{"id":1221,"date":"2009-03-03T23:02:49","date_gmt":"2009-03-04T04:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/?p=1221"},"modified":"2009-03-03T23:02:49","modified_gmt":"2009-03-04T04:02:49","slug":"stumbling-and-mumbling-the-power-of-stereotypes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/2009\/03\/03\/stumbling-and-mumbling-the-power-of-stereotypes\/","title":{"rendered":"Stumbling and Mumbling: The power of stereotypes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"FHM<\/a><\/dt>\n
Image by peterjaena<\/a> via Flickr<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This is sad to read. In the Philippines<\/a> people are labeled early on because of close family<\/a> ties, where 2nd or 3rd degree relatives see each other at least once a year. One thing I observe in these awkward situation is the way people give young kids labels that tend to be based on superficial reasons that then I believe sometimes become self fulfilling.<\/p>\n

\nThe power of stereotypes
\nReputations can be self-fulfilling prophecies<\/a> ; if you give a man a bad name, he\u2018ll live down to it. A new paper (pdf) by Thomas Dee shows this.
\nHe did an experiment<\/a> at Swarthmore College<\/a>, asking a group of students to take a GRE test<\/a>. Before the test, some students were asked about their sporting activities, and whether these conflicted with their academic<\/a> work, whilst others were not asked.
\nAnd Mr Dee found that the athletes who were asked these questions performed significantly worse than the athletes who weren\u2019t.
\nThis suggests that when people are primed to be aware of a stereotype<\/a> – \u201cjocks are dumb\u201d – they are more likely to behave in accordance with it.
\nStumbling and Mumbling: The power of stereotypes<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Reblog<\/a>