Billy bob
PSYCH&100
5/7/2022
The Impact Of Implicit Bias
Reflection Question Answers
1. Social categorization is the process of categorizing people based on the social
information available to you via the media (books, movies, songs, etc). When you are a
part of a certain group, you are unaware of the views and opinions that other people
have of the group that you are in. You also more than likely don't know how another
group lives and operates, other than your own. For example, in the Ted talk, the speaker
is an african woman that goes by the name Chimamanda Adichie. She comes from
eastern Nigeria where she was born and raised. When she moved to the United States
to University, her roommate assumed that Chimamanda did not know how to use a
stove, even though her family owned a perfectly fine functioning stove back in eastern
Nigeria. Her roommate made an assumption based off of the information she gathered
from people she knows, and the media. She thought that because she came from
Nigeria, that she was extremely poor, and didn't know what a stove was. Her roommate
even went as far as to ask what her “tribal music” sounded like. This is a form of
stereotyping. Stereotyping began from social categorization, and it plagues our society
to this day. Social categorization also has branched other bad practices like prejudice,
and discrimination. Although Social categorization has brought many evil things to
society, it is natural for humans to practice social categorization because it makes it easy
for us to understand the very complex world we live in, by putting things in categories.
2. Many people have made incorrect assumptions about me in the past, and their
assumptions were based upon my race. Because I am part hispanic, many people
assume that I have a lot of cousins, and that I have a large family in general, when that
is simply not the case. My family is very small and I don't have very many cousins. But I
too have made that same sort of assumption with other people. A while back before
actually meeting and talking to people that were from Africa, I too believed that people
from there were very poor, and did not have modern technology, all because of how the
media portrayed people from Africa. Stereotypes heavily impact a non-educated
person's perception on another individual. If a person does not have any prior knowledge
on someone's religion, place of origin, or ethnicity, they will more than likely assume
stereotypes. If all they see and hear about something are common stereotypes, they are
going to believe the stereotypes and take them in as a fact the more they see it. For
example, if all someone see’s about Africa is how poor and unfortunate the people are,
they are going to assume that everyone that lives in Africa is poor and unfortunate.
3. As a group, our ideas/stories about peoples' cultures mainly come from the media we
consume like Television, movies, books, music, video games, and the internet.
Individually, We also get them from other people through word of mouth, but mainly
through the media I mentioned earlier. Our childhood also heavily influences our beliefs
about others and the world around us. If you grew up with people that have racist beliefs,
and they were forced upon you, you will more than likely have some sort of racist beliefs,
not because you are genuinely racist, but because that's what you grew up around and
became accustomed to. As children, our minds are very moldable and gullible, so their
morals and beliefs can be easily changed and manipulated. This can be taken
advantage of by parents that have beliefs that aren't really agreed upon by the public.
The parents could also punish their children if they disagree with them. The child would
agree only because they want to avoid punishment from their parents. This stage is
known as the preconventional level in Kholbergs stages of moral development. The
media is a heavy influencer as well when it comes to our ideas/perceptions of certain
people and cultures. Mainstream media like Television, movies, and music often use
common stereotypes to portray their characters or ideas, which influences many people
that consume that media to think the same (especially young people). Personally, I
believe that the majority of people that actually believe in stereotypes get there beliefs
from the mainstream media.
4.
Our personal biases can impact media articles and news programs in many ways. The
people that direct these media outlets could have some sort of agenda behind the media
they produce. Someone could very well create articles and news casts to push either a
political agenda, or personal agenda/belief they have. But this process could also be
unintentional. Our past experiences shape who we are today, and our beliefs start to
take shape and harden as we grow older and understand the large, intricate, and
complex world that surrounds us constantly. The older you get, the harder it is to change
the way you think, and what you believe in. The experiences we have in our lives shape
the bias we have with certain things, and if you are not educated enough, you may
believe in some things that are outright false. This ties in with the Ted talk featuring
Chimamanda Adichie, When she mentions her view on the new house boy, and the
assumptions her College roommate had of her. The media that is created is heavily
biased towards the creators beliefs. There past experiences and beliefs have shaped
there work. There is no such thing as being unbiased.
5. Adichie’s statement is very wise and well thought out. Some stereotypes come from
some sort of truth. This can be said for many things. But that isn't the only thing about
them. That stereotype has much more meaning and background too it. Yes, the majority
of Africans living in africa are in poverty and are starving. But why? Why are they
starving? What is story behind it and how did this stereotype come about? Answering the
questions I just mentioned could very well end the stereotype entirely. People like to
believe that everything has a simple single answer, and they dont look at the bigger
picture. Everything is very complicated and deep. No one likes to figure out why
stereotypes come to be, and how they can be potentially solved. If everyone took the
time to figure out why many african’s are struggling to survive in their own country, we
could potentially use that information to solve the issue. Social Psychology has helped
me to identify some issues people have with social categorization, and stereotyping. It
helped me better understand her presentation because I fully understood why people
assumed that she was poor, and unfortunate. It’s because humans like to put people in
categories so that we can process things much easier. We like to put labels on things to
organize them. When humans are basically impossible to label and categorize because
of how special and unique we all are. Our past experiences make up who we are, and
thats what makes us so special and unique.