the same photographs, this time with fictitious Irish, Italian, Jewish, & "American" names attached. Faces which were now seen as representing a nationality went down in looks and still farther in likablility while the "American" girls suddenly look ed prettier and nicer.

5. What I Learned

5.1. For the most part everything that he stated in his essay was a fact that not many people realize. All of it in fact makes sense though if you sit back and think about it. He actually made me realize I had some slight stereotypes engraved in my mind without realizing. I've always thought I was excluded from that awful group that I hate that states "all of them are alike..." etc...but it all goes back to the "good guy" and "bad guy" theory that we learn in childhood. Pretty sad actually.