In her famous TED talk Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gives a brilliant and succinct definition of stereotypes. Stereotypes are created by the same story being repeatedly told. This does not mean that stereotypes are necessarily untrue, but they are incomplete. They make one story appear to capture the essence of an entire social group. It becomes the only story that generalises and simplifies that outgroup.
Stereotypes are created by an ingroup to describe an outgroup. They are a form of social boundary maintenance, distinguishing ‘us’ (the ingroup) from ‘the others’ (the outgroup). In everyday life, stereotypes are essential and hardwired brain mechanisms of social perception and cognition. They make our lives infinitely easier by allowing us to quickly recognise social groups and predict the behaviour of individual people based on their perceived group memberships.
We simply do not have enough time and brain power to evaluate everyone around us as individuals. We rather resort to stereotypes. We do this every day without being aware of it. Although most stereotypes we hold do not end up having negative social impacts on other groups, some do. These are the ones that are used to stigmatise other social groups, resulting in racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, Islamophobia, anti-semitism, etc.
How are stereotypes formed in media? Stereotypes always involve the two elements of categorisation and personality traits:
Categorisation
The viewer socially categorises a character based on what is shown and emphasised on screen through camera and editing (skin colour, clothes, behaviour, living conditions, domestic objects, etc).
Personality Traits
The narrative links the social category to specific personality traits and behaviours, thus creating the stereotype. If the viewer holds this stereotype, it is activated by the narrative and thus reinforced in their mind.
For example, the documentary series Benefits Street uses a set of traditional stereotypes of working-class people, such as being lazy, amoral, messy and filthy. It does so through focusing on dilapidated buildings, littered streets and stories about exploiting the social welfare system.
The constant repetition of such media narratives representing working-class people (the outgroup) has created and maintained this stereotype in non-working class viewers (the ingroup). The ingroup viewer thus perceives the outgroup as a homogenous collective with a very limited, generalised and simplified set of personality traits. Whether based on facts or not, this becomes the only story about working-class people. The viewer is not exposed to alternative stories.
Chapter 2 delves deeper into stereotypes, explaining key stereotype properties, such as intersectionality, valence and binarism. It also explains the crucial difference between ‘stereotype activation’ and ‘stereotype application’.
Read how the parasocial contact hypothesis can be used to reduce stigmatising stereotypes and prejudice.