What is stereotypical thinking?

Stereotypes are the scourge of modern society. Clichés, templates, standards are found at every step. “All the rich steal”, “a child must strictly obey his parents”, “every woman must give birth”, “men don’t cry”... The list of such expressions can be continued indefinitely. Stereotypes are terrible because they mercilessly generalize and put everyone under the same brush, without taking into account the individuality of each person. And thinking by standards is even worse. However, first things first.

Why are norms convenient?

The standard line of thinking is really convenient. After all, it gives rise to the same behavior patterns in different people. In addition, the stereotyped thinking of society is very beneficial. Because people with standards ingrained in their minds, as a rule, do not have individuality and uniqueness. They are driven into boundaries and live by far-fetched norms. It’s easy to instill in them something additional, to control them, manipulate them, zombie them.

Some stereotypes, of course, have a rational grain. But in our time, even these templates have been altered, distorted and taken to extremes.

What does it lead to?

Stereotypical thinking is aimed at simplifying the thought process, because a person does not need to strain his brain. It is much easier to think with certain cliches rooted in the mind. Templates and clichés form a simplified idea of surrounding objects and phenomena. Predictability of a person’s further actions and the possibility of modeling his behavior appear.

Stereotypic thinking leads to loss of individuality. A person adapts to a certain model of behavior and follows some example. This leads to the depersonalization of others, which interferes with building meaningful relationships.

The stereotyping of the thought process contributes to the awakening of fear due to the fear of condemnation of actions or words by surrounding people. A person is afraid to take any action that goes against generally accepted ideas. He is afraid to express his opinion once again, so as not to lose approval and recognition from society.

About individuality

In modern society it is very important not to lose yourself. Especially when the people around you tend to think stereotypically. Sooner or later, a person with a developed and unlost individuality begins to notice that he does not seem to fit the image of the “ideal” person that has developed in society. Those around him do not agree with his views, convince him that he is wrong, one might even say that they are dissatisfied with him.

A vulnerable and sensitive person who really wants to be liked by everyone, as a result of this, begins to lose confidence in himself and his abilities. Complexes may develop, self-dislike, and self-esteem may fall. Many people stop accepting themselves for who they are.

More persistent individuals do not pay attention to the opinions of others. And some even have inflated self-esteem, because they are able to think broadly, while others are limited. Thus, he himself encourages his individuality. People who are unable to do this begin to live as others expect of them, receiving approval in return, but losing their uniqueness.

Features of stereotypical thinking and its danger to people

What characterizes stereotypical thinking? Below are its signs:

Polarity. Dividing everything into black and white is one of the signs of the great influence of stereotypes on a person. According to the person who thinks by them, there are only two types of information: true and false.
Negative thinking. What is considered in our country to be a realistic perception of the world is in fact, in most cases, pessimism. Negative thinking includes a pessimistic view of future events, selective thinking, and devaluation of positive aspects.
Overgeneralization. It happens that when a person receives a negative experience in interaction with a person, he develops a negative opinion about others. Labeling is a form of overgeneralization.
Personalization. This phenomenon occurs when a person considers himself to blame for all the troubles that have occurred.
Template. A person with stereotypical thinking thinks in a stereotyped way and considers opinions that differ in any way from his to be hostile. He believes that other people should think the same way as him.

Stereotypes are sometimes not as harmless as they seem. Here is their destructive influence:

A person loses his individuality.

Simply because he thinks in stereotyped ways. Or he does not express his own opinion, fearing the condemnation of the “crowd”. This problem is especially relevant in a collectivist society, in which people from an early age learn that they supposedly need to be “like everyone else.”

Fact: People who are not slaves to stereotypes are often bullied or mobbled.

Example based on real events:

Girl N is different from the others, so she is bullied at school. A classmate decides to talk to her.

- N, do you have your own opinion?

- Yes.

- This is very bad. There must be a herd mentality.

Of course, as an adult, a person can achieve respect due to his remaining strong personality. But, firstly, it is not a fact that this will happen; secondly, most people still adapt to others. This is harmful not only for the person himself, but also for society: will it flourish if everyone becomes a “gray mass”?

The talent of many people is buried in the ground.

The same applies to both individuals and other people. For example, basketball usually favors tall people. In fact, even a short player can show good results in the game. For example, coach Mugsy Bogza (the shortest basketball player in the world; height - 160 cm) did not succumb to the stereotype that tall people play best and took him to the team. As a result, Mags became one of the leaders in the US National Basketball Association in the number of assists and steals.

Conflicts and murders.

Racism, discrimination on national, religious and other grounds often lead to wars and genocides. The crippled destinies of different peoples, the extinction of ethnic groups - is this what people want?

Missing an opportunity to find the right person.

Here it is worth remembering one famous story, partly related to prejudice against people:

Gender stereotypes

These are the most common patterns in society that demonstrate ideas about the behavior and characteristics of men and women. They are directly related to gender roles—social attitudes that define appropriate and desirable models for both sexes. Stereotypes support them and reproduce them. Here are the most common:

A man should not cry, talk about his feelings, or do homework.
A woman must be a homemaker, and not a careerist, a free person, or anyone else. Her tasks are cooking, washing, cleaning, reproducing offspring and caring for the head of the family.
If a woman does not have a family, she is sure to be unhappy.
A man is obliged to engage in a solid or brutal business. Professions such as designer, stylist, artist and many others are too “unmasculine”.

It is worth noting that stereotypical thinking in terms of gender is embedded in people’s minds from childhood. Girls are bought dolls and toy kitchen sets. For boys - cars and robots. And even in kindergarten it may happen that the teacher, noticing how a girl is playing with interest with some kind of transformer, sends her to put the baby dolls to bed.

What is a dynamic stereotype and how does it work?

So, a dynamic stereotype is a complex conditioned reflex reaction that is developed through repeated repetitions of any actions or situations by forming a response to external stimuli. In essence, a dynamic stereotype is a sequence of conditioned reflex acts that occur in a certain order.

The term “dynamic stereotype” was introduced into scientific circulation by the first Russian Nobel Prize laureate, academician Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936), who devoted his life to the study of higher nervous activity, conditioned and unconditioned reflexes in mammals. Actually, a dynamic stereotype is a complex conditioned reflex, formed under the influence of certain regularly recurring situations and circumstances. We can also say that a dynamic stereotype is the ability of the brain to combine individual reflex acts into a system so that they occur in the required sequence.

Let us clarify that a stereotype is a part of past experience, fixed in the mind and constantly used to solve standard problems. Alternatively, we can say that this is an assessment of something, formed on the basis of previous experience and predetermining one or another reaction to an event or phenomenon.

The definition of “dynamic” implies that the stereotype can be dynamic. In particular, it should gradually form, be modified when the situation changes, be destroyed if it turns out to be “unclaimed” by circumstances, and be restored again if the conditions in which it was formed are restored.

Pavlov repeatedly addressed the topic of conditioned reflexes and dynamic stereotypes in his works, which can be found in the complete collected works [I. Pavlov, 1951]. In later years, interest in the topic did not fade away, as evidenced by further research. In particular, his foreign colleagues turned to Pavlov’s works. An example is the review of Pavlov's conceptualization of the dynamic stereotype in the theory of higher nervous activity (“Pavlov’s Conceptualization of the Dynamic Stereotype in the Theory of Higher Nervous Activity”) [G. Windholz, 1996].

Among the domestic studies recognized by the general scientific community, it is worth mentioning the work “Role of extrapolation and dynamic stereotype in the mechanisms of the formation and improvement of adequate motor coordinations” [N. Zimkin, 1982].

And for a wide range of readers the book “Dynamic Stereotypes, or Information Imprints of Reality”, published at the turn of the millennium [K. Sudakov, 2002]. By the way, the author of this book considers “Dynamic stereotype as a systemic property of the brain,” and his work at one time aroused the interest of foreign scientists and was translated into English [K. Sudakov, 2001].

And even if a person does not know the term “dynamic stereotype,” examples of such conditioned reflex reactions permeate his entire life from early childhood. Walking, running, swimming, using a spoon and fork, tying shoelaces and buttoning buttons are one or another dynamic stereotype of skills developed by repeated repetitions of the same action. These were the simplest examples of dynamic stereotypes, but these include not only motor skills.

There are also more complex dynamic stereotypes. However, no matter what dynamic stereotype you take, the basis, in any case, is the repetition of actions, simple or complex, performed daily or seasonally, at a certain time or in certain circumstances.

For example, you need to get up in the morning and sleep at night, when playing football you kick the ball with your feet, and when playing basketball you throw it with your hands, in winter you need to wear warm clothes and in summer, you need to write lightly, you need to write from left to right, and when you come to work in the office, you need first drink coffee and sort out the mail. In principle, any work, play, sports, mental, production activity is a dynamic stereotype.

If desired, you can create an algorithm for the actions of a driver getting behind the wheel of a car, a milling machine operator turning on a milling machine, a janitor sweeping the street, a chemist conducting experiments, a musician performing a piece of music.

However, a driver, milling machine operator, janitor, chemist, musician, or representative of any other profession who has sufficient practical experience performs his algorithm without thinking about the sequence before each swing of a broom, turn of the steering wheel or touch of the piano keys.

This is a dynamic stereotype in action. It works as a coherent system of conditioned reflex processes, on the basis of which habits and skills are formed. This system allows a person to perform a familiar set of actions with maximum efficiency, without spending time and effort on thinking about their sequence, technology or expediency.

To make it easier to understand the essence of the phenomenon, imagine that the driver, every time he got behind the wheel, would be forced to remember that he first needs to turn on the ignition, then squeeze the clutch, then make sure there are no obstacles and start driving. Or, before each lesson, a chemistry teacher would remember how to properly attach a test tube and what should be poured where: sulfuric acid into water or water into sulfuric acid. And any person, before writing or typing something, would remember how to hold a pen correctly or where the letters are on the keyboard.

A dynamic stereotype of writing is also a certain sequence of reflex acts, starting from how to hold a pen correctly and ending with the design of the text. On this same basis, by the way, a dynamic stereotype of mirror writing is formed, when a person writes not with his right hand, but with his left hand, and not from left to right, but from right to left.

Such a practical restructuring of the dynamic stereotype actually does not take much time, because the foundation has already been laid. And the pace of mirror writing after some training can be almost the same as usual, as can be seen in the example of the video “Mirror Writing”:

Those interested, by the way, can try to learn “mirror writing.” Fortunately, today detailed developments on this topic are available and even a plan for laboratory work “Developing the skill of mirror writing” for the 9th grade of a secondary school [infourok.ru, 2019].

However, if for some curious right-handers the restructuring of the dynamic writing stereotype is just an experiment, for many left-handers “mirror writing” becomes a real problem, because they cannot write as needed and fail to form a standard dynamic writing stereotype.

As a rule, they require the help of teachers and psychologists. Some explanations and practical tips for working with “left-handed” children can be found in the special video “Left-handedness in a child. Mirror letter. A left-handed child,” the author of which is a primary school teacher with extensive practical experience:

Of course, it happens that the simplest actions seem difficult not only for left-handed people. However, this usually means that the number of repetitions of the action was not sufficient to bring the skill to automaticity.

In addition to facilitating the daily routine of actions, dynamic stereotypes help a person adapt to habitually changing situations and circumstances. For example, to the fact that day gives way to night, winter gives way to autumn, physics lesson gives way to physical education lesson. Thus, snow falling in the middle of winter will not surprise anyone (except perhaps representatives of the housing and communal services sector). But if snow falls in mid-July, almost all residents of the northern hemisphere, where it is like summer from June to August, will be surprised.

By the way, accepting the same type of recurring phenomena as the norm and being surprised at phenomena that fall outside the usual norm are also dynamic stereotypes. And if earlier we spoke, in one form or another, mainly about the dynamic stereotype of skills, here there is a reason to think about the dynamic stereotype of thinking.

A little about thinking stereotypes

Regarding stereotypes of thinking, everything is not as clear as when it comes to the stereotypical repetition of actions associated with professional activities, sports or physical activity. Thus, it is the dynamic stereotypes of skills that allow one to learn once and for all to swim, ride a bicycle, write by hand, use a spoon, fork and many other useful objects.

Stereotypical thinking, in principle, also has many positive aspects. For example, having noticed in time in the dark a company of gloomy, unfriendly young people heading towards you, and identifying them as hooligans, you have a better chance of running away than if you doubt until the last minute and think that the four of them are going to the pharmacy for medicine. And when you see a knife in the hands of someone asking for directions to the pharmacy and there is no way to retreat, it is better to use self-defense techniques than to think outside the box and expect that this “pharmacy walker” is holding a knife in his hands just like that.

The formed dynamic stereotype of thinking and behavior can be useful in more peaceful situations. You will quickly become “your person” if you behave according to socially expected norms in an unfamiliar company, at a new job, at an industry conference, or when meeting relatives of the bride or groom. You will feel more comfortable if you begin to think “in unison” in a socially homogeneous team, be it a team of builders or a design bureau, the editorial office of a magazine or an international corporation.

In our subculture, any person who “stands out” from the general pattern and looks like a “black sheep” causes some mistrust. And this is also an example of a dynamic stereotype or stereotypical thinking. However, social stereotypes and other stereotypes of thinking and behavior can significantly harm you and your career if they contradict the norms accepted within your professional community or are completely outdated and are supported only by conservatives like you.

For example, in some remote village, where the problem is not only the Internet and mobile communications, but even bus communication with the regional center, a cautious and even wary attitude towards representatives of a non-titular nation or people from another continent will be considered the norm among residents. Simply because none of the village residents had experience working together or even simple human communication with people who came, for example, from Africa or Southeast Asia. However, in an international company and a multicultural environment, the lack of tolerance will be perceived negatively, and thinking stereotypes will interfere, first of all, with the bearer of outdated perception patterns.

And, by the way, communication with representatives of any African or Asian state quickly causes the destruction of the dynamic stereotype of perception. Simply because all people on planet Earth have much more in common than differences. We all want happiness, love, satisfaction of our material and spiritual needs, recognition in our reference group.

Let us clarify that a reference group is a certain social group that is most significant for a particular individual. Accordingly, each person can have his own reference group. For some, the opinions of friends are more important, for others, the opinions of their bosses or wives are more important. Some are more inclined to trust their older brother or sister, while others are completely immersed, for example, in the volunteer activities of the Animal Welfare Society and compare their actions exclusively with the values of their fellow volunteers.

However, the values of any social group are also an example of a dynamic stereotype that predetermines a person’s typical reactions to certain external stimuli. It is not for nothing that interactionism considers a person to be a product of his environment. And when leaving the boundaries of the usual social or professional environment, a person who is too susceptible to thinking stereotypes may feel uncomfortable. Especially if in his case the term “stereotypes” can be used as a synonym for the word “prejudice” or “prejudice”.

From a linguistic point of view, there seems to be nothing wrong. We have already figured out that a stereotype is an assessment of something, formed on the basis of previous experience, and predetermining one or another reaction to an event or phenomenon. In other words, it is a kind of “preliminary judgment” or “preliminary belief” that things are this way and not otherwise. Nevertheless, in the Russian language the words “prejudice” or “prejudice” have acquired a negative meaning, so we will use them in the understanding familiar to most people.

We have all encountered prejudices of varying degrees of justification, many times. And the destruction of dynamic thinking stereotypes has also been observed more than once. Once upon a time there was a prevailing prejudice that a woman should not be driving. Now that in big cities a woman driving has become a common occurrence, there are noticeably fewer such obvious misogynists. Once upon a time, marriages with a large age difference, especially in favor of a woman, were considered something “out of the ordinary.” As such marriages become more and more common, and the age difference is the last thing that worries spouses, the number of prejudices on the topic of family and marriage has also decreased.

The list can be continued indefinitely. And even the notorious “drug addicts and prostitutes” in the understanding of the grandmothers sitting at the entrance are also a manifestation of stereotypical thinking, in the scheme of which youth, activity and fashionable clothes are signs of drug addiction and prostitution. However, all stereotypes have common features.

Stereotypical thinking plays the role of a kind of paradigm that saves strength and energy for assessing the situation and simplifies responding to it. For some people, simplification goes to the extreme. In addition to saving energy and simplifying reactions, psychologists identify another reason for the formation of thinking stereotypes: the desire to preserve the values of a particular group [D. Milai, 2019]. These stereotypes have common features:

Sustainability.
Selectivity.
Justification at the emotional level.

We have already begun to talk about the fact that a person who is too susceptible to stereotypes may feel uncomfortable when leaving the boundaries of his usual social or professional environment. For example, if the plant where he worked for 20 years closed, and in order to work until retirement, he needs to either change his profession or move to another city, because such specialists are no longer needed in this city. Usually we are talking about the fact that you need to “work until retirement”, and not about the fact that dismissal opens up new opportunities, a chance to try yourself in a different role and even find your calling.

In addition, a person subject to stereotypes cannot cope with a task that goes beyond everyday affairs, is not capable of creativity, and communication with people from other social groups is difficult for such a person, because he cannot put himself in their place. Thus, dynamic stereotypes can play both a positive and negative role in a person’s life.

What is right?

The first sign of stereotypical thinking is the habit of dividing everything into right and wrong. No, of course, each of us has our own preferences, views, values, priorities. But only people with a stereotyped perception of the world can react aggressively to other opinions.

They are convinced that the right thing is when a person has received a “nursing” specialty. Then he got a stable job, in his homeland, to serve the state, and not to look for a better life abroad. I had a wedding, “like everyone else,” and started a family, always with children. That's right - this is when a person does not stand out from society and lives like everyone else.

But the point is that everything is relative. All people are different and consider correct only those attitudes in which they personally see a certain value and meaning, and not someone else.

Sphere of professions

There are also quite a few templates in it. A professional stereotype is a personified image of a specialty. The concept of image also comes into play here. This is an image that gives a social phenomenon certain characteristics. A kind of “semi-finished product”, designed for speculation by society. The image has a suggestive function, so it often turns into a stereotype. Here are some examples:

Psychologists know everything about us. Just by one glance they are able to determine what a person is like.
Teacher. A person who knows everything and can answer almost any question.
Artist. A person with an interesting, fun and carefree life, with a lot of opportunities, success and prospects.
Salesman. Definitely a liar. Because he needs to sell the product, which means that even if it is not very good, he will describe it as perfection.
Journalist. Borzopist. Someone who is ready to publish any misinformation for money.

By the way, often young people, inspired by images and stereotypes about professions, go to get a particular specialty, and then are severely disappointed in reality.

Differences between stereotypes and prejudices

In the formation of a stereotype, the leader is the emotional attitude towards an event or phenomenon: this is good, acceptable, and this is bad, shameful. They are usually imposed by social norms (“if a girl doesn’t shave her armpits, she’s a slob, she should be ashamed”) or arise from one’s own experience (“much of what they teach in school is not useful in life”).

Prejudices reflect distorted, illogical judgments about objects that have no basis. If this concerns an event or phenomenon, we can talk about superstitions. Regarding society, prejudices are manifested by unfounded characteristics of various groups and representatives. They underlie racism, chauvinism, sexism.

A number of psychologists consider these concepts to be identical. However, if some of the stereotypes are formed on the basis of one’s own experience, then prejudices are always unfounded and are perceived without reasoning, on faith. This means that they are synonymous only with those stereotypes that are imposed by society.

In children

Stereotypical thinking also manifests itself to one degree or another in the youngest children. On a different level, of course.

For example, a child is told that the Earth is round. He may start asking questions, trying to find evidence of what was said in books or on the Internet. But not necessarily. He can also accept what is said on faith, without even a second of doubt. And it is precisely this reaction that will indicate that he has stereotypical thinking.

But why doesn't he ask questions? It is believed that the reason lies in certain qualities of consciousness, called stereotypical personal markers. These include authority, sub-influence, and emotionality. Take, for example, the first marker listed. It involves believing information only because its source is an authority figure. Can a child doubt what his parents, elders or teachers told him?

By the way, there is another interesting point here - examples of stereotypical thinking in relation to children. What should they do, if you believe the templates? Always obey your parents, make their unfulfilled dreams and desires come true in your life, get only “A’s” and provide a glass of water in old age. And many mothers and fathers do not hesitate to put all of the above pressure on their children.

Types

Stereotypes usually reflect an individual's ideas about himself or about the people around him or about another social group. The standard of a mental act has many varieties.

Polar (black and white) thinking does not allow any compromise when dividing the world into bad and good phenomena and events.
Catastrophicity is seen in any future events; the future is presented in gloomy tones and is characterized by exclusively negative forecasts.
Devaluing all positive emotions consists of focusing exclusively on one’s own failures and the inability to notice positive phenomena.
Selective thinking allows you to isolate only failure and negative events from everything that happened to an individual.
An emotional outburst can make a person trust the stereotyped thoughts caused by his feelings.
Labeling people around is creating a stereotype in relation to a specific person or certain social groups.
Overgeneralization of events leads the individual to believe that negative experiences will always manifest themselves in similar situations.
Personalization manifests itself in taking into account any negative statements of others, presenting one’s own person as the cause of all troubles.
Tunnel thinking forces an individual to notice only the disadvantages and ignore the advantages.
A minimizing way of thinking perceives all positive phenomena negatively.
The conviction that others are obliged to act according to given patterns, deviation from which is not allowed.

How to stop thinking in patterns?

People rarely think about this. As a rule, due to the fact that they do not even consider their thinking to be stereotypical. Simply correct, generally accepted. But some are concerned about this question, they even take a test called “Do you have stereotypical thinking?” (version 1.0). Well, if you really want to fix the situation, you can listen to the following advice:

You need to learn not to make judgments. For they are labels that limit freedom of perception. How to do it? Just look at the world without judging it. Don't comment - just observe.
You need to track your movements. This way you will be able to understand which of them are stereotypical and which are not. Every action must be brought into the sphere of awareness. This will help in destroying personal stereotypes, and will also teach you to live in the current moment. What about examples? Here's the simplest one: people are standing near the elevator. They are waiting for him. But the majority will still press the button, knowing that the elevator is already on its way.
Understand that all people are different. To do this, it is enough to put yourself in their place. You don’t like snakes - imagine that someone just doesn’t like what you have the most sympathy for. There is no need to approve - just accept this fact, understand and not judge.
Develop your horizons. This is important for anyone who is concerned about how to get rid of stereotypical thinking. The horizons expand, and with it the framework. New knowledge appears, fresh thoughts, food for discussion, and views often change. If this doesn’t get rid of templates, it will definitely expand the boundaries.

Ways to combat stereotypes

Develop your own personal opinion and never take someone’s word for it.

You can listen to people's opinions, but personal attitude should be decisive.

Gain new knowledge

They will help expand your horizons and learn a lot of new and interesting things, which will help change the old stereotype.

Don't believe gossip

Learn to check any information and find evidence.