Group of races or individuals together making a judgment about some people without knowing them is a stereotype. Stereotypes can have some serious consequences, and it has been an immerse challenge for many years in our society that people face in their daily life, such as Asians being cheap, all Arabs and Muslims being terrorists, and women are not good in mathematics.
Mostly, stereotyping start to build in peoples brain in from young age. Children learn stereotypes from their parents, from television, and from what they observe. Robert L. Heilbroner says in his article called Dont Let the Stereotype Wrap Your Judgment, we begin to typecast people in our childhood years. Stereotype impact can be reduced from our society by giving education, interaction, or role model. First of all, educating people in a young age about different cultures is one of the most effective ways to reduce the stereotype threat.
Through these educations, one could draw the attention of students toward imparting good knowledge with a comparative study. It can also provide extra knowledge with the help of textbooks or lectures that include different backgrounds. People will learn about every culture and have differences and similarities in way of living. Education on multicultural will make people ready to adopt the differences, and become familiar with the differences through classes that make them able to reduce stereotypes. The second important way to counter the stereotype is interaction. Through interaction people will be able to understand each other’s culture by living together for a period of time.
When a person of a different background comes to live with a different group of people, they start to interact together, and naturally, their properties begins to exchange as a phenomenon of mutual benefit. It will diminish the stereotype threat, and both could understand each other in a nice way. So, no propaganda or any rumor could take place anyway. As such, it becomes a best way to reduce the stereotype challenge. Thirdly, role model plays a big role to reduce stereotype thinking.
Role model could be anyone, such as, any celebrity, sports person, class teacher, or even a classmate. In everyday life role models are very clear to give a clear picture to the people for imitation. In every walk of life the role model could play a vital role if it is placed before people in a right way. For example, theres a belief that girls are not good in mathematics as boys. When I was in high school, one of my seniors scored 100/100 in her math final, and she competed top boys of her class. After that she became an inspiration to many girls in my class who used to think only boys can do well in math.
They started practicing math every day and become stronger day by day. They left no stone to measure to make their math strong and falsify the stereotype thinking. Everyone has their role mode that they want to follow in any aspect of life, likewise, in the field of social reformation, there are a good number of role models. In conclusion, people as individual or a group can reduce stereotype impact by these three affective ways that are needed in our society, such as education, interaction, and role model.
