Understanding Preconceived Notions & Stereotypes

When you hear the word "flour," you might instantly think of baking, bread, or pizza crust. But flour can also be found in unexpected places like pasta sauce, hot dogs, salad dressing, soup, taco sauce, and even dog food. Similarly, when we make assumptions about people based on limited information, it's like guessing all the ingredients in a dish just by looking at it. People are made up of many "ingredients" beyond what we see on the surface, and we can only understand them by taking the time to learn more about them.

What Are Stereotypes?

Preconceived notions, also known as preconceptions, are ideas, beliefs, or opinions we form about something or someone without enough information or experience. These notions are shaped by limited knowledge, past experiences, cultural influences, or personal biases. They can be positive or negative and strongly influence how we see and interact with the world.

Here’s what you need to know:

• How Preconceived Notions Develop - These ideas often stem from personal experiences, social conditioning, media influence, and cultural norms. They can also be shaped by family, education, religion, and societal expectations.
• Stereotypes Defined - Stereotypes are generalized beliefs about a group of people based on traits like race, gender, age, or nationality. They can lead to unfair judgments and even discrimination.
• The Role of Cognitive Biases - Our minds naturally process information in ways that can distort our perceptions. For example: Cognitive biases affect how we interpret and judge situations, often leading to misunderstandings. Confirmation bias occurs when we focus only on information that supports our existing beliefs, ignoring anything that challenges them.

Why It Matters

Preconceived notions and stereotypes shape our relationships and broader social interactions. They can lead to prejudice, discrimination, and social inequalities. Overcoming these biases is essential to building fair, inclusive, and understanding communities.

How to Challenge Preconceived Notions and Stereotypes

• Practice open-mindedness and empathy.
• Use critical thinking to question your assumptions.
• Seek out diverse perspectives and experiences to expand your understanding.
• Be mindful of how biases influence your thoughts and actions.

By actively challenging these ideas, we can promote fairness, deepen our understanding of others, and create more harmonious relationships and societies.

How to Unlearn Bias?

Bias describes both positive and negative mindsets towards individuals and groups. Many references to bias refer to the persistent, harmful and unequal treatment of someone based solely on some characteristic they possess or their apparent membership in or identification with a particular group.

Recent research in brain science has given some insight into unconscious bias; our memory holds many things, including unconscious biases without our awareness that the biases even exists or that they influences our behaviors. The most effective strategies for “unlearning” bias are based on self-awareness and self-management.

For example:

• be aware of common stereotypes and seek opportunities to recognize, experience and value diversity and the many examples of group members that disconfirm the stereotype;
• intentionally think specific counter stereotypical thoughts whenever you encounter a member of the group associated with the stereotype;
• increase diverse group and social contexts, including opportunities for familiarity and friendships which increase our ability to see people in a more individual manner; and,
• participate in training which stresses appreciation rather than elimination of group differences.

An alief is an automatic or habitual belief that may be in conflict with an individual’s stated, explicit or espoused beliefs. For example, a person who believes in racial equality may nonetheless have aliefs that cause them to treat people of different racial groups in subtly different ways.

Another example of unconscious bias is aversive racism which is characterized by subtle behaviors used to rationalize aversion to particular groups. As opposed to traditional, overt racism which is characterized by overt expressions of dislike for and discrimination against racial/ethnic minorities, aversive racism is characterized by more complex, ambivalent expressions and attitudes, such as “I am colorblind; I don’t pay attention to color.”

People who behave in an aversively racial way will often deny their racially motivated behavior; nevertheless they change their behavior when dealing with a member of another group in subtle and indirect ways. People whose behavior is characterized by aversive racism often sympathize with victims of past injustice, support the principle of racial equality, and regard themselves as non-prejudiced, but at the same time they harbor negative feelings, beliefs or uneasiness about other groups. These hidden attitudes are often transmitted to the people in the groups that are impacted through micro messages in body language, tone of voice and expression.

Discussion Questions

1. How do assumptions about who other people are hinder our abilities to work well together?
2. What are stereotypes that others have had of you? How have those affected you?
3. How can finding out what a person is like inside help us to develop a better and relationship with each other?
4. What might keep us from getting to know each other better? How can we overcome those limitations?

Reference: The Harvard implicit-association test (IAT) is a free online resource that is designed to detect the strength of a person's automatic association with certain groups based on characteristics such as race, religion, weight, skin tone, gender, etc. The Stereotype IATs measure associations between concepts that often reflect the strength to which a person holds a particular societal stereotype.