Cross Cultural Understanding

Summary of Group Presentation 1 (Stereotype)

 Indah Juwita 11720400
 Imam Syaifullah 11720400
 Muhammad Fahruddin 1172040064
 Muhammad Farhan W. 11720400
 Nabila Ivani Daulay 11720400

Summary of Recognizing Negative Thinking: A Case of Stereotype

A. In everyday use the concept stereotype is used in various contexts: we may label someone as
stereotypical, meaning that he lacks spontaneity and individuality, or we may comment on
someone’s statement by saying that it was very stereotypical. But usually the word stereotype
is used to refer to members of particular collectives: firemen are courageous, females are less
aggressive than men, Nordic people are tall and blond, Italians are noisy, rich people are
highly civilized, the poor intellectually inferior, etc. When a person makes inferences about a
new person or a social event he is using her existing knowledge to reduce the uncertainty in
the situation. The less he knows about the new people or their culture the more he uses
stereotypical generalizations. These produce expectations about what people in that cultural
group are like and how they will behave. Often one’s perceptions of others are based solely
on generalizations about the characteristics of the group to which they belong.
Stereotypes and prejudice have a pervasive and often pernicious influence on our responses
to others, and also in some cases on our own behaviors. Stereotypes are evaluations of a
person based solely on the perception of the group in which the person can be categorized.
Stereotypes are thought shortcuts done intuitively by humans to simplify complex matters
and assist in quick decision making.
However, stereotypes can be positive and negative prejudice, and are sometimes used as an
excuse to discriminate. Some assume that all forms of stereotypes are negative. The use of
stereotypes is a major way in which we simplify our social world; since they reduce the
amount of processing (i.e. thinking) we have to do when we meet a new person. Thus, from
the stereotype has the advantage also weakness includes several factors such as:
 One advantage of a stereotype is that it enables us to respond rapidly to situations because
we may have had a similar experience before.
 One disadvantage is that it makes us ignore differences between individuals; therefore we
think things about people that might not be true (i.e. make generalizations).
By stereotyping infer that a person has a whole range of characteristics and abilities that we
assume all members of that group have. Stereotypes lead to social categorization, which is
one of the reasons for prejudiced attitudes (i.e. “them” and “us” mentality) which leads to in-
 groups and out-groups. Moreover, stereotypes are thought shortcuts done intuitively by
humans to simplify complex matters and assist in quick decision making.
B. National Stereotypes are generalizations about different countries that are often used as a
form of trolling or flaming. These can be considered as racism and are often spread after a
certain event or time that occurred in a certain nation or region. Nationality stereotype is a
system of culture-specific beliefs connected with the nationality of a person.
This system includes beliefs concerning those properties of human beings that may vary
across nations, such as appearance, language, food, habits, psychological traits, attitudes,
values etc. It is in human nature to use labels or categories to describe other people: these
labels can be based on the way people dress, look, talk, behave, etc. People are inclined to
make assumptions about things in the world they live. But they also tend to label groups of
people they do not know well enough. The individual stereotypes and focus on six things you
need to know about them:
 Stereotype has very little to do with you personally, and there’s nothing you can do to
change it (in society at large).
 Stereotype is not your fault, but you are a product of the forces that caused it, regardless if
you display any of its characteristics.
 There is no rule or law that says you must live up to the characteristics and behaviors of
stereotype.
 It’s entirely possible to take advantage of your stereotype; however, sometimes this may
entail living up to it.
 Not everybody believes in stereotypes until something bad happens/
 In places where many different stereotypes congregate, expect some conflict between
different stereotypes.
C. (IMAM)

D. Stereotyping is an assessment of someone based solely on perceptions of groups in which the

person can be categorized (categorizing characters or situations that are cliche or predictable).
but Stereotypes are rarely accurate, however usually only have a few true bases, or even are
completely fabricated. Studies indicate that these advertisements profoundly influence how
people perceive and relate to one another.
Stereotypes are social to the extent that they are shared by members of a group, but the
concept implies the assumption of some level of consensus: stereotypes are shared
perceptions among group members but it is not clear, however, what minimum degree of
consensus is required to call a stereotype social. Beyond advertising, other media-based
stereotypes wield considerable influence. For instance, research has shown that:
 Men engaged in physically demanding pursuits
 Young boys are identical with playing with action toys such as trucks, robots and super-
hero figures.
 On the other hand in the media, identical women show young girls wearing makeup,
brushing their hair and generally worrying about their overall appearance.
  Other advertisements show mothers serving meals to their families. (The depiction of
women in such roles suggests that they are good at performing household chores and
taking care of their appearances)
Stereotypes are thought shortcuts done intuitively by humans to simplify complex matters
and assist in quick decision making. However, stereotypes can be positive and negative
prejudice. In applying a stereotype, one is able to quickly "know" something about an
individual. A positive stereotype refers to a subjectively favourable belief held about a social
group. People use stereotypes as shortcuts to make sense of their social contexts, positive
sides of stereotypes are:
 People rely on stereotypes everyday to help them function in society.
 To allow people to quickly process new information about an event or person.
 To organize people‘s past experiences.
 To meaningfully assess differences between individuals and groups.
 To make predictions about other people‘s behavior.
As opposed to negative stereotypes, positive stereotypes represent a "positive" evaluation of a
group that typically signals an advantage over another group. As such, positive stereotypes
may be considered a form of compliment or praise. However, positive stereotypes can have a
positive or negative effect on targets of positive stereotypes.
People use stereotypes as shortcuts to make sense of their social contexts, negative sides of
stereotypes are:
 Oversimplified generalization
 Breeding ground for errant generalizations.
 Serve as a major source of disinformation about others.
 May easily conceal or feed into prejudice, racism, sexism, and other forms of bigotry

E. Negative stereotypes can have harmful consequences for the quality of life of older adults and
can also result in a major loss to society. With increases in life expectancy as well as reduced
infirmity, many adults are aging well, but negative stereotypes of aging may put society at
risk for losing the contributions of these vital and knowledgeable people. The potential
individual and social effects underscore the need to understand the content of aging
stereotypes in terms of their accuracy and applications.
It is especially important to understand how negative stereotypes exacerbate poor
performance in areas in which decline is real. That is, beliefs that memory is bad in old age
can reduce motivation when increased motivation is needed instead. A framework for
predicting and interpreting individuals' behavior is imperative to understand how aging
stereotypes drive behavior in both positive and negative ways.
Priming positive images: This intervention is based in the research which shows when one is
primed to think about their race or gender prior to a performance task such as testing,
stereotypical associations with the identified group--both positive and negative--surface and
influence performance outcomes. Thus, researchers have found that if teachers prime students
at risk of stereotype threat with positive images and thoughts such as “You are intelligent,”
students often eliminate associations with negative stereotypes and perform at their potential
(McGlone 2007). Also of benefit is repeatedly presenting students with exemplars of
successful people who share their group identity can validate students’ potential for success.