Stereotypes

Why in informal carrom, a white piece is worth 20 but a black is worth 10?

Why do our dining tables expect everybody to use the same hand to eat?

Why the glass of water is always kept on the left (to favor right-handed people)?

Why a boy is always asked about girls in his life and girls about boys?

Ever wondered why white starts in chess?

Yet we humans call ourselves progressive😂! Ironic isn't it?

So what are stereotypes? and where did they come from?

Simply put, stereotypes are generalized statements to describe a particular group based on actions that might seem "common". More formally put, in psychology, stereotypes are over-generalized beliefs about a particular type of people.

Every day we are making choices and preferences. While most of these choices have some logic behind them, there is also an element of "previous knowledge" or "predefined perspectives". Have you realized, that when you bond with a set of people, you tend to share your perspectives, and also evolve into a new and more common perspective? This can be about a variety of commonplace things. However, as a group, you tend to make images of other groups, or people outside your group. This is where your predefined perspectives begin to shape.

So, is this necessarily bad? Not always, every human thinks, and thus every human has a perspective. That is not where we went wrong. However, when start generalizing based on limited experience we bring in conflict.

For example, let's say there is a group of boys in a school. One of their friends who was a close friend of a girl comes and says some good and bad things about her. These opinions then start getting discussed. As time progresses, more and more people from the group begin identifying behavior patterns. This is the basis of stereotypes. So, is formulating an opinion bad? No, but using that opinion as a comment is bad.

Is this "opinion" that I just spoke about, always negative? No, it isn't, but transforming it into a social norm makes it so. For example, "most boys in our school play football" is an opinion of a person. "All boys play football" or "Most boys play football" are stereotypes. This is because you are generalizing the sport choices of boys. Now, where does a statement like this cause problem? Let's say somebody doesn't like football but likes badminton instead. That person is going to get marginalized for "breaking the norm".

Thus, opinions about behavior patterns of a type of people are not bad. Generalizing these opinions is bad.

Come to think about it, stereotypes are everywhere. Subconsciously or consciously, humans use stereotypes everywhere. This is because of the simple reason that all humans tend to form opinions. The football example is a metaphor for stereotypes that don't seem so harmful, but at the end of the day still are stereotypes.

Another debate that stereotypes bring about is, what if they are actually true? Yes, stereotypes are based on real-life incidents. However, even generalizing the truth has a bad effect. Mainly, it restricts improvement in a particular person.

For example, my friends and I go cycling every weekend. One of our friends is always late🙄. So now, we've come to believe that"he's going to be late", in the form of a joke of course. While that statement has been true for months now, it still restricts growth. Since the friend is now going to think that "these guys will always think I'm late". A statement like that results in no change and that doesn't help anybody. So even a true stereotype is bad.

So what should we do about it?

Fighting stereotypes or rather discouraging them is a simple but brave action. It has 2 parts, the first and most important is looking in the mirror. Everybody for better or for worse has used stereotypes at some point in their life. Thus, the first action is to fix ourselves. Think twice before you say a statement. Consider if you really know the person enough to comment.

The second part is that we need to be aware. Aware of people around us (either consciously or subconsciously) creating stereotypes. We need to remember to speak against these stereotypes, even though it might bring us a lot of comments.

So, instead of asking your friend about their girlfriend or boyfriend, ask them rather about "the special person".

Play carrom, with the pieces worth equal points (as it is played professionally).

But most importantly, think twice before you say anything, especially the statement "Humans are progressive".