This document discusses stereotypes and how Americans perceive different ethnic groups. It notes common stereotypes about Irish, Japanese, Asians, Jewish, Mexicans, British, and Middle Easterners. It then examines why people stereotype, defining stereotypes as commonly held beliefs about social groups. It discusses the fundamental attribution error and how stereotypes are reinforced. It outlines five dimensions of stereotypes: direction (positive or negative), intensity, specificity, consensus, and accuracy. The document concludes that everyone stereotypes as a way to make sense of the world, but we need to remain open to individual differences and refine stereotypes to be more accurate.

1. Stereotypes
The American Way

2. How do Americans perceive
other Ethnic Groups?
● Irish are drunks and
have red hair.
● Japanese tourist wear
white tennis shoes
and carry cameras.
● Asians are terrible
drivers.

3. How do Americans perceive
other Ethnic Groups?
● Jewish are misers
and greedy.
● Mexicans are lazy
and illegal
● British are dull and
boring.

4. How do Americans perceive
other Ethnic Groups?
● Middle Easterners
are muslims and
violent.

5. Why do we stereotype?
● We must first
understand the
definition of stereotype.
● Wikipedia states: It is a
commonly held belief
about specific social
groups or types of
individuals.

6. ● But if it's a common belief, why is it primarily
a bad thing?

7. How are Americans Perceived?
● Let's turn the tables for a moment and think
about how Americans are perceived?
● Americans are rich, have no family values nor
morals. Americans are hypocritical and all
their women are promiscuous.

8. Perception of Americans
●
Is that an accurateIs that an accurate
depiction, or yet anotherdepiction, or yet another
stereotypical analysis ofstereotypical analysis of
a culture?a culture?
●
Are you offended?Are you offended?
●
How do you think otherHow do you think other
ethnic groups feel whenethnic groups feel when
we stereotype them?we stereotype them?

9. ● We as humans have a need to
categorize things. It helps us to
understand our world.
● To help us understand people,
whether from our own society
or different ethnic or cultural
groups, we focus on similarities
whether it's real or imagined.
This provides an explanation
whether accurate or inaccurate
for behavior.

10. Fundamental Attribution Error
Fundamental Attribution
Error is a form of reasoning
that is common around the
world
● Can possibly occur when either
we or someone else has done
something that needs to be
explained.
● Particularly strong when an
action is seen as negative or
strange.
● We expect and look for
certain things when
something is reinforced in
our minds causing us to
stereotype.
● Stereotypes are not learned
just from personal
experience but also from
family, friends, mass media
and co-workers.

11. Points of Variance
● When speaking of
stereotypes there are
five major
dimensions:
● Direction
● Intensity
● Specificity
● Consensus
● Accuracy

12. Direction
● Pretty
● Hardworking
● Intelligent
● Stupid
● Lazy
● Slow
● Whether the
stereotype is
Positive or Negative

13. Intensity
● The intensity of a stereotype is
based on how strong the belief
and the strength of various
experiences.
One person wrote:
● 99.9% of Americans assume every
Arkansan looks like this
● I don't know how many times I've been
asked by people online if I wear shoes, or
wanted to marry my cousin, and I wasn't
even born in this state. The stereotype
gets so old.

14. Specificity
● Relates to the nature of the
stereotype, whether vague or
specific.
● An example might be a very
loud group.
● Or policeman who visit donut
shops.

15. Consensus
● Within a community,
consensus is how
well a stereotype is
known or accepted.

16. Accuracy
● How accurate the stereotype is when describing the other group.
● There are always exceptions to the rules and can be open to
inaccuracies and misunderstandings.
● From a statistical standpoint, sociotype, which is a specific type of
stereotyping is quite accurate.

17. Stereotyping-The American Way
● Everyone stereotypes, it's the way we make sense of our world.
We tend to group things together and categorize them, and those
turn into stereotypes.
● What we need to remember then is that we need to remain open,
manage stereotypes in productive ways by:
● Making them more accurate
● Keeping them open to refinement
● Allowing for individual differences.
● Stereotyping is our way of understanding and making sense of
differences that are perceived in others.