Duration: Approx. 45-60 minutes
Introduction
This exercise is about self-reflection on unconscious prejudices. First of all: we all have prejudices and stereotypes. This fact itself is not bad and cannot be changed, but we can and must work on how we deal with this fact. To quote author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: “The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.”
Differences are continually created in everyday action and thinking. For example, a distinction is made between actual or ascribed genders, age groups, professions, body shapes, languages, sexualities, or the geographical and social origin of a person. On the one hand, these differentiations are helpful for orienting oneself and for structuring our thoughts. On the other hand, such social categories of difference structure social orders and notions of normality. According to this, referring to social differences is not a harmless practice of distinction, such as the distinction between day and night, but a distinction with social consequences through which interpersonal, structural and institutional relations of inequality and discrimination are produced, reproduced, stabilized and also legitimized.
With this exercise we want to look at our practice of doing differences and what it has to do with (unconscious) prejudices and stereotypes.
First, let’s explain what prejudice is, then, you will get to the exercise.
exercise
Debriefing
- Reflecting about allocation and processes of group formation: Who decides that a group is defined as a group? Do groups arise on their own or are people made into groups?
- Drawing attention to the external and self-attribution character of group formation. Which group we feel (want to) belong to is also shaped by my socialization and by my cultural background
- Growing up under current conditions is characterized by different life styles, so that multiple belonging is part of every identity.
- We can identify commonalities across (alleged) group boundaries when we enter into conversations. The fact that we often do not get to know other experiences is again due to our prejudices, because we do not get into contact with certain people.
- Self-fulfilling prophecy is a psychological phenomenon that can influence our own behavior, but also that of our fellow human beings. At its core, a self-fulfilling prophecy says: If we expect a certain behavior or result, we ourselves contribute to the actual occurrence of that behavior or result. Stereotypes and prejudices are often confirmed, because:
- often you only perceive what you already pay attention to (e. g. because it corresponds to a stereotype),
- sometimes you get others to live up to your own expectations by acting on your own. The opposite effect is called a self-destructive prophecy, whereby our action ensures that a result does not occur at all.
- Prejudices and stereotypes are like double-edged knives: at first glance they seem harmless and helpful. But on closer inspection, they turn out to be dangerous. This exercise therefore aims to gain an in-depth view of the hidden, divisive, and painful intentions and goals of prejudices and stereotypes.
Conclusion:
Stereotypes are fixed patterns that enable simplified thinking (≈ clichés, drawer thinking):
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- are ideas about the collective characteristics of certain groups of people
- are based on the delimitation of groups of persons to whom characteristics are attributed in a general way.
- make it possible to assign a person to a social group on the basis of an (external) characteristic and to attribute to him/her a whole bundle of characteristics.
- are anchored in a culture and are learned in socialization.
Prejudices are preconceived judgments based on stereotypes or stereotypes. - Stereotypes associated with ratings (positive/negative) are more emotionally occupied than stereotypes.
IF STEREOTYPES AND PREJUDICES BECOME GUIDING ACTS and are accompanied by situational and/or social power, then discrimination ensues.