On the 270th day, 1774 words, totaling 303,808 words, J.J. sent IP camp to punch in.

Why are you born with "colored glasses"?

First, the essence of stereotype: people's fixed views on a certain kind of things ignore individual differences.

In Christian culture, there is a word called "original sin". That is, whether we like it or not, we are born with sin, so human beings should live humbly and obediently. Stereotype is also compared by the author as one of the original sins of human beings. Everyone inevitably discriminates against others, and there is also the risk of being discriminated against.

Columnist Brent Staples, an African-American, is also a columnist of Time magazine in new york. Judging from his professional status, he should be a highly educated and very decent person.

But the reality is that skin color has brought him countless troubles. When studying psychology at the University of Chicago, whenever Staples walked down the street in casual clothes, couples would hold their arms or hands tightly in fear when they saw him. Those who spoke in Kan Kan suddenly became "speechless" and looked at the front with a pair of eyes, as if his existence was an offence.

It can be seen that what pervaded the streets of the community at that time was the stereotype of black people: rudeness, low quality, violent tendency and so on. In this environment, as long as the action is slightly wrong, it will be labeled accordingly and treated differently.

In order to save himself, Staples whistled and played the Beatles' pop songs and classical music on the piano. Then he found that the people who were originally restrained on the road relaxed a lot, and some even showed a rare smile. This is indeed a good method, because both pop music and classical music belong to classic white culture, even "upper-class white culture", so people regard him as an educated and elegant person, not a violent person.

But we thought about it: will this kind of action really cause essential changes? Will people understand black people better because of this? Unlikely. To be precise, this is to replace the old stereotype with a new stereotype. In fact, this just reveals the essence of stereotype. Stereotype is people's fixed view of a certain kind of things, and this view is extended to think that the whole thing has this characteristic, thus ignoring individual differences.

So is our life. Men always feel that women are emotionally fragile, physically weak and have disadvantages in the workplace. Women also think that men are too rough and not fine enough to be competent for many positions. But this is not absolute. It can be seen that there are also many women with strong personalities and meticulous men in the workplace, and these prejudices all stem from gender stereotypes.

So where did these stereotypes come from?

Second, the true face of stereotype: people's psychological role has both positive and negative aspects.

In fact, stereotype is determined by people's cognitive model. The human brain receives countless external information every day. In order to simplify the complex world and make decisions more efficiently, the brain will classify the people and things it comes into contact with, which is simply to "label" according to its identity. Complex groups in the real world may be replaced by several "keywords" in the brain. For example, in the group of "boss", the key words are dignified, stingy and not offensive; For the group of "experts", the key words are authority, rigidity and credibility.

Sometimes, these labels and classifications represent an order that can save people's cognitive resources. For example, men and women go to different bathrooms, and children of low school age and high school age are divided into classes. This is a reasonable and necessary institutional arrangement to avoid troubles in study and life.

Sometimes, identity tags can bring prejudice and discrimination. For example, the famous "Michigan Sports Tendency Test" in the United States. Psychologists invited some white college students with normal athletic ability to complete 10 swings in a mini golf course. These college students were divided into two groups. One group was told that the test was to study their "sports talent". Another group of college students were not told the purpose. The results show that college students who were told the purpose of the test performed worse. Psychologists speculate that this is because Americans generally believe that "white people lack sports talent." When psychologists emphasize "sports talent", the tested college students suddenly lose confidence and their sports performance is affected.

In order to test this conjecture, the psychologist did another experiment this time. The content was unchanged, but the invited object was changed to black students, and one of them was told that the goal of this experiment was to test "sports IQ". As a result, black students who were told the test objectives performed worse. The reason for this is not difficult to guess, because Americans generally believe that "black people have low IQ."

This also fully shows that stereotypes will not only cause people's attitudes and prejudices, but also subtly affect people's thinking and actions. Many times, without being discriminated against, some people themselves become insecure and sensitive, which affects their work and life. From this perspective, it is really necessary for us to distinguish stereotypes and minimize their negative effects.

Finally, let's briefly review. Stereotypes can be seen everywhere, which is a simple summary of a certain group and ignores individual differences. Stereotype originates from the cognitive model of human brain, which can save people's cognitive resources, and also cause discrimination and prejudice, affecting people's thinking and behavior. Therefore, we should distinguish the stereotypes in life and reduce their negative effects.