Ways in which stories influence and shape culture, beliefs, biases, and stereotypes

Answer

The Impact of Stories on Cultural Norms, Stereotypes and Implicit Bias

Stories play a vital role in influencing our perceptions about individuals, groups, and classes of people within our society. When we are subjected to continuous or repeated story about certain cultures, individuals, or group of individuals, we may develop positive and negative biases about such groups, and this may influence how we perceive them or even our beliefs about them. In this essay, I am going to argue that stories greatly shape and influence our perception and beliefs about other people or group of individuals by assigning negative connotations to them based on their gender and culture. The paper will justify this claim by incorporating ideas and definitions among other major points from learning resources on how stories impact implicit bias, stereotypes, and cultural norms, and by focusing on my single story.

Stories negatively influence our beliefs and perceptions of a group of individuals by attributing particular negative characteristics or qualities to them based on their gender. Our tendency to generalize our perceptions or attitudes towards all members of a particular class or group is attributed to implicit bias. Implicit bias can be defined as any unconscious belief, association, or attitude toward a particular social group (Cherry and Marsh par. 1). Implicit biases may influence individuals into attributing certain characteristics or qualities to all people who belong to a given group. This phenomenon is often known as stereotyping (Cherry and Marsh par. 1). Stereotype involves passing judgment over widespread or generalized beliefs concerning a given class or group individuals (Hinton 2). For instance, women are often subjected to prejudice owing to their gender and the fact that they are females hinders them from being held to the same job titles level and makes them receive lower pay scale (Raymond7). My personal life can attest to this experience. I grew up as a child with the perception that women were relatively weaker than men in all areas of life including. My negative attitude towards women’s potential was influenced by the same story about boys being stronger than men that I repeatedly heard from my seniors. My dad also reinforced this view in my mind as he often stated that boys are born stronger than females. I only managed to overcome this stereotype recently when I encountered a woman beating three adult males. This event occurred in the past three weeks when I went out with my friends only to encounter three men being beaten by a woman. Nonetheless, it is significant to note that the issue of stereotype against women based on their gender continues to prevail in the contemporary society in other areas of life. For instance, “The results from hundreds of thousands of people indicate that I am not an outlier — 70% of men and women across 34 countries view science as more male than female” (Raymond 1). Raymond proceeds to refer to a story of a woman who had to refer to herself as girl captain, as a suggestion of her awareness that she had to overcome a gender stereotype to occupy that position of leadership (Raymond 7).  Apart from Raymond’s story I can also attest to the fact that many people continue to view women as being unable to perform better than men in science based on my real-life experience. For instance, after we had observed the three men being beaten by a woman, one of my friends made a funny statement by stating that maybe the three men could have beaten the woman in math. This remark emphasizes the negative perception that the society still possess about women when it comes to handling science.

Stories can negatively influence our perceptions about cultures of certain groups of people by assigning biased attributes to such cultures. Paul states, “When we use stereotypes, we take in the gender, the age, the color of the skin of the person before us, and our minds respond with messages that say hostile, stupid, slow, weak (9).” In relation to this, it can be argued that individuals are often stereotyped owing to their skin color, age, and gender. As a result, we always develop negative thoughts towards people who are stereotyped based on these aspects. We often perceive individuals negatively and look down on their potentials based on stories that we hear about them. For example, Tan states, “Asian-American students whose English spoken in the home might also be described as ‘broken’ or ‘limited’ (par. 7). Having grown up listening to people talking negatively about Indians’ inability to communicate eloquently in English, I developed a perception that all Indians were unable to speak good English. I even remember my friends making fun my trying to speak in English in Indian accent, especially after watching Indian movies. However, my perception about Indians changed when I encountered an Indian, who considered among the most eloquent English speakers in my neighborhood. That experience awakened me to the fact that not all individuals from a given group can be associated with a given characteristic.

Personally, I believe that addressing the issue of stereotypes against individuals from specific classes, groups, or races can be accomplished by interacting with them and knowing more about them as suggested by Walton et al.(1).  As such, I intend to focus on interacting more with individuals from different groups so that I can know them for who they are, and not for what I hear about them. Besides, engaging in cognitive retraining can also assist me to undo stereotypical associations as argued by Walton et al. (1). Besides, when it comes to addressing stereotype directed towards me based on my skin color or gender, I can focus on the approach proposed by King. According to King, the value associated with authenticity exists in the rarity of a thing (56). This statement emphasizes the significance of being true to who one is and where he or she comes from. In relation to this, appreciating myself at the personal level and being proud of where I come from and who I am serves as an effective way of addressing stereotype directed towards me based on my culture, skin color, or gender. At the community level, measures such as awareness creation and valuing diversity should be prioritized (Walton et al. 1). Measures such as increasing the representation and visibility of individuals from minority factions groups in various areas of the society including authority positions can help in addressing stereotype (Walton et al., 1). Moreover, practices such as interracial marriages should also be encouraged, as means of eradicating stereotypes based on race (Takooshlan par. 34).

In conclusion, stories largely influence and shape our beliefs, and perceptions about groups of individuals by assigning negative connotations to group and individuals based on their culture and gender. My real-life experiences attest to this notion considering that I have witnessed people negatively perceiving other individuals based on societal perceptions about them and I have been a victim of stereotyping against other groups or individuals based on stories that I heard about them.  Having a robust belief in oneself, interacting with stereotyped individuals and groups, education, and community awareness campaigns can contribute significantly to addressing stereotypes and implicit biases associated with stories.