Because stereotypes are often not based on direct experience or factual materials, but are formed by temporary prejudice or hearsay. Therefore, most stereotypes are wrong and even harmful. Some scholars have summarized the characteristics of stereotypes as follows:
1 is an oversimplified classification of social groups;
2. Stereotypes are quite consistent in the same social culture or group;
3. Some of them are inconsistent with the facts, and some are even wrong.
Stereotypes are mainly formed because in social life, no one has the time and energy to get to know each member of each group in depth, but can only associate with some of them. Therefore, only part can infer the whole, and the part in contact with it can infer the whole of this group. However, once the stereotype is formed, it is difficult to break, and it will have a great impact on people's cognitive process. Anyone who has seen elephant training knows that the elephant trainer only needs to tie the elephant to a bamboo pole with a rope. Many people find it difficult to understand how a small bamboo pole can tie an elephant with such great strength. It turned out that elephants were tied to it when they were very young. Although the elephant struggled desperately, it could not escape and finally gave up its efforts. For another example, market consulting companies generally prefer women to men when recruiting home visiting employees. Why? This is because in people's minds, women are generally kind, friendly, less aggressive and more weak, so they will not pose too much threat to their hosts when they visit; However, if you change to a strong man and ask for a home visit, the possibility of being rejected is much greater, because they can easily remind people of a series of things related to violence and attacks, and enhance people's vigilance. Although we all know it, the fact is not so absolute. This also shows how much stereotype affects interpersonal communication.
In view of the stereotype effect, Soviet psychologists did an experiment: the researcher showed the same photo to two groups of college students who participated in the experiment, but before showing the photo, he said to the first group of students: this person is a heinous criminal; To the second group of students, he said: This man is a knowledgeable scientist. Then he asked two groups of students to describe the people in the photo in words. The first group of students described it as: hatred, despair ... The second group described it as: profound and powerful ... For the same person, because the previous tips were different, they used such different words when describing it, which shows that the stereotype effect is really powerful.