essay against stereotypes

The terrifying power of stereotypes – and how to deal with them

Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Anglia Ruskin University

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Magdalena Zawisza receives funding from British Academy, Innovate UK and Polish National Science Centre.

Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK.

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From “girls suck at maths” and “men are so insensitive” to “he is getting a bit senile with age” or “black people struggle at university”, there’s no shortage of common cultural stereotypes about social groups. Chances are you have heard most of these examples at some point. In fact, stereotypes are a bit like air: invisible but always present.

We all have multiple identities and some of them are likely to be stigmatised. While it may seem like we should just stop paying attention to stereotypes, it often isn’t that easy. False beliefs about our abilities easily turn into a voice of self doubt in our heads that can be hard to ignore. And in the last couple of decades, scientists have started to discover that this can have damaging effects on our actual performance.

This mechanism is due to what psychologists call “ stereotype threat ” – referring to a fear of doing something that would confirm negative perceptions of a stigmatised group that we are members of. The phenomenon was first uncovered by American social psychologists in the 1990s.

In a seminal paper, they experimentally demonstrated how racial stereotypes can affect intellectual ability. In their study, black participants performed worse than white participants on verbal ability tests when they were told that the test was “diagnostic” – a “genuine test of your verbal abilities and limitations”. However, when this description was excluded, no such effect was seen. Clearly these individuals had negative thoughts about their verbal ability that affected their performance.

Black participants also underperformed when racial stereotypes were activated much more subtly. Just asking participants to identify their race on a preceding demographic questionnaire was enough. What’s more, under the threatening conditions (diagnostic test), black participants reported higher levels of self doubt than white participants.

Nobody’s safe

Stereotype threat effects are very robust and affect all stigmatised groups. A recent analysis of several previous studies on the topic revealed that stereotype threat related to the intellectual domain exists across various experimental manipulations, test types and ethnic groups – ranging from black and Latino Americans to Turkish Germans. A wealth of research also links stereotype threat with women’s underperformance in maths and leadership aspirations .

Men are vulnerable, too. A study showed that men performed worse when decoding non-verbal cues if the test was described as designed to measure “social sensitivity” – a stereotypically feminine skill. However, when the task was introduced as an “information processing test”, they did much better. In a similar vein, when children from poorer families are reminded of their lower socioeconomic status, they underperform on tests described as diagnostic of intellectual abilities – but not otherwise. Stereotype threat has also been shown to affect educational underachievement in immigrants and memory performance of the elderly .

It is important to remember that the triggering cues can be very subtle. One study demonstrated that when women viewed only two advertisements based on gender stereotypes among six commercials, they tended to avoid leadership roles in a subsequent task. This was the case even though the commercials had nothing to do with leadership.

Mental mechanisms

Stereotype threat leads to a vicious circle . Stigmatised individuals experience anxiety which depletes their cognitive resources and leads to underperformance, confirmation of the negative stereotype and reinforcement of the fear.

Researchers have identified a number of interrelated mechanisms responsible for this effect, with the key being deficits in working memory capacity – the ability to concentrate on the task at hand and ignore distraction. Working memory under stereotype threat conditions is affected by physiological stress, performance monitoring and suppression processes (of anxiety and the stereotype).

Neuroscientists have even measured these effects in the brain. When we are affected by stereotype threat, brain regions responsible for emotional self-regulation and social feedback are activated while activity in the regions responsible for task performance are inhibited.

In our recent study, published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience , we demonstrated this effect for ageism. We used electroencephalography (EEG), a device which places electrodes on the scalp to track and record brainwave patterns, to show that older adults, having read a report about memory declining with age, experienced neural activation corresponding to having negative thoughts about oneself. They also underperformed in a subsequent, timed categorisation task.

Coping strategies

There is hope, however. Emerging studies on how to reduce stereotype threat identify a range of methods – the most obvious being changing the stereotype. Ultimately, this is the way to eliminate the problem once and for all.

But changing stereotypes sadly often takes time. While we are working on it, there are techniques to help us cope. For example, visible, accessible and relevant role models are important. One study reported a positive “Obama effect” on African Americans. Whenever Obama drew press attention for positive, stereotype-defying reasons, stereotype threat effects were markedly reduced in black Americans’ exam performance.

Another method is to buffer the threat through shifting self perceptions to positive group identity or self affirmation. For example, Asian women underperformed on maths tests when reminded of their gender identity but not when reminded of their Asian identity . This is because Asian individuals are stereotypically seen as good at maths. In the same way, many of us belong to a few different groups – it is sometimes worth shifting the focus towards the one which gives us strength.

Gaining confidence by practising the otherwise threatening task is also beneficial, as seen with female chess players . One way to do this could be by reframing the task as a challenge .

Finally, merely being aware of the damaging effects that stereotypes can have can help us reinterpret the anxiety and makes us more likely to perform better. We may not be able to avoid stereotypes completely and immediately, but we can try to clear the air of them.

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How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do: An Introduction to Stereotype Threat

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"Stereotypes are one way by which history affects present life," social psychologist Claude Steele says in this video about the history of stereotypes and how negative stereotypes impact us today.

[JONATHON LYKES] I remember when I felt like I had no voice. Before I faced history, before college was a choice. It was my freshman year of high school when I took my first Facing History course. They taught me about identity, community and choosing to participate. Now I'm involved in my community because I chose to participate. Because I used to feel like my words were like the crooked figures hidden under the barcodes that are pasted on the beaten backs of books that I was never supposed to read.

My words, numbered. Because I used to wonder, how do they see me, how do I see them. For I noticed that there's this thing called perception that gives people the opportunity for exception or on the flip side, to be in the circle of rejection, or different type of sections in groups of cliques making fun of that person and talking bad about this person. So I ask you, what is your outlook on things? All these different stereotypes and all types of legal rights being violated because you look this way and you act that way and you're telling me it's OK to give a blind eye to the less fortunate simply because they're beneath you. Test.

[CLAUDE STEELE] You know, I often say that people experience stereotype threat several times a day. And the reason is that we have a lot of identities. Our gender, our race, our age. And about each one of those identities that I mentioned, there are negative stereotypes. And when people are in a situation for which a negative stereotype about one of their identities is relevant to the situation, relevant to what they're doing, they know they could be possibly judged or treated in terms of that stereotype. They don't know whether they are or not, but they know they could be.

And if the situation is important, that prospect starts to threaten them and upset them and distract them and can affect performance right there in the situation. And so you could find yourself kind of adjusting and deflecting, doing things that would deflect being seen by the stereotype. And it can affect their willingness or their interest in staying in that area of life where that kind of stereotype is relevant.

[JONATHON LYKES] Test. You, in a dark suburban alley alone see a Black man, looks like he's far away from home. Fear runs down your spine and your thoughts roam as you say in your mind, this little Black boy is up to no good and should be picked up by the police. But would you believe that that boy was me and what they didn't see was I was coming home from youth group. So tell me why the mode of pre-determined thought towards me. I'm not in that percentile. We're trying to be all that we can be. And they still stone me with their misconceptions about Black men.

They tend to understand and assume I'm into to misconjugated verbs, oversized pants, and hip hop.

[SONJA SOHN] The year the schools were integrated I was bussed uptown 20 miles. I was in a school with white kids. And on the first day of school they sectioned us all off and they called out groups one, two, three, and four and you went and stood in lines. And I'm seeing all the white kids in one line. And I knew that I had tested pretty high on tests before because I used to study by myself in my school the year before.

And so I knew what line I was going in. And I went into that line filled with the white kids. And that year things changed for me. I lost a lot of confidence. And I was under stereotype threat. I was scared to raise my hand because I couldn't be wrong. Not the Black girl who lived downtown.

[CLAUDE STEELE] I'm a social psychologist and experimentalist and so we've done experiments to test whether or not stereotype threat can have effect on something that we tend to think of as pretty hard-wired like your performance on a cognitive exam or a standardized test. So one simple experiment was to bring women and men into the laboratory one at a time and give them a very difficult math test, a math test that we knew would cause frustration.

And even though everything was the same for the men and for the woman-- the room, the items on the test, the experimenter-- for men, as they went along doing the test and experienced frustration, they could worry that they're not as good at math as they maybe thought they were. But they wouldn't be worried that they were confirming some group-based limitation of ability. But for women, in the same situation, as they start to experience frustration, some part of their brain might worry, am I confirming the stereotype about women having limited math ability? Is that what's going on here?

And that worry, since these are women who we-- women and men-- who we selected for being very committed to math and very good at it, that worry for that kind of person can be upsetting and distracting and can interfere with their performance right there in the testing situation. And that's exactly what happened. Women did considerably worse than the men. However, and here's the good news, we eventually came up with an idea that would take stereotype threat out of that situation.

We simply told them the following: Look, you may have heard that women are not as good at difficult standardized tests. But that's not true for this particular standardized test. The test that you're taking today is a test on which women always do as well as men. So the subtext of that little statement is, look, the frustration you're having on this test has nothing to do with your being a woman. Now we've taken this extra pressure that women might have in this situation out of the situation. They're no longer under the pressure of confirming or being seen to confirm something, some limitation, that's out there in the stereotypes of our society about women lacking math ability.

And if that's what's been depressing their performance earlier, now their performance should go up to match that of equally skilled men. And that is exactly what happened. With that little sentence, women's performance matched that of men.

So some forms of this threat are pretty minor and almost humorful, and other forms of this threat are really poignant. One thing to say in a Facing History context is that stereotypes is one way by which history affects present life, because stereotypes are built up over the history of a society. And they can have an impact on people's functioning in the immediate, present situations, and are big factors in the way our society functions. Who goes into what kinds of fields. Who enjoys what kinds of work. These things are driven, in big part, by these by these kinds of threats.

"I often say that people experience stereotype threat several times a day," Steele goes on to say. "The reason is that we have a lot of identities – our gender, our race, our age. And about each one of those identities…there are negative stereotypes. And when people are in a situation for which a negative stereotype about one of their identities is relevant to the situation, relevant to what they’re doing, they know they could be possibly judged or treated in terms of that stereotype."

Facing History educators explore the impact of stereotypes in many of the histories we study. In personal stories, we can see how stereotypes impact the decisions individuals and communities make, and the effects those decisions have.

Studies show  that 94 % of Facing History students are more likely to recognize the dangers of stereotyping. Here are some resources that might help you discuss stereotyping in American or world history classes, or in electives that look at identity and difference:

A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism  explores the roots of antisemitism and includes case studies from different chapters in world history.

Becoming American: The Chinese Experience  looks at the history of Chinese immigration to America, and the ways in which stereotypes impact our understanding of national identity.

Common Core Writing Prompts and Strategies: A Supplement to Civil Rights Historical Investigations  contains teaching strategies that meet the Common Core State Standards and require that students “do” history – gather evidence from primary documents, use evidence to make claims about the past, and apply what they learn to their own lives today – as they explore the history of stereotypes against different races in American society.

Crimes Against Humanity and Civilization: The Genocide of the Armenians  takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the Armenian Genocide during World War I, when the Armenian people were persecuted for their religion, identity, and culture.

Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do  is Dr. Steele’s book exploring the power of stereotyping in shaping the behavior of individuals.

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Essay on Stereotypes

Students are often asked to write an essay on Stereotypes in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Stereotypes

What are stereotypes.

Stereotypes are fixed beliefs about a particular group of people. They are often negative and oversimplified. Stereotypes can be based on race, gender, religion, or nationality.

How Stereotypes are Formed

Stereotypes are often formed from personal experience. For example, if someone has a negative experience with a member of a particular group, they may start to believe that all members of that group are negative. Stereotypes can also be formed from the media. If people see negative images of a particular group on TV or in movies, they may start to believe that those images are true.

The Dangers of Stereotypes

Stereotypes can be dangerous because they can lead to discrimination. When people believe that a particular group of people is negative, they may be less likely to interact with them or give them opportunities. Stereotypes can also lead to violence. If people believe that a particular group of people is dangerous, they may be more likely to attack them.

Breaking Down Stereotypes

Stereotypes can be broken down by education and contact. When people learn about different cultures and meet people from different backgrounds, they start to realize that stereotypes are not true.

250 Words Essay on Stereotypes

A stereotype is a fixed idea or belief about a particular group or person. It is often an oversimplified, inaccurate, and prejudiced generalization. Stereotypes can be positive, negative, or neutral. They can be about a person’s age, gender, race, religion, occupation, or any other group affiliation.

How Stereotypes are Formed?

Stereotypes are often formed through socialization, the process of learning the values, beliefs, and behaviors of a particular culture or group. Children learn stereotypes from their parents, teachers, peers, and the media. They may also learn stereotypes by observing the behavior of others.

Impact of Stereotypes

Stereotypes can have a negative impact on individuals and groups. They can lead to discrimination, prejudice, and social inequality. Stereotypes can also affect the way people think about themselves and their place in society.

Stereotypes can be challenged through education, awareness, and contact with diverse groups of people. It is important to teach children about the dangers of stereotypes and to help them develop critical thinking skills. It is also important to provide opportunities for people to interact with people from different backgrounds.

Stereotypes are harmful overgeneralizations that can lead to discrimination and prejudice. It is important to challenge stereotypes by learning about the dangers of prejudice and by promoting diversity and inclusion.

500 Words Essay on Stereotypes

What is a stereotype, how do stereotypes form.

Stereotypes can form for many reasons. One reason is that we are all born with a tendency to categorize things. This helps us to make sense of the world around us by putting things into groups. However, sometimes we can over-categorize and start to think that everyone in a group is the same. This is where stereotypes come from.

Another reason stereotypes can form is through the media. The media often portrays people in certain ways, and these portrayals can reinforce stereotypes. For example, if we see a lot of images of women in the media who are thin and beautiful, we may start to think that all women should look that way.

Stereotypes can also be harmful to the people who are stereotyped. They can make people feel like they don’t belong or that they are not good enough. This can lead to low self-esteem and depression.

How to Challenge Stereotypes

The best way to challenge stereotypes is to learn more about the people who are stereotyped. When we get to know people as individuals, we start to realize that they are not all the same. We also need to be aware of our own stereotypes and challenge them when they come up.

Stereotypes are harmful because they are not true and they can lead to discrimination and prejudice. We can challenge stereotypes by learning more about the people who are stereotyped and by speaking out against stereotypes when we see or hear them. We can also support organizations that are working to break down stereotypes.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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How Do Stereotypes Shape Your Judgment?

Stereotypes are widespread but fixed ideas about specific groups of people. If the stereotype is negative, research suggests, it may lead us to consciously or subconsciously avoid or limit contact with entire groups of people—and negative experiences with a stereotyped group can reinforce this avoidant behavior.

A recent paper explores the impact of avoidance on reinforcing stereotypes through a series of studies. Their results reveal how stereotypes can prevent us from accurately perceiving a reality that never stops changing.

In the first experiment, participants chose if they wanted to interact with an alien species. If they chose to interact, the alien could either grant the participant a point (a positive experience) or take a point away (a negative experience).

Each group of aliens had differently colored skin, like green or blue. Most were seen multiple times, but throughout the task the alien faces were slowly replaced, even as they maintained the same skin color. To prime the development of stereotypes, researchers told participants to try to determine which aliens were more likely to give points and which were more likely to take points away, based on their interactions.

Participants played nine rounds. In the beginning of the game, one group of aliens was more likely to give points, while the other was more likely to take points away. By rounds six to nine, the cooperative behavior began to shift such that by the final round, aliens of both groups were cooperating equally. This blurred the once clearly defined stereotype lines.

How did that affect the participants? In the beginning rounds, they were more willing to interact with the group of aliens that were more cooperative; in other words, unsurprisingly, positive interactions increased the likelihood of future interactions. As the faces of the aliens changed and the cooperative tendencies became more equitable between alien groups, participants still continued to approach the initially more cooperative alien group more than the other.

This showed how powerful first impressions can be. Participants developed a kind of stereotype in those initial interactions, one that overrode the evidence provided by later interactions.

For a second experiment, the researchers tried to answer this question: What happens when we notice repeated contradictions to our stereotypes? In this case, one group of aliens gradually changed their behavior, while the other stayed constant. The results of this experiment were somewhat counterintuitive: As the behavior of one alien group changed, participants modified their interactions with the other whose behavior stayed the same.

Why? In the paper, the researchers speculate that “changes in the composition of one group serve as a signal to participants that the other group is also going to change, causing them to adjust their behavior toward the other group even in the absence of any actual change in that group’s behavior.” Put differently, changes in the stereotyped behavior of one group can cause us to rethink the accuracy of the stereotype for another group—and perhaps to question the validity of stereotypes in general.

What if we are presented with information that disconfirms the stereotype about a group?

In a third experiment, the researchers varied the rate of change of the behavior of the uncooperative group from virtually non-cooperative to extremely cooperative as they progressed through the rounds of the game.

Participants were split into two groups. Group one only knew if the alien would give or take away points if they interacted with the alien (non-feedback group). If participants in group two decided not to interact with an alien, they were informed of its point intentions anyway (feedback group). 

The results suggest that it takes a lot to change ingrained stereotypes. “When changes in the [uncooperative] group were only moderate, participants did not update their beliefs regardless of the type of feedback they received and initial learning persisted,” write the researchers. Thus, when faced with only slight changes in the behavior of the uncooperative group, participants did not update their beliefs. It was only when the aliens demonstrated a drastic change in behavior did participants start to interact with them more. Under these conditions, participants in the feedback group interacted at a faster rate than those in the non-feedback group.

This research highlights how negative stereotypes can cause us to avoid entire groups—and how negative experiences can serve to reinforce our stereotypes. But it highlights something else, as well: how stereotypes limit our ability to perceive an ever-changing reality.

This research suggests that new experiences have to provide a drastic departure from stereotyped beliefs in order to change behavior toward a group. This can potentially create other tropes that may be equally damaging, even if positive—as with, for example, the “model minority” or “Black exceptionalism” stereotypes. These experiments can also remind us that experiences create their own biases. As the researchers note: “A perceiver who wishes to form accurate beliefs must be aware that their experiences may be biased.”

If a positive recommendation comes from this study, it’s that mindfulness and self-awareness are essential to forming accurate ideas about people. As we move through the world, we need to ask ourselves: Am I avoiding certain groups of people? Why? Are past experiences or beliefs warping my awareness of what is happening right here, right now?

About the Author

Shanna B. Tiayon

Shanna B. Tiayon, Ph.D. , also known as “The Wellbeing Dr.,” is a writer, speaker, and trainer working in the area of well-being. Currently, Shanna is the owner of WellbeingWorks , LLC, a boutique well-being firm bringing together the best interdisciplinary knowledge in the areas of social psychology, human resources, research, and training design.

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Hear Something, Say Something: Navigating The World Of Racial Awkwardness

Listen to this week's episode.

We've all been there — having fun relaxing with friends and family, when someone says something a little racially off. Sometimes it's subtle, like the friend who calls Thai food "exotic." Other times it's more overt, like that in-law who's always going on about "the illegals."

In any case, it can be hard to know how to respond. Even the most level-headed among us have faltered trying to navigate the fraught world of racial awkwardness.

So what exactly do you do? We delve into the issue on this week's episode of the Code Switch podcast, featuring writer Nicole Chung and Code Switch's Shereen Marisol Meraji, Gene Demby and Karen Grigsby Bates.

We also asked some folks to write about what runs through their minds during these tense moments, and how they've responded (or not). Their reactions ran the gamut from righteous indignation to total passivity, but in the wake of these uncomfortable comments, everyone seemed to walk away wishing they'd done something else.

Aaron E. Sanchez

It was the first time my dad visited me at college, and he had just dropped me off at my dorm. My suitemate walked in and sneered.

"Was that your dad?" he asked. "He looks sooo Mexican."

Aaron E. Sanchez is a Texas-based writer who focuses on issues of race, politics and popular culture from a Latino perspective. Courtesy of Aaron Sanchez hide caption

He kept laughing about it as he left my room.

I was caught off-guard. Instantly, I grew self-conscious, not because I was ashamed of my father, but because my respectability politics ran deep. My appearance was supposed to be impeccable and my manners unimpeachable to protect against stereotypes and slights. I felt exposed.

To be sure, when my dad walked into restaurants and stores, people almost always spoke to him in Spanish. He didn't mind. The fluidity of his bilingualism rarely failed him. He was unassuming. He wore his working-class past on his frame and in his actions. He enjoyed hard work and appreciated it in others. Yet others mistook him for something altogether different.

People regularly confused his humility for servility. He was mistaken for a landscape worker, a janitor, and once he sat next to a gentleman on a plane who kept referring to him as a "wetback." He was a poor Mexican-American kid who grew up in the Segundo Barrio of El Paso, Texas, for certain. But he was also an Air Force veteran who had served for 20 years. He was an electrical engineer, a proud father, an admirable storyteller, and a pretty decent fisherman.

I didn't respond to my suitemate. To him, my father was a funny caricature, a curio he could pick up, purchase and discard. And as much as it was hidden beneath my elite, liberal arts education, I was a novelty to him too, an even rarer one at that. Instead of a serape, I came wrapped in the trappings of middle-classness, a costume I was trying desperately to wear convincingly.

That night, I realized that no clothing or ill-fitting costume could cover us. Our bodies were incongruous to our surroundings. No matter how comfortable we were in our skins, our presence would make others uncomfortable.

Karen Good Marable

When the Q train pulled into the Cortelyou Road station, it was dark and I was tired. Another nine hours in New York City, working in the madness that is Midtown as a fact-checker at a fashion magazine. All day long, I researched and confirmed information relating to beauty, fashion and celebrity, and, at least once a day, suffered an editor who was openly annoyed that I'd discovered an error. Then, the crush of the rush-hour subway, and a dinner obligation I had to fulfill before heading home to my cat.

Karen Good Marable is a writer living in New York City. Her work has been featured in publications like The Undefeated and The New Yorker. Courtesy of Karen Good Marable hide caption

The train doors opened and I turned the corner to walk up the stairs. Coming down were two girls — free, white and in their 20s . They were dancing as they descended, complete with necks rolling, mouths pursed — a poor affectation of black girls — and rapping as they passed me:

Now I ain't sayin she a golddigger/But she ain't messin' with no broke niggas!

That last part — broke niggas — was actually less rap, more squeals that dissolved into giggles. These white girls were thrilled to say the word publicly — joyously, even — with the permission of Kanye West.

I stopped, turned around and stared at them. I envisioned kicking them both squarely in their backs. God didn't give me telekinetic powers for just this reason. I willed them to turn around and face me, but they did not dare. They bopped on down the stairs and onto the platform, not evening knowing the rest of the rhyme.

Listen: I'm a black woman from the South. I was born in the '70s and raised by parents — both educators — who marched for their civil rights. I never could get used to nigga being bandied about — not by the black kids and certainly not by white folks. I blamed the girls' parents for not taking over where common sense had clearly failed. Hell, even radio didn't play the nigga part.

I especially blamed Kanye West for not only making the damn song, but for having the nerve to make nigga a part of the damn hook.

Life in NYC is full of moments like this, where something happens and you wonder if you should speak up or stay silent (which can also feel like complicity). I am the type who will speak up . Boys (or men) cussing incessantly in my presence? Girls on the train cussing around my 70-year-old mama? C'mon, y'all. Do you see me? Do you hear yourselves? Please. Stop.

But on this day, I just didn't feel like running down the stairs to tap those girls on the shoulder and school them on what they damn well already knew. On this day, I just sighed a great sigh, walked up the stairs, past the turnstiles and into the night.

Robyn Henderson-Espinoza

When I was 5 or 6, my mother asked me a question: "Does anyone ever make fun of you for the color of your skin?"

This surprised me. I was born to a Mexican woman who had married an Anglo man, and I was fairly light-skinned compared to the earth-brown hue of my mother. When she asked me that question, I began to understand that I was different.

Robyn Henderson-Espinoza is a visiting assistant professor of ethics at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Calif. Courtesy of Robyn Henderson-Espinoza hide caption

Following my parents' divorce in the early 1980s, I spent a considerable amount of time with my father and my paternal grandparents. One day in May of 1989, I was sitting at my grandparents' dinner table in West Texas. I was 12. The adults were talking about the need for more laborers on my grandfather's farm, and my dad said this:

"Mexicans are lazy."

He called the undocumented workers he employed on his 40 acres "wetbacks." Again and again, I heard from him that Mexicans always had to be told what to do. He and friends would say this when I was within earshot. I felt uncomfortable. Why would my father say these things about people like me?

But I remained silent.

It haunts me that I didn't speak up. Not then. Not ever. I still hear his words, 10 years since he passed away, and wonder whether he thought I was a lazy Mexican, too. I wish I could have found the courage to tell him that Mexicans are some of the hardest-working people I know; that those brown bodies who worked on his property made his lifestyle possible.

As I grew in experience and understanding, I was able to find language that described what he was doing: stereotyping, undermining, demonizing. I found my voice in the academy and in the movement for black and brown lives.

Still, the silence haunts me.

Channing Kennedy

My 20s were defined in no small part by a friendship with a guy I never met. For years, over email and chat, we shared everything with each other, and we made great jokes. Those jokes — made for each other only — were a foundational part of our relationship and our identities. No matter what happened, we could make each other laugh.

Channing Kennedy is an Oakland-based writer, performer, media producer and racial equity trainer. Courtesy of Channing Kennedy hide caption

It helped, also, that we were slackers with spare time, but eventually we both found callings. I started working in the social justice sector, and he gained recognition in the field of indie comics. I was proud of my new job and approached it seriously, if not gracefully. Before I took the job, I was the type of white dude who'd make casually racist comments in front of people I considered friends. Now, I had laid a new foundation for myself and was ready to undo the harm I'd done pre-wokeness.

And I was proud of him, too, if cautious. The indie comics scene is full of bravely offensive work: the power fantasies of straight white men with grievances against their nonexistent censors, put on defiant display. But he was my friend, and he wouldn't fall for that.

One day he emailed me a rough script to get my feedback. At my desk, on a break from deleting racist, threatening Facebook comments directed at my co-workers, I opened it up for a change of pace.

I got none. His script was a top-tier, irredeemable power fantasy — sex trafficking, disability jokes, gendered violence, every scene's background packed with commentary-devoid, racist caricatures. It also had a pop culture gag on top, to guarantee clicks.

I asked him why he'd written it. He said it felt "important." I suggested he shelve it. He suggested that that would be a form of censorship. And I realized this: My dear friend had created a racist power fantasy about dismembering women, and he considered it bravely offensive.

I could have said that there was nothing brave about catering to the established tastes of other straight white comics dudes. I could have dropped any number of half-understood factoids about structural racism, the finishing move of the recently woke. I could have just said the jokes were weak.

Instead, I became cruel to him, with a dedication I'd previously reserved for myself.

Over months, I redirected every bit of our old creativity. I goaded him into arguments I knew would leave him shaken and unable to work. I positioned myself as a surrogate parent (so I could tell myself I was still a concerned ally) then laughed at him. I got him to escalate. And, privately, I told myself it was me who was under attack, the one with the grievance, and I cried about how my friend was betraying me.

I wanted to erase him (I realized years later) not because his script offended me, but because it made me laugh. It was full of the sense of humor we'd spent years on — not the jokes verbatim, but the pacing, structure, reveals, go-to gags. It had my DNA and it was funny. I thought I had become a monster-slayer, but this comic was a monster with my hands and mouth.

After years as the best of friends and as the bitterest of exes, we finally had a chance to meet in person. We were little more than acquaintances with sunk costs at that point, but we met anyway. Maybe we both wanted forgiveness, or an apology, or to see if we still had some jokes. Instead, I lectured him about electoral politics and race in a bar and never smiled.

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Stereotypes and Their Effects Essay

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Introduction

Common stereotypes.

Stereotypes refer to misleading perceptions labeled against a group of people or a certain way of doing things, which are flawed, and that misrepresent reality (Stangor, 2000, p.24).

Common stereotypes include negative perceptions against certain religions, gender, ethnic groups or a certain race. Stereotypes have adverse effects on victims. They encourage hatred, irresponsible behaviors, aggressiveness, lack of self-control and diminish motivation of individuals in certain situations (Stangor, 2000, p.28). Stereotypes are unethical and should be discouraged.

Three common stereotypes include the perception that Muslims are terrorists, Christians are ignorant, and that women are less intelligent than men. These stereotypes are unjustified because they lack scientific evidence to validate them.

They result from hatred and superiority complex by individuals or groups of individuals who harbor negative attitudes towards certain individuals or social groups (Stangor, 2000, p.43). Stereotypes are either positive or negative. However, they are baseless and unethical because they lack evidence to validate them.

The stereotype that Muslims are terrorists propagates the perception that Muslims are evil people and always act to destroy the world and harm people (McGarty et al, 2002, p.73). The media has played a significant role in propagating this stereotype. Individuals who perpetuate the stereotype claim that Islam supports murder in its teachings.

This stereotype is flawed because a decision to commit a crime is motivated by personal values and character, and not an individual’s religion (McGarty et al, 2002, p.75). In addition, the teachings of Islam condemn murder and instead encourage peace. This stereotype leads to hatred and religious intolerance, which cause religious and political wars.

Another common stereotype is that Christians are ignorant. People who propagate this stereotype believe that Christians are ignorant because they ignore the validity of science (Chunnel, 2010, par3). In addition, they claim that Christians are evil because the Bible contains many stories that talk of war and violence.

This stereotype is flawed because there are so many Christians who believe in science. Christians who do not believe in science do so because they choose to believe what Christianity teaches without investigating to find the truth. Even though their Christian beliefs may contribute towards their refutation of science, not all Christians are ignorant. This stereotype causes religious intolerance and persecution.

The stereotype that women are less intelligent than men is a gender stereotype that is held by many people. People use the traditional concept of division of roles based on gender to propagate the stereotype (McGarty et al, 2002, p.79). Women were given easy tasks such as cooking, washing and taking care of children. On the other hand, men handled difficult tasks such as fending for their families and cultivation.

Men’s ability to handle difficult tasks is the foundation of this stereotype. The stereotype is unfounded because in today’s society, gender roles have changed and women are handling tasks that were considered masculine (McGarty et al, 2002, p.80). In addition, women have equal potential to success as me do. The large number of women in leadership roles is a proof that women are as intelligent as men are, and they can achieve whatever men can achieve.

Stereotypes refer to misleading perceptions labeled against a group of people or a certain way of handling responsibilities, which are flawed, and that misrepresent reality. Common stereotypes include perceptions against certain religions, gender, ethnic group or certain race. Stereotypes have lasting negative effects on victims. Common consequences of stereotyping include hatred, aggressiveness and lack of self-control.

Chunnel, A. (2010). Stereotypes in Religions . Web.

McGarty, C., Yzerbty, V., and Spears, R. (2002). Stereotypes as Explanations: The Formation of Meaningful Beliefs about Social Groups . London: Cambridge University Press.

Stangor, C. (2000). Stereotypes and Prejudice: Key Readings . New York: Psychology Press.

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Essay Samples on Stereotypes

How to stop stereotyping in society: the importance of collective efforts.

Stereotyping is a deeply entrenched practice that not only hinders individual growth but also perpetuates systemic biases and discrimination. Overcoming the grip of stereotypes is a vital step towards forging a society that is truly inclusive, just, and equal. In addition to exploring methods to...

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Breaking the Stigma: Overcoming Mental Illness Stereotypes

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The Concept of Chivalry and Stereotypical Gentlemanship

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The Rose That Proved Everyone Wrong: Tupac Shakur's Poem

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Stereotyping: The Causation Of Limits 

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A Deeper Analysis Of Indian Education

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The Role of Women in Luhrmann's Films: Great Gatsby and Moulin Rouge

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How I Developed Literature Stereotypes Throughout My Life

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Gender Stereotypes in Aristophanes Play Lysistrata

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Stereotyping and Racial Discrimination in the Film "Freedom Writers"

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Cultural Diversity: Stereotypes and Prejudices

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Asian American Stereotypes in Advertisements

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Legal Conciousness against the Discriminatory Laws and Stereotypes

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Breaking the Mould and the Breaking Bad

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Some Difficulties Of Being Jamaican

Located in the Caribbean Sea, south of Cuba and west of Hispaniola, lies the small island called Jamaica. It is one of the most popular Caribbean islands based on its unique and distinctive culture that has become a global brand. It is instantly recognizable over...

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Stereotyping Against Women In Modern Society

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Representation Of Racial Stereotypes In Maus By Art Spiegelman

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The Complexity of Gender Stereotype And Why We Should Avoid It

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Best topics on Stereotypes

1. How to Stop Stereotyping in Society: The Importance of Collective Efforts

2. Breaking the Stigma: Overcoming Mental Illness Stereotypes

3. Gender Roles and Stereotypes in Today’s Culture

4. The Concept of Chivalry and Stereotypical Gentlemanship

5. Key Aspects of the Effects of Ageism and Stereotyping

6. The Rose That Proved Everyone Wrong: Tupac Shakur’s Poem

7. Stereotyping: The Causation Of Limits 

8. A Deeper Analysis Of Indian Education

9. The Role of Women in Luhrmann’s Films: Great Gatsby and Moulin Rouge

10. Linguistic Stereotyping: The Fault in Our Speech in Big Bang Theory

11. How I Developed Literature Stereotypes Throughout My Life

12. Gender Stereotypes in Aristophanes Play Lysistrata

13. Movie Review of A Class Divided: The Influence of Upbringing on the Life of Everyone

14. Misconceptions About the Typical American College

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Challenging Stereotypes about Black Women

July 6, 2020 | yalepress | African American Studies

Melissa V. Harris-Perry —

Eliza Gallie was a free black woman living in Petersburg, Virginia, before the Civil War. She was divorced, owned property, and had financial resources that made her unusual among free blacks in the Confederate South. In 1853 Gallie was arrested and charged with stealing cabbages from a white man’s garden. Autonomous and assertive, she could afford to fight back against the scurrilous claim. She employed several aggressive attorneys who argued her case. But a Southern, white, male legal system declared her guilty and sentenced her to be publicly whipped on her bare back. Historian Suzanne Lebsock reminds us, “She was helpless in the end, the victim of the kind of deliberate humiliation that for most of us is past imagining.”

In 2002 historian Chana Kai Lee, not yet forty years old, was a tenured professor at the University of Georgia and the author of an award-winning biography of civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer. Complications from lupus caused two severe strokes within a week. Though she was left with disabled speech and diminished physical capacities, her department chair insisted that to keep her job, Lee must immediately return to the classroom. Her physician wrote multiple letters explaining the severity of Lee’s condition, but she was pressured to resume teaching because “the state is concerned about sick leave abuse.” Reflecting on the humiliating and physically impossible task of addressing a large classroom only weeks after a stroke, Lee saw herself as victimized by familiar stereotypes about black women. “Images of a ‘welfare cheat’ kept playing in my head. Ph.D. or no Ph.D., tenure or no tenure, I was just like the rest of those lazy black folks: I’d do anything for a cheap ride. I’d take advantage of any situation. I’d exaggerate and manipulate good, responsible, white folks who played by the rules, all to avoid my responsibilities.”

Lee’s stroke and its humiliating aftermath occurred more than 150 years after Eliza Gallie was publicly flogged for supposedly stealing a white man’s cabbage. The country was a profoundly different place in 2002 from what it was in 1853. Black women are no longer enslaved, and they enjoy the constitutional assurance of full citizenship. Centuries of struggle, sacrifice, and achievement have altered basic economic, political, and social realities for black women in vast and meaningful ways. Being required to limp and slur in front of dozens of college students is horrifying, but it is not the same as being publicly whipped. Lee was forced by economic necessity to return to work. Gallie lived in fear of racial murder against which there was no reasonable protection in the United States in 1853. Their experiences are not the same.

Yet there is a thin but tenacious thread connecting Gallie to Lee. Each is a woman of relative economic privilege and freedom. Powerful white institutions subjected both to public humiliation and physical suffering. As a historian, Chana Kai Lee interprets her experience of punishment as resulting from the practice of stereotyping black women as welfare cheats. The jurors in antebellum Petersburg, Virginia, were willing to convict Gallie in part because they believed black women to be dishonest and criminal, willing to steal white men’s property even if they owned their own. The two women are linked across centuries of change by a powerful web of myth that punishes individual black women based on assumptions about the group. Their stories are painfully familiar to many African American women who feel that they continue to be mistreated and humiliated as a result of lies told, and widely accepted, about black women as a group. They force us to consider how and why American governments, American popular culture, and even black communities have contributed to the humiliation of African American women. Their experiences also lead us to ask what resources black women use for psychic self-defense and how successful they are.

Although historical myths are seldom imported wholesale into the contemporary era, they are meaningfully connected to twenty-first-century portrayals of black women in public discourse. African American women who exercise their citizenship must also try to manage the negative expectations born of this powerful mythology. Like all citizens, they use politics to lay claim to resources and express public preferences; but sister politics is also about challenging negative images, managing degradation, and resisting or accommodating humiliating public representations.

From  Sister Citizen  by Melissa V. Harris-Perry. Published by Yale University Press in 2013. Reproduced with permission.

Melissa V. Harris-Perry  is the Maya Angelou Presidential Chair, Executive Director of the Pro Humanitate Institute, and founding director of the Anna Julia Cooper Center, at Wake Forest University. Her previous book,  Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought , won the 2005 W. E. B. Du Bois Book Award from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists and 2005 Best Book Award from the Race and Ethnic Politics Section of the American Political Science Association.

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We Cannot Fight Anti-Asian Hate Without Dismantling Asian Stereotypes

We are honoring each of the Top 10 winners of our Student Editorial Contest by publishing their essays. This one is by Madison Xu, age 16.

By The Learning Network

This essay, by Madison Xu, age 16, from Horace Mann School in the Bronx, N.Y., is one of the Top 10 winners of The Learning Network’s Eighth Annual Student Editorial Contest , for which we received 11,202 entries.

You can find the work of all the winners and runners-up here .

A few weeks ago, my aunt decided to close the nail salon she had been running for years. Early on in the pandemic, her business was hit hard, regulars refusing to return and associating her salon with the spread of Covid. Now, she fears for the safety of her salon employees — most of them Asian and Asian-American women.

The New York Times has documented a surge of anti-Asian hate crimes during the coronavirus pandemic, including the deaths of six Asian women during the recent mass shooting in Atlanta. These incidents have rightly sparked protests and outrage, yet there can be no effective response unless we look beyond easy explanations. Talk of the former president’s xenophobic rhetoric, or the shooter’s “sex addiction,” only serves to distract from the underlying issue: America’s history of stereotyping, fetishizing and oppressing Asians and Asian-Americans — especially women.

By the 20th century, mainstream media and popular culture had already categorized Asian women into tropes still resonant today, from the hypersexual “Dragon Lady” to the docile “Lotus Flower.” Predating the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Page Act of 1875 made it unlawful for East Asian women to enter the United States without proof that they were “virtuous.” That Asian women were painted as a “moral contagion” becomes even more chilling when juxtaposed with the Atlanta shooter’s claim that the massage parlors were, “a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate.” Objects of desire easily become objects of hatred. The key: both are things for the dominant class to fetishize, feel entitled to — or dispose of.

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How Stereotypes Impact Our Social Interactions

The impact of stereotypes can be profoundly shaped through social interactions..

Posted May 24, 2023 | Reviewed by Lybi Ma

• Little is known about the brain and developmental factors shaping stereotypes' impact on social interactions.
• A new study links stereotype effects to individual variation in a crucial prefrontal brain structure.
• Early-life exposure to social interactions shapes the ability to moderate stereotype tendencies.

Stereotypes are generalizations about groups of people that allow us to quickly judge individuals without having to spend a lot of time getting to know them. This ability for rapid categorization likely carried evolutionary advantages, aiding our ancestors in efficiently navigating their environments and making swift decisions.

However, over-reliance on stereotypes can prove problematic when they do not align with the actual characteristics or behaviors of the person we are interacting with. For example, a teacher’s didactic tone may come across as patronizing when it turns out that the young person being spoken to is also an educator rather than a student.

Yet our current scientific understanding of how stereotypes truly shape our social interactions, particularly in the face of contradictory evidence, remains limited. This understanding is needed if we want to address the biases associated with stereotypes and foster a more inclusive and equitable society.

Interaction Games

A new line of research is shedding light on this matter. At the heart of this research lies the recognition that computer-mediated interaction games offer a unique toolset. Because study participants cannot see or hear one another during gameplay, researchers can experimentally alter individuals’ beliefs about their interaction partners. This enables subsequent assessment of participants’ tendencies to behave in accordance with those preconceived beliefs.

To illustrate this idea, researchers can design a game where participants interact with two distinct partners: a 5-year-old child and an adult. The twist is that both of these ‘roles’ are performed by the same individual, who remains unaware of which role they are assuming in each interaction. This setup ensures that any perceived disparities between the child and adult partners are solely attributable to the participants’ stereotype-driven beliefs about their capabilities, rather than actual differences in behavior and understanding between the two partners.

Previous research using this experimental setup has shown that participants instinctively make subtle adaptations when they believe they are interacting with the ‘child’ partner. Much like how we naturally modify our communication style with children by adjusting the tone and inflection of our voice, participants in these games tend to place more emphasis on important portions of the digital game board when engaged with the presumed child partner.

Sources of Individual Variation

Interaction games thus present a promising avenue for capturing the behavioral effects of stereotypes in a controlled and systematic manner. This enables researchers to explore whether individuals vary in their capacity or propensity to utilize preconceived notions about people during their social interactions.

A study aimed at addressing this question investigated patients with prefrontal lobe damage, a brain region situated above the eyes that is known for its involvement in social behavior. The findings of this study revealed that patients with prefrontal damage did not demonstrate slower or clearer behaviors while engaging with the presumed child partner. This discovery highlights the crucial role of the prefrontal lobe in shaping individuals’ responses to stereotype-related cues within social interactions.

In a separate study, researchers examined whether the development of this social ability is influenced by environmental factors, such as socioeconomic status and the extent of exposure to social interactions within and outside the family setting. The study specifically targeted 5-year-old children, as this age is known for well-developed social skills and allowed for a comprehensive assessment of the child’s social environment.

The study revealed a significant relationship between the amount of time children spent in daycare (days per week) from birth until the age of 4 and the extent to which they spontaneously organized their interactive behaviors according to their beliefs about their partner at age 5. These initial insights shed light on the factors that contribute to individual variations in this crucial aspect of human interaction.

A Sensitive Developmental Period

The study involving 5-year-old children offers evidence supporting the longstanding notion that our ability to interact with others develops through social interactions. However, it remains unclear whether the consequences of social experiences acquired in a daycare environment extend beyond early development.

Humans differ from other primates in both the extent and nature of social interactions encountered from early infancy. Unlike chimpanzee infants, who typically remain under their mother’s care until around 5 years old, human infants are regularly exposed to interactions with a variety of individuals from an early stage. This striking contrast has prompted anthropologists to propose that these early-life social experiences may play a crucial role in the development of human interactional abilities that endure into adulthood.

A rare opportunity presented itself to investigate a unique cohort of 17-year-old adolescents who had been meticulously tracked since infancy. These individuals had consistently reported their social statistics annually, including details such as the number of friends and or siblings they had, the extent of time spent with them, and notably, the amount of time they had spent in daycare during their earliest years.

By acquiring participants’ brain scans and employing the same interaction game utilized in the aforementioned studies, this investigation yielded two insights. First, the study identified a specific sub-region within the prefrontal lobe known as the anterior cingulate gyrus, which remarkably predicted an individual’s tendency to act in accordance with stereotypes associated with their interaction partners. This finding aligns with previous observations of impaired adaptation in patients with prefrontal damage encompassing the anterior cingulate gyrus.

Second, participants who had a long history of daycare exposure demonstrated a heightened capacity to adapt their communication style to match the actual behavior and understanding of both child and adult partners. These individuals treated both partners equally and showed reduced reliance on stereotypes as they gathered interaction-based evidence against their preconceived assumptions about their partners.

In conclusion , these observations highlight the important role of interaction-based evidence in shaping the impact of stereotypes. Our ability to align the influence of stereotypes with evidence derived from social interactions develops through engagement in social interactions, particularly in early life.

By the same token, these findings underscore the real-world significance of utilizing interaction games as research tools, highlighting the importance of studying stereotype beliefs within the context of live social interactions, where they matter most.

Stolk, D’Imperio, di Pellegrino, Toni (2015). Altered communicative decisions following ventromedial prefrontal lesions. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.03.057

Stolk, Hunnius, Bekkering, Toni (2013). Early social experience predicts referential communicative adjustments in five-year-old children. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0072667

Koch, Tyborowska, Niermann, Cillessen, Roelofs, Bašnáková, Toni & Stolk (2023). Integrating stereotypes and factual evidence in interpersonal communication. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.23.540979v1

Arjen Stolk, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at Dartmouth College, where he directs the Mutual Understanding Laboratory. His research focuses on communication, social interactions, and autism spectrum disorder.

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Editorial: The psychological process of stereotyping: Content, forming, internalizing, mechanisms, effects, and interventions

Baoshan zhang.

1 School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China

Fengqing Zhao

2 School of Education, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China

Fangfang Wen

3 School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China

Junhua Dang

4 Department of Surgical Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

Magdalena Zawisza

5 Department of Psychology, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Stereotype is a pervasive and persistent human tendency that stems from a basic cognitive need to categorize, simplify, and process the complex world. This tendency is a precondition for social bias, prejudice, and discrimination. Amid the COVID-19 outbreak, the discrimination, exclusion, and even hostility caused by stereotypes have increasingly become an important social issue that concerns political and social stability. Therefore, the current issue focuses on a broad spectrum of research addressing four main themes: (1) the psychological processes involved in forming and internalizing social stereotypes, (2) the negative consequences of stereotypes, (3) the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying stereotypes, and (4) the interventions addressing the consequences of negative stereotypes in this era with changes and challenges. Specifically, the Research Topic consists of 13 papers by 54 scholars that target stereotypes among different social groups, including males and females, older people and young generation, minority races, people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), people with mental health problems, juvenile transgressors, refugees, and Asian-Americans during COVID-19 outbreak. These studies are conducted in culturally diverse countries including Brazil, China, Germany, Hungary, and the USA, contributing to a more holistic picture of contemporary stereotypes.

1. The forming of social stereotypes

Negative stereotypes from the public may be influenced by our knowledge about and psychological distance to the target group, beliefs of group malleability, beliefs in the implicit change of traits, and moral values. For instance, Caldas et al. tested whether people's knowledge and proximity to the circumstances associated with juvenile transgression would influence their opinions about the proposal for reducing the age of criminal majority in Brazil. They investigated the passers-by in a public square and workers from the juvenile justice courts and found that people were more likely to hold negative stereotypes of juvenile delinquents if they were far from them. Paskuj and Orosz focused on the refugees as the most typically vulnerable group in turbulent international times, and they found that group malleability beliefs were negatively linked to dehumanization tendencies and threats perceived from migrants in Hungary. Protzko and Schooler examined a more general negative stereotype of youth also known as the “kids these days effect” (KTD effect). In two studies with American adults, belief in whether a trait changes over the lifespan was associated with such prejudices. In addition, Lai et al. focused on three cues linked to women's perceived high long-term mating value and reported that Chinese women displaying “sexually attractive” cues were perceived to have lower moral values. Moreover, they were stereotyped as having lower levels of humanness than women displaying “beautiful” facial cues or “virtuous” behavioral cues, which in turn led to lower mating opportunity.

Culture also plays an essential role in stereotype formation. Li M. et al. targeted stereotypes toward high-power individuals and revealed that people influenced by Confucianism held positive stereotypes of competence and warmth for senior high-power individuals. This finding is inconsistent with the traditional proposition that high-power individuals tend to be stereotyped as having high competence and low warmth. This might be because high-power individuals under Confucian culture are expected to have great social responsibility and concern for the wellbeing of others. Furthermore, new stereotypes emerged as a result of COVID-19 in the global context. COVID-19 is a threat to physical health, and mental health, and various reports have indicated that COVID-19 is closely related to stigma and discrimination. Two studies examined the stereotypes related to COVID-19. Zhao et al. found that the prevalence of COVID-19-related negative stereotypes was low in China. Besides, the more people know about COVID-19, the fewer negative stereotypes associated with COVID-19 they reported. Daley et al. on the other hand reported that Asian-Americans were facing increasing challenges from different ethnic groups on social issues related to COVID-19 in the United States, and the increasing tendency to blame China for the pandemic was associated with stereotyping Asian people as more foreign.

2. The consequences of negative stereotypes

People's negative stereotypes will influence their behavioral inclinations toward the target groups, and even the law-making at a general level. For instance, Wen et al. tested space-related stereotypes associated with people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). They found that people who held negative stereotypes toward the spaces occupied by PLWHA were more resistant to visit such spaces, and people's threat perception and community evaluation mediated the effects of such space-related stereotypes on community-approaching willingness. In addition, Caldas et al. found that the more distant people were from juvenile transgressors, the more they held negative stereotypes toward juvenile transgressors and agreed with the law-making proposal for reducing the age of criminal conviction in Brazil.

Vulnerable groups may internalize the negative stereotypes and be influenced by them. Gärtner et al. tested the self-stereotyping of people with mental illness and found that negative stereotypes of their warmth and competence dimensions led them to develop negative emotions and thus exhibit higher levels of active or passive self-harm than mentally healthy people. In addition, Li J. et al. were interested in the gender self-stereotyping among college students and noted that gender self-stereotyping was positively correlated with relational and personal self-esteem and further correlated with higher life satisfaction only in the male sample. That is, gender self-stereotyping was associated with a higher level of self-esteem and life satisfaction among male students, while this effect did not hold for women.

3. The neurocognitive mechanisms of stereotypes

The neurocognitive mechanisms of stereotypes were explored by Wu and Zhao . They used RS-fMRI degree centrality (RSDC), a graph theory-based network analysis, to detect how negative stereotypes work in the brain. In a test of math-related stereotypes among female university students, they found that the RSDC of different brain regions was affected, reflecting that stereotypes are the result of the action of the brain network as a whole. For instance, a decrease in RSDC in the left hippocampus is a response to stereotype-related stress, and an increase in RSDC in the posterior parietal region (PPC) is a reflection of self-relevant processes induced by stereotypes.

4. The interventions addressing the consequences of negative stereotypes

Finally, two studies tested interventions against negative stereotypes via intergenerational contact and cognitive training. Long et al. found that simply intergenerational contact, or even just imagining it, reduced negative stereotypes of older people and increased perspective-taking toward older people among young adults. Chen et al. used the traditional IAT to compare the effect of multiple vs. single cognitive training on aging stereotypes in 12–13-year-olds. They found that multiple training tasks and additional intervention training sessions are recommended as they could significantly prolong the positive effects of the intervention.

Overall, these 13 papers discussed various aspects of stereotype formation, consequences, mechanisms, and interventions. We hope these papers will inspire future researchers in developing theories and conducting new interventions against negative effects of stereotypes. Since the current era of “black swan incidents” and related social challenges create perfect conditions for stereotypes to thrive and intensify, researchers should continue exploring the psychological mechanisms behind emerging social stigma and negative stereotypes. Especially, the development of neuroscience will provide further opportunities to study the brain mechanisms of stereotypes from a more microscopic perspective. This combined with macroscopic psychosocial mechanisms will provide new ways of addressing the severe dangers of negative stereotypes across contexts, countries and times and benefit targeted interventions and policy making.

Author contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work and approved it for publication.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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July 8, 2020

Stereotypes Harm Black Lives and Livelihoods, but Research Suggests Ways to Improve Things

Management researcher Modupe Akinola explains on how stereotypes hurt Black Americans and what we can do to counter them

By Katy Milkman & Kassie Brabaw

Modupe Akinola speaks on stage at the New York Times 2015 DealBook Conference at the Whitney Museum of American Art on November 3, 2015, in New York City.

Neilson Barnard Getty Images

The Black Lives Matter protests shaking the world have thankfully brought renewed attention not just to police brutality but to the broader role of racism in our society. Research suggests some roots of racism lie in the stereotypes we hold about different groups. And those stereotypes can affect everything from the way police diagnose danger to who gets interviewed for jobs to which students get attention from professors. Negative stereotypes harm Black Americans at every turn. To reduce their pernicious effects, it’s important to first understand how stereotypes work and just how pervasive they are.

Modupe Akinola , an associate professor at Columbia Business School, studies racial bias, workforce diversity and stress. Recently, Katy Milkman , a professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, got to chat with Akinola about how stereotypes are formed, how they affect consequential decisions and how we can combat negative stereotypes .

[ An edited transcript of the interview follows. ]

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Let’s start at the beginning. What is a stereotype?

A stereotype is a snap judgment we make about a person or about a thing that can influence our decision-making. Every day we get millions and millions of bits of information in our head that associate good and bad with certain people or groups or things. And anytime we then see those people, groups or things, that association comes immediately to our mind.

Why do you think we do this?

We’re processing so much information all the time; we need these mental shortcuts to allow us to navigate the world. If not, we wouldn’t be able to function, quite frankly. We have to make quick judgments to make life easier and to simplify. But any type of shortcut can have its pros and cons.

Could you talk about some of the research connecting stereotyping with racism?

One of my favorite sets of studies examines stereotyping as it relates to policing. I grew up in New York City. And we heard a lot about Amadou Diallo, who was an unarmed Black man who was shot by police, because they thought he was carrying a gun—when in actuality, he raised his hand, and he had a wallet.

Joshua Correll, [now at the University of Colorado Boulder], and his colleagues wanted to look at whether the stereotypes associating Black people with danger could play a role in how a mistake like that could be made. The news we see regularly shows crime rates being higher for certain populations, mostly minority populations,. And so this creates an automatic stereotype that a Black man would be more linked to danger than a white man, because you don’t see those same associations for white people.

Correll came up with a computerized shooter bias exercise that showed pictures of targets, Black and white men, carrying objects, either weapons or regular objects like a Coke can or a wallet. When you saw a person and the object, you had to click on whether or not to shoot. He found that civilians were more likely to shoot unarmed Black men, relative to unarmed white men and even armed white men, which was attributed to the stereotypes associating Black people with danger.

I found that study fascinating, because it showed just how powerful these associations can be. I did some follow-up research, because I wanted to see if stress affects that decision-making process. I stressed out police officers and had them engage in the shooting exercise.

The interesting thing is: I saw that under stress, officers were more accurate. They were able to discern whether to shoot an armed Black man and did that better in terms of not shooting unarmed Black men. However, they were less likely to shoot armed white men, which I think demonstrates the power of stereotypes, because there isn’t a stereotype of white and danger.

Stereotypes work in two ways: they can harm some groups, and they can protect others.

Are there any other studies about stereotyping that you think people might find illuminating?

My favorite are audit studies, where you observe real-world behavior. There have been audit studies where people go to car dealerships to see if people are treated differently and about who gets mortgages and things like that.

One audit study was testing ads in the newspaper, which were advertising entry-level positions. [The researchers] sent candidate résumés to these job ads, which were identical, and changed the names on the résumés to signal race. “Lakisha” and “Jamal” were Black-sounding names that were tested and pretested to ensure they would signal race versus a name like “Catherine,” which would be a more white-sounding name. They waited to see who called back for which candidates. The Lakishas and Jamals received fewer callbacks for an interview than the white-sounding names.

Again, this behavior is attributed to stereotypes. We make presumptions and snap judgments about who might be more qualified for a job, who might do well in a job, even in the context of identical information.

Would you be willing to describe a little bit of the work we’ve done together on the role of stereotyping in academia?

Certainly. We—you, I and Dolly Chugh [of the Stern School of Business at New York University]—wanted to see if racial or gender stereotypes impact the pathway to academia. As you’re applying or thinking about getting a Ph.D., often you’ll reach out to a professor and ask, “Are you taking graduate students?” or “Can I learn more about your research?” We get these e-mails, all the time, asking for time on our schedule. And we wanted to see if professors would differentially respond to these requests, depending on the race and gender of the requester.

We sent e-mails to around 6,500 professors across the country, at both private and public universities. We sent these e-mails that were identical, except we varied the race and gender of the name of the applicant.

These e-mails said, “Dear professor so-and-so, I’ll be on campus on XYZ day, on a Monday or Tuesday, and was wondering if I could take some time to learn about your research.” The names on these e-mails were Chinese names, Indian names, African-American-, Latino- and white-sounding names. We pretested all these names to ensure that they did signal the race and gender we thought they would.

We expected to see more stereotyping or discrimination (i.e., fewer responses) to nonwhite males when asked to meet next week versus today. Why? Today everyone’s pretty busy, and so there’s no time for the stereotypes or snap judgments to come into your mind about who might be a more qualified student, who you might want to respond to and meet with.

However, in a meeting request for next week, you might go through more scrutiny about whether the candidate is worthy of your time. We thought that’s when stereotypes would set in. Maybe for some categories, it’s “Do they have English-language proficiency?” For other categories, given the lack of minorities in academia in general, there might be the question of “Can they cut it?”

As we predicted, we did find fewer responses for all of the other categories, relative to the responses to white males, for a meeting request for next week. The question then was whether we’d see this when we matched the race and the gender of the professor with the race and the gender of the student. We still found that requests for next week, regardless of the race of the professor, are lower for candidates other than white males.

As an African-American professor, in the early days of my teaching, I’d often find myself setting up to teach a class, and somebody, usually a prospective student, would come in and say, “I’d like to sit in and learn more about this class. Where’s the professor?” They would say that to me as I was setting up, looking like the professor—on the computer, getting everything ready. That, for me, was a perfect example of how stereotypes can play a role.

The stereotype of what a professor looks like—an older white man with gray hair—is one of the factors that might make somebody come in, see a person at the podium preparing for work and wearing a suit, and ask who the professor is. I love those moments, in some ways, because one of the ways in which you change people’s stereotypes is by having counter-stereotypical exemplars.

Let’s talk more about that. How can we combat stereotypes or try to reduce the harm they cause?

I think one of the ways we can reduce the harm of stereotypes is just being aware. Sometimes you’ll be walking down the street, and you’ll make a snap judgment and not even realize it. But I think one of the critical aspects is noticing, “Oh wow, that came up for me. That’s interesting,” and thinking, “Where did that come from?” We can change our behavior when we’re more aware that our behavior is being influenced by stereotypes.

The other way is by being exposed to counter-stereotypical exemplars. As an African-American, female professor, a student’s mere exposure to me means that the next time they go into a classroom with an African-American woman setting up, or someone else who might defy the stereotype of what a professor looks like, they won’t automatically say, “Where’s the professor?”

I often tell my students they have a beautiful opportunity to be the walking, breathing and living counter-stereotypical exemplars in their work environments. I ask them to think about the stereotypes that exist about them, the stereotypes that exist about people around them, the stereotypes that exist about people on their teams— and to realize that, every day, they have the opportunity to defy those stereotypes.

Katy Milkman is a behavioral scientist and James G. Dinan Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions at the Wharton School . She is co-director of the Behavior Change for Good Initiative .

Kassie Brabaw is a journalist writing about health, relationships and astronomy. Find her work at Health, SELF.com, Women’s Health, VICE.com and Space.com.

Women Fighting Stereotypes and Systemic Discrimination in STEM

While half the world is female, fewer than 30 percent of the world’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) professionals are women.

Earth Science, Engineering, Mathematics

Women in a Science Lab

While half the world is female, less than 30 percent of the world’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) professionals are women.

Photograph by Lightfield Studios Inc./Alamy Stock Photo

Science is the  systematic ,  evidence -based study of how the natural world works. Presumably, this  objective  pursuit would be free of  bias  and welcoming to those with the desire and talent to pursue it, but that has not always been true for women. While about half the human  population  is female, fewer than 30 percent of the world’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) professionals are women.

Women with research positions in academic STEM do their jobs well. They publish at a similar rate as men with their research having roughly the same impact, according to this study by UNESCO : https://uis.unesco.org/en/topic/women-science. However, women’s STEM careers are often less productive than men’s STEM careers because women’s careers are shorter and they have higher dropout rates, according to the March 2020 paper. Each year, women have nearly a 20 percent higher chance of leaving  academia  than men do.

Gender representation in STEM differs by field. Women often outnumber men in  biological  fields. However, men far outnumber women in physics, computer science, and engineering.

Like other male-dominated jobs in the United States, science and engineering received a huge  influx  of women with the onset of World War II. With huge numbers of men away fighting, women were encouraged to enter spaces they had been excluded from. When the war ended and men returned to the  work force , women were expected to leave the lab and the office. But some women fought to remain in STEM. American women in STEM justified their positions as assets to the nation as it fought the  Cold War .

Fighting for their place in the world of STEM has been even tougher for Black and brown women. That is not to say that Black, Indigenous, and other women of color have not made their mark on science. Katherine Johnson, a Black woman, made the calculations to ensure U.S. astronaut John Glenn orbited Earth and returned safe. Sarah Al-Amiri led a team of fellow Arab women in placing an orbiter around Mars, making the United Arab Emirates just the fifth country to do so.

All too often these achievements are the  exception , not the  norm . Historically, there have been legal, social, and cultural barriers to entry and advancement in these fields. Studying and working in STEM has been traditionally marketed as men’s work. Systemic discrimination, unconscious bias , and sexual harassment can also prematurely ends women’s STEM careers.

In the United States, women are 47 percent of the employed  civilian   work force , but only 25 percent of the STEM work force . In the U.S., women of every  ethnicity  are underrepresented in STEM jobs, except for Asian women. Asian women make up 4.3 percent of STEM occupations while accounting for 2.8 percent of the employed work force . White women are about 32 percent of the work force , but about 17 percent of those working in STEM.

Those numbers are bleaker for Black and brown American women. Latinas comprise 6.7 percent of the work force , but just 1.7 percent of STEM jobs. Black women account for 6.0 percent of the work force and 2.2 percent of STEM occupations . Women who self-identified by other racial designations, such as Indigenous or Pacific Islander, were too few to be analyzed . A similar breakdown is seen with the attainment of STEM bachelor’s degrees with Black and Latina women earning fewer than their  proportion  of STEM degrees.

The U.S. is not exceptional with its lack of women in the STEM work force. Worldwide, women make up just over 29 percent of STEM researchers. There are just 17 nations where women make up the majority of STEM researchers.

As technology advances, more STEM professionals are sought out. Nations receive an economic boost with added STEM workers, making them appealing to governments. In the United States alone, STEM work accounts for 69 percent of the gross domestic product. This calculation includes many jobs that don’t require a college degree, like X-Ray technician.

The lack of women in STEM fields doesn’t just hurt society, but women themselves. STEM occupations are highly valued professions with higher salaries than other careers. Yet when compared to men, women in STEM are paid less.

The need is so high it often outpaces the ability of employers to fill them. Women of color are a huge part of the world’s people and talent pool. By underutilizing Black and brown women in these positions, their respective nations are losing out on their skills and  perspective . Research shows upping diversity improves problem solving, which is a key to any STEM job.

NOTE: While we recognize neither sex nor  gender  is a  binary , data used to study STEM and sex is limited to such. Thus, this story will be using these limited terms.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Outsiders — The Outsiders: Challenging Stereotypes

The Outsiders: Challenging Stereotypes

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Stereotypes in "the outsiders", consequences of stereotyping, challenging stereotypes.

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By Heidi Burgess

Originally published October 2003.  "Current Implications" added in June, 2017.

For shorter summaries of the key ideas, see our Things YOU Can Do To Help Post   Break Down Negative Stereotypes  and the Infographic  Infographic: Give People a Chance to Surprise You .

Current Implications

Stereotypes, particularly negative characterizations are extremely prevalent and problematic in U.S. politics and culture these days.  The left still sees the right as  corrupt, stupid, selfish, racist, sexist, homophobes.  The right likewise paints the left as corrupt, stupid, selfish, elitist, intolerant "takers" (as opposed to "makers.")  More...

What Stereotypes Are

Stereotypes (or "characterizations") are generalizations or assumptions that people make about the characteristics of all members of a group, based on an image (often wrong) about what people in that group are like. For example, one study of stereotypes revealed that Americans are generally considered to be friendly, generous, and tolerant, but also arrogant, impatient, and domineering. Asians, on the other hand, are expected to be shrewd and alert, but reserved. Clearly, not all Americans are friendly and generous; and not all Asians are reserved. But according to this study, others commonly perceive them this way.[1]

Why Stereotypes Matter

Stereotyping is especially prevalent -- and problematic -- in conflicts. Groups tend to define themselves according to who they are and who they are not . And "others," especially "enemies" or "opponents" are often viewed in very negative ways. The opponent is expected to be aggressive, self-serving, and deceitful, for example, while people in one's own group are seen in generally positive ways. Similarly, if problems occur, blame is often placed on "the enemy," while one's own contribution to the problem is ignored. For example, problems may be attributed to the opponent's lack of cooperativeness, not one's own; or the enemy's aggressiveness, not their fear of one's own aggressive stance. Even similarities between parties can be viewed differently: one's own competitiveness may be seen in a positive light as "tough, effective negotiating," while the opponent's competitive actions are seen as "hostile and deceptive."

Such stereotypes tend to be self-perpetuating. If one side assumes the other side is deceitful and aggressive, they will tend to respond deceitfully and aggressively themselves. The opponent will then develop a similar image of the first party and respond deceptively, thus confirming the initial stereotype. The stereotypes may even grow worse, as communication shuts down and escalation heightens emotions and tension.

The Positive Side of Stereotypes

Although stereotypes generally have negative implications, they aren't necessarily negative. Stereotypes are basically generalizations that are made about groups. Such generalizations are necessary: in order to be able to interact effectively, we must have some idea of what people are likely to be like, which behaviors will be considered acceptable, and which not.

For example, elsewhere in this system there is an essay about high-context and low-context cultures. People in low-context cultures are said to be more individualistic, their communication more overt, depending less on context and shared understandings. High-context cultures are more group-oriented. Their communication is more contextually based, depending more on shared understandings and inferences.

Such generalizations are, in essence, stereotypes. They allow us to put people into a category, according to the group they belong to, and make inferences about how they will behave based on that grouping. There will still be differences between individuals from one culture, and with the same individual in different situations. But the stereotype is reasonably accurate, so it is useful. Stereotypes are only a problem when they are inaccurate, especially when those inaccuracies are negative and hostile.

What Can Be Done to Deal with Negative Stereotypes:

The key to reversing negative stereotypes is to contradict them, in direct interactions between people, in the media, and through education.

Between Individuals . Once people get to know a person from "the other side," they often will determine that the other is not nearly as bad as they originally had assumed. (Though sometimes they might find out they are just as bad -- or even worse!)

More often, however, people really are much more reasonable than their stereotypes would suggest. In that case, getting to know people personally helps to break down negative images. This is especially true when people determine that they actually have things in common with people from the other side. Such things can range from enjoying the same music, hobbies, or sports, to having the same worries about children or aging parents.

Even when people learn that they share fear or sadness, they can begin to understand each other more. When they come to understand that the other is afraid of being hurt, or losing a loved one in war, just as they are, that brings people together. Such shared emotions make people seem human, while stereotypes typically " dehumanize " people. Likewise, shared emotions make empathy possible, which opens the door to new forms of interaction and trust building , at least among the individuals involved.

Depending on the context and other interactions, the image of the group as a whole may become more positive as well. (At other times, people rationalize that their one new acquaintance is "not like the others.") But even learning that one person can deviate from the stereotype is a start. The challenge then is to expand such transformative experiences beyond the individuals involved to larger groups, communities, and eventually whole societies.

Developing such mutual understanding is the goal of many intervention efforts in war-torn areas, and in places rocked by social unrest. Dialogue groups and problem-solving workshops are two common ways of doing this. So are joint projects such as war-reconstruction efforts, children's programs, recreational programs, medical programs -- any kind of program that brings individuals from opposing groups together in a cooperative venture. Although they have additional goals beyond the breaking of stereotypes, working together cooperatively can do much to break down negative images people hold of the "enemy."

In the Media. The media also plays an important role in both perpetuating and in breaking down stereotypes. If they characterize particular groups of people in certain ways, their viewers (or readers) are likely to do the same. So if a movie -- or the motion picture industry in general -- characterizes a group of people negatively, they are likely to be perpetuating negative stereotypes and making conflicts worse. If they emphasize the positive aspects of groups that contradict prevalent stereotypes, they can have a significant role in building mutual understanding.

In Education. Educational institutions and teaching materials also have the opportunity to affect stereotypes, and hence influence inter-group relations. Efforts to teach about different cultures, and the history of different racial or ethnic groups can help build inter-group understanding if it is done in an effective and sympathetic way.

However, the opposite is also true. If textbooks teach about the treachery and villainous actions of the enemy, this, obviously, will only perpetuate stereotypes from one generation to the next, entrenching the conflict for many years to come. This does not mean that history should be ignored. The holocaust, for example, did occur and must be acknowledged. But it can be acknowledged as a grave mistake that is now recognized as a mistake, rather than painted as "typical" or "acceptable" behavior.

What Individuals Can Do to Breakdown Negative Stereotypes

Changing stereotypes is largely the job of individuals. Each of us should examine the assumptions that we make about others and ask ourselves where those assumptions come from. Upon what information are they based? Are they based on personal experiences with others? In what context? Might "the other" be different in different situations? Are your assumptions based on things you have heard from others? Learned from the TV or movies? Learned in school? Is it possible that some of your negative images are wrong -- at least for some people?

In most cases, the answer to that last question is likely to be "yes." Even in the most escalated conflicts, not all of the "enemy" is as vicious and immutable as they are often assumed to be. Most groups have moderates and extremists , people who are willing to listen and work with the other side, and those who are not. Rather than assuming all of "the enemy" are evil and unwilling to hear your concerns, try to get to know people as individuals. Just as that will reduce the stereotypes you hold of others, it is also likely to reduce the stereotypes others hold of you.

What the Media Can Do

Steps the media can take to reduce stereotypes are dealt with elsewhere in this system, but fundamentally, it is important that the media paint as accurate a picture of both sides of a conflict as is possible. This generally means painting a complex picture. While extremists tend to make the most noise and hence the most news, the media can do much to lessen conflict by focusing attention on moderates and peacebuilders as well. Heartwarming stories of reconciliation can replace or at least stand side-by-side with heart-wrenching stories of violence and loss. Showing that there is hope -- helping people visualize a better life in a better world -- is a service the media can do better than any other institution, at least on a large scale.

What the Educational System Can Do

This, too, is dealt with elsewhere in this system, but the educational system (teachers, schools, textbooks) needs to also try to paint a fair and accurate picture of the conflict and the different people involved, being aware that different sides of a conflict will view ( frame ) what is happening very differently. Through stories, discussions, and exercises, teachers can help students (of all ages and levels) understand the complexity of the conflicts that surround them, and develop age- and situation-appropriate responses to the current conflicts in their homes, communities, and nations. To the extent that classrooms contain students from both sides of the conflict, teachers can help students learn to understand and appreciate each other better, while protecting the safety (physical and emotional) of those on both sides. If the classroom only contains one group, reaching such intergroup understandings is harder, but still worth the effort through books and articles, discussions, TV and movies, and when available, online exercises (such as those provided in the links below).

Stereotypes, particularly negative characterizations are extremely prevalent and problematic in U.S. politics and culture these days.  The left still sees the right as  corrupt, stupid, selfish, racist, sexist, homophobes.  The right likewise paints the left as corrupt, stupid, selfish, elitist, intolerant "takers" (as opposed to "makers.") These stereotypes make it practically impossible to befriend, relate to, or understand the other side enough to work with them or live in harmony with them. 

The same dynamics appears in almost all escalated conflicts, and if allowed to go to far, results in catastrophe.  Before and during the Rwandan genocide, Tutsi's were referred to as "cockroaches" "rats," and "enemies."  Jews, similarly, were seen as non-human or less than human "enemies" by the perpetrators of the Holocaust, so too were the Blacks who were captured in Africa and brought to the Americas as slaves seen as less than human.  (Even the U.S. Constitution validated such beliefs by counting slaves as 3/5 people!) 

One hopes that the U.S. has not and would not go to such extremes again  But we are currently seeing it happen with respect to Muslims who are, apparently, not deserving of the same rights as other people according to Trump and some of his followers.  We saw it with respect to Mexicans during Trump's campaign, where he accused them of being criminals and rapists.  Both groups now are under siege, Mexicans and other undocumented immigrants fearing deportation daily, and Muslims increasingly being attacked and even killed for their religious beliefs.  

It's time to turn this pathology around.  Both this article and the linked article on Enemy Images  have suggestions about ways such negative stereotypes can be combated.  It is incumbent upon everyone who wants a safe, secure America to enact such measures wherever possible.

--Heidi Burgess, June, 2017.

Back to Essay Top

[1] Breslin, J. William. 1991. "Breaking Away from Subtle Biases" in Negotiation Theory and Practice, eds. J. William Breslin and Jeffrey Rubin (Cambridge, Mass., U.S.: Program on Negotiation Books, 1991), 247-250.

Use the following to cite this article: Burgess, Heidi. "Stereotypes / Characterization Frames." Beyond Intractability . Eds. Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess. Conflict Information Consortium, University of Colorado, Boulder. Posted: October 2003 < http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/stereotypes >.

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• Published: 25 November 2020

Perceptions of stereotypes applied to women who publicly communicate their STEM work

• Merryn McKinnon   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4808-0380 1   na1 &
• Christine O’Connell 2   na1  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  7 , Article number:  160 ( 2020 ) Cite this article

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Gender biases and stereotypes are prevalent in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, which can create obstacles for the attraction, retention and progression of girls and women to STEM studies and careers. There are many initiatives which are used to attempt to address these biases and stereotypes, including the use of visible role models. This study explores the perceptions of the stereotypes applied to female STEM professionals who publicly speak about their work in both academic and non-academic settings. Using workshops with over 300 participants, predominantly female STEM professionals, from over 25 different cultural backgrounds, the results showed women who publicly communicate their work are likely to be stereotyped as ‘bitchy’, ‘bossy’, and ‘emotional’—often by their own gender. These findings suggest that women may be in a more vulnerable position when communicating publicly about their work, which could have implications for them participating fully in their careers. It may also have implications for programs which use role models to address prevailing STEM stereotypes. Systematic cultural and institutional change is needed in STEM fields to address the underlying bias and negative stereotypes facing women. However, it should be ensured that the intended solutions to facilitate this change are not compounding the problem.

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Introduction.

Gender gaps and bias are still prevalent in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Gender-based stereotypes present obstacles for women in STEM and continue to play a role in ongoing discrimination and under-representation of women in STEM professions (Carli et al., 2016 ). Experiences with gender bias and stereotypes in STEM are compounded throughout female scientist’s careers and have been shown to emerge as early as kindergarten (Bian et al., 2017 ; Cimpian et al., 2016 ). One dominant stereotype is that boys are better at maths and science than girls, which studies show is not true (O’Dea et al., 2018 ). In addition, stereotypical traits of scientists such as objectivity and rationality are generally consistent with male gender-normative traits (Settles et al., 2016 ). Comparatively, women are seen as highly communal (i.e., kinder, warmer, empathetic) and less agentic (i.e., analytical, independant, and competitive) and therefore less likely to have the qualities and personality characteristics needed to be successful scientists (Carli et al., 2016 ). Gender based stereotypes like this not only influence the career choices for women in STEM, but also the retention of women in STEM fields as they must overcome deeply embedded discrimination and bias (Ellemers, 2018 ; Carli et al., 2016 ).

These gendered STEM stereotypes are inherently influenced by the dominant social norms that position STEM as being male-oriented (Garriott et al., 2017 ), including in media coverage of science and technology (Women’s Leadership Institute Australia, 2019 ). Public perceptions of science are shaped by exposure to science and role models, and the cultural contexts and beliefs of the individuals who are exposed (Noy and O’Brien, 2019 ). Role models can be used to address negative stereotypical perceptions of women in STEM fields, as well as both attract and retain girls and women in STEM studies and careers (Drury et al., 2011 ; Shin et al., 2016 ). However what are the implications of being a visible woman in STEM? This study aims to provide insight into the perceptions of the stereotypes which are applied to women who speak publicly about their research and/or work. The implications of these stereotypes for women in STEM, particularly those who may be considered role models, are then discussed.

Literature review

Gender stereotypes are shared by all and tend to oversimplify reality, creating judgments of people based on perceived—rather than actual—ability (Ellemers, 2018 ). Women are stereotypically defined as having communal traits such as being warm and nurturing, whereas men are stereotypically allocated agentic traits such as competence and assertiveness (Fiske et al., 2002 ) with the latter considered much more consistent with competitive STEM fields (Settles et al., 2016 ). If a group is negatively stereotyped (e.g., seen as somehow lesser), membership of this group can influence psychological health (Roberts et al., 2008 ), performance (Steele, 1997 ) and one’s sense of identity and belonging (Diekman et al., 2019 ). This is especially the case if the role models have high levels of stigma consciousness; an expectation of judgment because of a specific group membership, irrespective of behavior or performance (Pinel, 1999 ). Stigma consciousness may be an important indicator of vulnerability of women to the negative influence of stereotype threat in real world contexts (Cadaret et al., 2017 ).

Awareness of being negatively perceived or ‘other’ can influence identity, either identity as a particular gender or as someone who does science (Carlone and Johnson, 2007 ). Earlier studies have also found that members of marginalized groups may further penalize those who display these marginalized identity traits (Opie and Phillips, 2015 ). Therefore, members of marginalized groups may be reluctant to display the traits which identify them as a member of that group, negating attempts to increase workplace diversity and inclusion (Opie and Phillips, 2015 ). For example, studies have found that women in academia are evaluated more on personality then ability, compared to male colleagues, and are expected to be more nurturing and empathetic (Heilman and Okimoto, 2007 ; Mitchell and Martin, 2018 ). Not only do these stereotypes have implications for women’s careers if they do not conform to being ‘warm’, but as a marginalized group, they may penalize other women who display this stereotype (Opie and Phillips, 2015 ). In addition, accomplishments that challenge the stereotype (e.g., women being good at science) are often discounted or attributed to outside help (Ellemers, 2018 ).

Stereotypes lead people to treat men and women differently, hold them to different standards, and perpetuate gender bias in society, including in STEM (Ellemers, 2018 ). These perceptions and evaluations are underpinned by both explicit and implicit biases, with the latter more automatic and less conscious and controllable than the former (Charlesworth and Banaji, 2019 ). Previous studies have shown that even women working within science hold an implicit stereotype of science being a masculine area and women ‘belonging’ in the arts (Smyth and Nosek, 2015 ). Implicit biases which reinforce gender stereotypes have been found to become evident from a young age and appear across genders, cultures and time (Charlesworth and Banaji, 2019 ).

Gender stereotypes negatively influence a women’s perceived potential, and also how they are evaluated (Ellemers, 2018 ) including in job materials like reference letters and resumes (Milkman et al., 2015 ; Moss-Racusin et al., 2012 ). In teaching evaluations specifically, women experienced a negative bias in ratings and were evaluated on different criteria than men, including appearance and personality (Mitchell and Martin, 2018 ). Articles are cited less when key authors are female, and research has shown an underrepresentation of female authorships in prestigious journals (Bendels et al., 2018 ). Despite this body of research, there are some men—and probably some women—in STEM faculties who are reluctant to accept research and evidence of gender bias in STEM (Handley et al., 2015 ). However, gender biases can all have serious and lasting impacts on the person targeted and the cumulative effects can be extremely damaging to both their career and self (Knobloch-Westerwick et al., 2013 ; National Academies of Sciences, 2018 ). Women who publicly communicate their work may be especially vulnerable to these different types of harassment. Gender-based stereotypes can amplify harrassment and discrimination in STEM, especially when those stereotypes about women do not overlap with those about perceptions of what it means to be a scientist (Carli et al., 2016 ).

Gender bias and sexism are pervasive and well documented in STEM fields, disproportionately disrupting and impacting women (National Academies of Sciences, 2018 ; Rosenthal et al., 2016 ) especially women of color (Clancy et al., 2017 ) and LGBTQ+ and non-binary individuals (Konik and Cortina, 2008 ). The most common type of harassment in STEM fields is gender harassment (National Academies of Sciences, 2018 ), which can involve disrespectful actions, put downs and negative comments that convey the false narrative that women are lesser than their male counterparts (National Academies of Sciences, 2018 ; Weitz, 2018 ). In disciplines like engineering, they can suffer from (in)visibility where they are highly visible as a woman but their abilities as engineers are contested (Faulkner, 2009 ). Then there are Queen Bees, even in non-STEM fields; women who have risen to leadership positions in male dominated organizations and then distance themselves from junior women, agree with negative stereotypes and effectively reinforce gender inequality (Derks et al., 2016 ).

The negative effects of gender-based stereotypes extend to public communication activities of women in STEM. Media worldwide have traditionally under-represented females in STEM, and where they were represented the focus tended to be either on their appearance or their feminine roles as wives and mothers (Chimba and Kitzinger, 2010 ). Even in Finland, which has a strong commitment to gender equality, the media predominantly interview male scientists as experts (Niemi and Pitkänen, 2017 ). Women experience negative stereotypes and bias when talking or writing about their work, including in teaching and presentations (Mitchell and Martin, 2018 ), research articles (Budden et al., 2008 ), and in YouTube and social media (Amarasekara and Grant, 2019 ; Veletsianos, 2012 ). But what perceptions do women in STEM have of the stereotypes which might be applied to those who speak publicly about their work?

In this study we used workshops to examine participant perceptions of which stereotypes are applied to women who speak publicly about their research or work and explore whether these stereotypes are perceived as positive or negative. Understanding the perceptions of stereotypes applied to those who publicly communicate their science allows a more nuanced understanding of the potential impact being visible or being a role model may have. We also outline how this understanding may enable the development of better mechanisms to support women in STEM.

Participants were recruited via email, website, newsletter notices, conference sessions and direct requests for workshops by the researchers. Recruitment was initially within the researchers’ home institutions but then expanded to their networks and via word of mouth. Stereotype data was collected from September 2017 until April 2018 within workshops conducted in various locations in Australia, New Zealand, USA and Japan. These workshops were conducted during conferences, women in STEM leadership/professional development programs and in sessions specifically scheduled for this research. Ethics clearance for this research was obtained from both researchers’ home institutions and all participants provided informed consent.

The workshops

The workshops ranged in size from four to 80 participants at a time. The larger workshops were broken into smaller groups (up to 10 people) for the data collection exercise, resulting in 49 distinct groups used for data collection across all 17 workshops. Each workshop followed a similar structure. After a brief introduction, large sheets of paper and colored pens were distributed to tables around the room. Working in the smaller focus groups, participants were asked to write down “all of the gender based stereotypes that are applied to women who communicate about their science [research/work]”. After 15 min, participants were then instructed to mark stereotypes as positive or negative. Participants may have had some disagreement about whether particular stereotypes were positive or negative and were instructed that this was okay and to mark these stereotypes as “both”. This positive/negative perception section elicited more discussion and storytelling within each group, so was typically allocated about 25 min. Timing for both parts could be lengthened or shortened depending upon the total time available and the nature of the engagement in the room.

Once stereotypes had been listed as positive, negative or both, groups came back together and a whole room discussion was held. One group would start to read their list of negative stereotypes. As each stereotype was read, it would be described (including use of participant derived examples if necessary for clarity) and then the facilitator would lead a short discussion on how this stereotype could be ‘flipped’—made positive or negative depending on the situation, audience, and goal of the communicator. Examples of stereotype ‘flips’ are provided in Table 1 . Each group marked off the corresponding negative stereotype on their own list so as one group finished their sheet of paper, others may have had only a few additional stereotypes. These were also discussed until all stereotypes generated by participants had been covered (time permitting). At the end of the workshop the sheets of paper were collected and retained for analysis.

Data analysis

Both researchers coded the collected sheets of paper using a cross sectional ‘code and retrieve’ method (Mason, 2002 ). Each stereotype listed was entered into a spreadsheet and then iteratively grouped into similar themes of analytical categories through a process of inductive category development (Mayring, 2000 ), which is appropriate given the limited existing knowledge (Elo and Kyngäs, 2008 ) about perceptions of stereotypes for women in STEM publicly communicating their work. As the data consisted of single words or short phrases, each individual word was read and used to derive the code categories (Miles and Huberman, 1994 ). The number of times a stereotype theme appeared on each page was also counted. For example ‘judged by appearance’, ‘too much makeup’, ‘too young’ would all be categorized within the theme ‘judged’ and counted as the judged stereotype appearing three times on that sheet.

The researchers each coded the sheets each after the first workshop and refined the categories together to ensure consistent categorization. The coding process was repeated at different times during the data collection, when approximately half the data was entered and again once all data was entered. The repetition allowed for a systematic overview of all the data collected and the development of thematic categories which best represented the data as a whole. Throughout the process, exemplars of each category were identified from the data (Hsieh and Shannon, 2005 ) and relationships between them clarified which refined the total number of categories. Any stereotypes which were interpreted differently by the researchers were discussed, resolved, and subsequently consistently coded using the validated definition.

As the purpose of this study is to explore perceptions of stereotypes, the categories have been left intentionally broad to reflect the diversity and complexity of the participants’ perspectives (Hsieh and Shannon, 2005 ). Analysis was limited to manifest, rather than latent, content meaning as the researchers could only be certain of the visible, surface content of text (Cho and Lee, 2014 ). The latent or underlying meaning (Graneheim and Lundman, 2004 ) could not have been interpreted with reasonable accuracy as little was known about the participants as individuals or the context of the conversations from which the single words or short phrases were derived. As this study is intended to be descriptive, staying to the “…surface of words…” (Sandelowski, 2000 , p. 336) was deemed the most appropriate analytical approach. Validity of the data collected is supported through the extended time spent debriefing and discussing the words and phrases elicited from participants during the workshops, ensuring that their intent and meaning was understood and accurately interpreted (Manning, 1997 ). To the authors’ knowledge this is one of, if not the only, attempt to capture perceptions of stereotypes applied to the public communication activities of women in STEM. Therefore the intent of this analysis is to present a preliminary development of the concept or model (Lindkvist, 1981 ) rather than a deeper analysis of lived experience or development of theory which grounded theory or alternative form of qualitative analysis would offer (Hsieh and Shannon, 2005 ).

Stereotype categories

About 315 people, the vast majority women, participated in the workshops with representatives from around 25 different cultural backgrounds identified. In total, data was collected from 49 different groups within 17 workshops. Participants tended to range from early career through to senior levels with the majority from within academia. Specific demographic data was not collected—identification of different demographic variables was made through either recruitment processes, workshop location or self-identification by participants during discussions.

Participant responses yielded 1273 words or phrases which were then coded into a total of 17 categories. While these categories could potentially be refined further, some of the nuance would be lost. Each category, and indicative words used in the generation of that category, are shown in Table 2 . Each category name is deliberately neutral rather than directional, even if seemingly obviously negative, as participants were asked to describe whether these are positive or negative based on their perception, as described later. Emotional and empathetic were kept separate as the emotional stereotype category typically reflected hysterical or irrational responses, whereas the empathetic stereotype category dealt more with interpersonal skills and maternal tendencies. Credibility, worth and undeserving also appear closely related but the differences are quite specific. Credibility focuses on whether women are seen as competent and experienced or as somehow lesser than their male counterparts. Worth specifically refers to whether women are perceived as being worthy of support, professional development or any other form of investment from employers. Undeserving is tied to credibility but was kept within its own category due to the comparatively common responses related to women being lucky to have achieved what they have, and the implication that sexual or other favors must be related to the woman’s success.

Perceptions of stereotypes

All individual words and phrases were counted, coded and recorded as they were indicated by the attendees to be considered positive, negative or both. The most commonly occurring category was ‘Bitchy’, with stereotypes from that category appearing 167 times across all groups; just over 13% of responses (Table 2 ). ‘Credibility’ was the next most commonly appearing category with 143 mentions (11.2%) and ‘Appearance’ in third with 130 mentions (10.2%, Table 2 ). Participants shared stories and examples during this exercise of how they changed their behavior based on the stereotype. For example, in naming a stereotype in the category of ‘Appearance’ one participant admitted to not wearing skirts at conferences or speaking engagements anymore after hearing a male scientist make a comment about a female speaker’s legs while she was on stage. Another said she purposely did not wear a lot of make-up, put her hair up and wore her glasses when she taught or gave presentations, so she would not look ‘pretty’ and would therefore be taken more seriously.

Unsurprisingly, the identified stereotypes were predominantly considered negative, especially those in the credibility, judged on appearance, annoying, confidence, worth, and undeserving categories (Fig. 1 ). Categories that were considered to be more positive included empathetic, nice, efficient, collaborative and superwoman, however participants indicated that these could also be considered negative, particularly the empathetic and nice categories (Fig. 1 ). The negative nature of the stereotype is reflected in some of the words and phrases consistently being raised in the focus groups. A word cloud generated using all words and phrases collected and used in the coding process clearly shows ‘bossy’, ‘bitchy’, and ‘emotional’ as the most commonly occurring (Fig. 2 ).

Individual focus groups rated each stereotype within the category as either negative, positive or both. Stereotypes are listed from most negatively perceived to least.

The larger the word, the more frequently it appeared in the data.

An interesting word that was commonly elicited in all workshops was ‘too’. Usually this was in the context of ‘too many’, ‘too much’, or ‘too little’ and occasionally replaced or used in conjunction with ‘overly’. Typically, these were used in relation to women’s behaviors, for example asking questions (too many), being emotional, assertive or ambitious (overly/too), or their general appearance (too pretty) including make up (too much/little) and age (too old/young). The other words that surfaced attached to a stereotype were ‘more’ or ‘less’ (e.g., more motherly than, less serious than); ‘enough’ or ‘lack of’ (e.g., not smart enough, lack of drive) and ‘not as’ or ‘overly’ (e.g., not as friendly as or overly friendly).

Confronting personal bias

After identifying the dominant stereotypes, each group was then led through an exercise to ‘flip’ the stereotype (described further in “Methods” section). The ‘flipping’ exercise created discussion amongst the participants of how they may be able to respond rather than react to the stereotype and deflate the negative connotation of the stereotype by making a measured communication choice. For example, the majority of the group had witnessed a situation when a woman was referred to as ‘bitchy’, or some other derogatory word, when she spoke her mind or stood up to someone in an assertive way; they admitted to this shaping their behavior in the future. Participants discussed the implications of when individuals make communication decisions based on a perceived stereotype versus the situation at hand.

When looking at a stereotype as positive or negative, and then flipping it, participants started to look at how they labeled not just themselves but others in various situations; they were forced to confront their own bias. During the ‘flipping’ exercise several participants, in multiple workshops, admitted to feeling annoyed by other women who demonstrated a stereotype. For example, in situations where a woman was soft-spoken or shy, some shared they were angry or annoyed at the speaker because they felt the individual perpetuated the stereotype that women are meek and do not have strong opinions. They reacted as if this made it worse for other women, instead of focusing on how they can help the other person be more confident or be heard, or that it might even be a calculated choice. Participants within each workshop were asked for a show of hands whether they had applied the identified negative stereotypes to other women themselves. Consistently 95–100% of participants at each workshop indicated that they had.

Our results show the top three stereotype categories for women in science who publicly communicate their work as ‘Bitchy’, lack of ‘Credibility’, and judged on ‘Appearance,’ with the specific stereotype words that surfaced the most being ‘bossy’, ‘bitchy’, and ‘emotional’, with ‘motherly’ in a close fourth. The top perceived stereotypes are consistent with prior studies that found women are judged more on personality and appearance, perceived as less credible than their male colleagues and are expected to be ‘warm and nurturing’ (Carli et al., 2016 ; Heilman and Okimoto, 2007 ; Mitchell and Martin, 2018 ). Responses to the ‘Empathetic’ and ‘Nice’ categories in this study showed that participants had mixed positive and negative associations, which may indicate that women were often judged more harshly when they did not conform to this stereotype, which is consistent with results in earlier studies (Ellemers, 2018 ; Heilman and Okimoto, 2007 ; Mitchell and Martin, 2018 ).

The results also show the majority of stereotypes women face when communicating are perceived to be negative. The negative perception of the stereotypes may be in part due to participants’ experience, which is consistent with the literature showing stereotypes perpetuate gender based career disadvantages and behavior expectations for women in STEM (Knobloch-Westerwick et al., 2013 ; Madera et al., 2009 ; Weitz, 2018 ). For example, many burdensome service expectations for female faculty, which are not as valued in promotion and tenure decisions, can often be attributed to the stereotypes that women are more caring, motherly, administrative and outreach oriented. This is supported by the predominantly negative perception of the ‘Administrator’ category in this study.

Although the categories of ‘Nice’ and ‘Empathetic’ were more positively regarded in this study, previous research has shown that being portrayed as ‘caring’ is not necessarily helpful for career prospects for women in STEM. Women who are seen as career oriented, competent and ‘non-traditional’ are often deemed competent but not warm, whereas those who are deemed warm are not considered competent (Fiske et al., 2002 , 2007 ) and this might actually negatively affect job prospects when communicated in recommendation letters (Madera et al., 2009 ). The stereotype categories of lesser credibility, worth and lower confidence all contribute to women being valued less than their male colleagues, as shown in the literature regarding lower salaries, hiring decisions, lower competency ratings, less willingness to mentor, and fewer invitations to speak at conferences (Moss-Racusin et al., 2012 ). Negative gender stereotypes perpetuate bias and barriers that persist for women in STEM fields including in career advancement, service burdens, salary, teaching, publishing, speaking roles, promotion and retention. Perceptions of an unfavorable, even unfriendly environment, for women in STEM also has implications for their psychological well-being and subsequent performance (Settles et al., 2016 ). This then implies that negative stereotypical perceptions do not only negatively affect women, but also the companies and organizations they work for.

Women are often encouraged into role model positions to counteract this institutional and societal bias, and close gender gaps in STEM fields (Diekman et al., 2019 ). However, this study shows that underlying implicit biases may be actively counteracting any positive contribution to social identity these role models may make. For example, comments elicited during the workshop discussions included women admitting to judging other women more harshly for displaying stereotypical traits such as being soft spoken. This is consistent with earlier research which found members of minoritized groups will punish members of the same group for public displays of potentially negative stereotypes (Opie and Phillips, 2015 ). Similarly, women showed evidence of stigma consciousness by their acknowledgment of changing their appearance and/or behavior in order to avoid negative judgment and stereotypes.

These results then beg the question: without addressing the underlying gender bias and stereotypical beliefs of individuals, STEM institutions and society, are we putting women at disproportionate risk by encouraging them to be publicly visible role models in STEM? By advocating for more women in STEM as role models, we are asking people who are already minoritized to counteract a whole raft of existing stereotypes, only to have them exposed to many of the same and other stereotypes themselves. Arguably the potential negative impacts are compounded for individuals who may have multiple minoritized group identities. What is experienced by a cisgender, middle class, white female role model in say health or biology, could be vastly different from a transwoman of a culturally diverse background who works in chemistry or engineering for example. Future research should adopt an intersectional lens to gain further understanding of how stereotypes affect STEM professionals in different disciplines and contexts.

In addition, as the lack of fit between female gender-based stereotypes and stereotypes about being a scientist can negatively impact how women in STEM are evaluated, addressing these biases and deeply held stereotypes is necessary to ensure more equitable evaluation (Carli et al., 2016 ) which has implications for subsequent career progression and potentially the under-representation of women at senior levels in STEM fields (Charlesworth and Banaji, 2019 ). Ellmers ( 2018 ) argues that change is unlikely if people do not recognize that stereotypes lie at the root of gender differences in society and work to identify and correct their own bias. Therefore, effective training to address and combat implicit and explicit bias for individuals and institutions is needed, especially for those in positions of privilege and power. Bias training is particularly important given previous studies have shown that when those in positions of power, including but not restricted to men, do not accept evidence of gender bias there is actually a higher level of implicit gender bias in their decision making (Handley et al., 2015 ; Régner et al., 2019 ). Previous studies have shown that ‘habit-breaking’ interventions using strategies such as placing oneself in the perspective of others, thinking of people as individuals rather than part of a group, or exposure to counter stereotypical examples can all be useful to address biases, especially when employed in combination (Charlesworth and Banaji, 2019 ). It is also important to recognize the utility of this training for women in STEM themselves, with both exposure to female peers and counter-stereotypical role models (male and female) increasing self-efficacy beliefs about success in STEM (Cheryan et al., 2011 ; Stout et al., 2011 )

Although men are more likely to hold positions of power in STEM organizations, a common theme that emerged in the workshops was that it was not just men who were perpetuating the problem. Women felt judged and held back by other women, especially those who had advanced to leadership positions, which supports the findings of an earlier study which showed the tendency of minoritized groups to ‘police’ their own members who exhibit a stereotype (Opie and Phillips, 2015 ). Simply, women may judge other women more harshly who demonstrate a stereotype, or it may be evidence of the queen bee phenomenon, or more likely it is simply underlying implicit bias. The knowledge of the existence of negative stereotypes, however unfairly labeled, may prevent women from speaking up for fear of being labeled by the stereotype, advocating on behalf of other women or from appearing publicly in a professional capacity at all.

Bias also presented itself in qualifying words like ‘too’, ‘less than’ or ‘more’, which set up an invisible line where a behavior is acceptable, and when it is not. Qualifiers are arbitrary and often differ from person to person. Words like these may encourage an us-versus-them mentality and set up a divide between groups, propagating an environment where the impacts of bias persist and where women are held to a double standard (Rivera and Tilcsik, 2019 ). Who gets to decide what is ‘too much’ or ‘too little’, or whether someone is ‘more’ or ‘less than’ someone else? The results of this study imply that there is a preferred amount or level of these characteristics; a tightrope upon which women in particular must balance. However, considering there is not an accepted designation of the ‘preferred’ amount, it is often dictated by those in a position of power or privilege, shaped by their own bias and stereotypes.

Being aware of the stereotypes presented here, and the implicit and explicit bias they perpetuate, is the first step in combating them. Most people have some level of gendered stereotype bias. A recent study by UNDP showed that worldwide, 91% of men and 86% of women hold at least one bias against women with regard to politics, economics, education, violence or reproductive rights (UNDP, 2020 ). By acknowledging and understanding individual reactions to stereotypes applied to women in STEM, we better understand where our own bias may emerge, and are more equipped to tackle it. It also allows us to more thoroughly examine the impact that being a role model and communicating science publicly has on women in STEM. In addition, understanding stereotypes and our own reactions to them, may enable the development of better mechanisms to support women in STEM who assume role model positions.

This study used conventional qualitative analysis techniques which provide a baseline overview of perceptions of stereotypes, rather than a deeper analysis or development of theory. Future work may wish to build upon the results presented here to develop more fulsome understandings of the relationship between these stereotypes and lived experience of women and other minoritized groups in STEM, which could be further supported through the inclusion of participant demographic data. This would also allow for latent analysis of content to provide deeper and richer data and understanding. The results presented here were collected from people who had chosen to attend, and participate in, a workshop specifically about stereotypes and women in STEM. Future studies may wish to broaden this participant pool to gather perceptions of those not inherently interested in the topic. In addition, as all but one of the workshops was marketed to scientists identifying as women, further studies may wish to include male and non-binary scientists.

Role models may be held up as a means of addressing prevailing stereotypes, however it appears that the equally important element of inclusion is being ignored. By encouraging women to be visible and communicate their work publicly, and then holding them to double-standards in communication and labeling them as bitchy, bossy, or undeserving, we are failing. By pushing solutions that include more women in STEM as role models, without addressing underlying negative stereotypes they will face, we may actually be putting those women in a more precarious position. Acknowledging and understanding the multifaceted, and often at odds, stereotypes that women in STEM face when communicating in public is the first step in changing the narrative and developing better mechanisms to support women in STEM.

The results presented in this study show that the prevailing perceptions of the stereotypes applied to women who speak publicly about their work are largely negative. These are the perceptions of women who, through participating in this study, are showing an interest in matters of equity and diversity. Any attempts to support greater gender equity and inclusion then must also acknowledge our own biases and deeply held stereotypes and recognize how they might affect our behavior and judgment regarding ourselves and others. Creating networks of support for women and giving them tools and space to address gender bias in STEM can help in battling discrimination. However, to truly change the system we must train everyone, including ourselves and especially those in positions of power and privilege, to be effective bystanders against gender bias, sexual harassment, and the perpetuation of negative stereotypes.

Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during this study are not publicly available due to the potential for individuals/groups to be identified, but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Author information

These authors contributed equally: Merryn McKinnon, Christine O’Connell.

Authors and Affiliations

Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia

Merryn McKinnon

School of Journalism and the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA

Christine O’Connell

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Correspondence to Merryn McKinnon .

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McKinnon, M., O’Connell, C. Perceptions of stereotypes applied to women who publicly communicate their STEM work. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 7 , 160 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-00654-0

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Received : 20 April 2020

Accepted : 03 November 2020

Published : 25 November 2020

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-00654-0

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