Men are bad with multi-tasking. Women are bad with directions. Girls are more responsible. Boys are slow learners. Indians are bad with punctuality. Trees are good for the environment. Meat is good for health. Japanese are hard-working. Americans are... Germans are... Italians are... French are... The list goes on. And on.
We live with these stereotypes everyday.
Stereotypes - the broad sweeping generalizations that we make and refer to every single day. Generalizations, that minimize the effort involved in making a choice every time we face a familiar situation. Generalizations, that make a quick and easy lesson for us to pass on. Generalizations, that err on the side of caution in their sweeping declarations, encompassing all things remotely similar with a small footnote for the minor exceptions.
We see the world through these tinted glasses. Some of these stereotypes are what we effortlessly imbibe from others' experiences and some others are based on our own little forays into the world.
And as Chimamanda Adichie elegantly says in her talk on the danger of a single story, "The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. "
Stereotypes, to me are the perfect example of an anachronistic asset - a key to evolutionary success that is fast becoming a handicap, a liability and a source of conflict. Stereotypes underlie our innate ability to learn, to extrapolate from our lessons, to transmit them to others and in the process flattening the learning curve of a society as a whole. This is a great evolutionary asset. To be able to learn from isolated experiences, to be able to spot patterns and to be able to form generalizations of pleasure or pain is a vital asset - a key to survival. It would have saved lives of our ancestors and aided in the transmission of their gene pool.
But today, this very asset traps us in the world of single stories. Of stereotypes and generalizations. We extrapolate based on the tiniest slivers of information. We search for patterns where there are none. We find out a few things and we assume the rest - all in our quest to arrive at the simple generalization. A stereotype.
Stereotypes are universal - to the extent that we don't even realize when we resorting to them up till the point, when we are at the receiving end.
Listening to a talk (A TED Talk) by Adichie recently brought all these thoughts and more to the fore. Here is a transcript of the talk - on the danger of a single story.
But for a trait as inherent and instinctive as this, there is no avoidance. We need to battle it out, make conscious choices to detect it and avoid it. All we can do is to consciously make a choice to not form that first impression. To then not generalize that first impression. To consciously weed out cursory value assignments even as we form those first impressions. To be aware of how we are thinking and why we are making certain choices. It requires the benefit of second-sight and of hind-sight to overcome the bias of the first. It requires reading the second story, the third and the fourth, after the first; before arriving at a conclusion.
It is a lot more work certainly, but it brings us closer to the truth as it exists and farther away from the truth as we know it.
We live with these stereotypes everyday.
Stereotypes - the broad sweeping generalizations that we make and refer to every single day. Generalizations, that minimize the effort involved in making a choice every time we face a familiar situation. Generalizations, that make a quick and easy lesson for us to pass on. Generalizations, that err on the side of caution in their sweeping declarations, encompassing all things remotely similar with a small footnote for the minor exceptions.
We see the world through these tinted glasses. Some of these stereotypes are what we effortlessly imbibe from others' experiences and some others are based on our own little forays into the world.
And as Chimamanda Adichie elegantly says in her talk on the danger of a single story, "The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. "
Stereotypes, to me are the perfect example of an anachronistic asset - a key to evolutionary success that is fast becoming a handicap, a liability and a source of conflict. Stereotypes underlie our innate ability to learn, to extrapolate from our lessons, to transmit them to others and in the process flattening the learning curve of a society as a whole. This is a great evolutionary asset. To be able to learn from isolated experiences, to be able to spot patterns and to be able to form generalizations of pleasure or pain is a vital asset - a key to survival. It would have saved lives of our ancestors and aided in the transmission of their gene pool.
But today, this very asset traps us in the world of single stories. Of stereotypes and generalizations. We extrapolate based on the tiniest slivers of information. We search for patterns where there are none. We find out a few things and we assume the rest - all in our quest to arrive at the simple generalization. A stereotype.
Stereotypes are universal - to the extent that we don't even realize when we resorting to them up till the point, when we are at the receiving end.
Listening to a talk (A TED Talk) by Adichie recently brought all these thoughts and more to the fore. Here is a transcript of the talk - on the danger of a single story.
But for a trait as inherent and instinctive as this, there is no avoidance. We need to battle it out, make conscious choices to detect it and avoid it. All we can do is to consciously make a choice to not form that first impression. To then not generalize that first impression. To consciously weed out cursory value assignments even as we form those first impressions. To be aware of how we are thinking and why we are making certain choices. It requires the benefit of second-sight and of hind-sight to overcome the bias of the first. It requires reading the second story, the third and the fourth, after the first; before arriving at a conclusion.
It is a lot more work certainly, but it brings us closer to the truth as it exists and farther away from the truth as we know it.
1 comment:
I have gone back to this ted-talk so many times. :) It is really touching. Makes me think how many opportunities I may have missed due to the single story effect.
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