Stereotypes Are Not True

Women are not as smart as men. Men are strong and do all the work. Americans are tolerant but arrogant. All African Americans outside of the United States are poor. Black people are stronger than white people. These are some famous stereotypes representing conventional and oversimplified beliefs about specific type of individuals or groups. Contrary to common perception, stereotypes may be a product of prejudices and exaggerations rather than truth. Harold Evans in this regard said, “Attempting to get at truth means rejecting stereotypes and clichés.” ("Harold Evans Quotes - BrainyQuote."). This gestation of Evans’ is in close proximity with truth because stereotypes are mere oversimplified generalizations. Even though, certain segments of society would argue that stereotypes are based on truth because certain scholarly researches and confirmatory biases prove the veracity of stereotypes, nevertheless, stereotypes have no grounding in truth because they are based on biased media reports, hasty generalizations and lack of social and cultural knowledge.
Many factions of society argue that stereotypes are grounded in truth because certain scholarly researches and surveys validate the origins of stereotypes. For instance, according to a recent survey at Ruhr University, “women are bad drivers than men especially when it comes to parking the cars” (Moore | Women Worse at Parking than Men, study shows). It is common perception that such research work is flawless. Hence, many people without critically thinking agree with outcomes of such researches and shape their way of thinking accordingly. In the similar manner, people also heavily rely on these scholarly researches particularly when they come to judging the validity and truthfulness ...

... middle of paper ...

...fe that was practiced by some Plains tribes for a short period in their history became the image of all American Indians in the American imagination” ("WETCC | American Indian Learner Outcomes: Stereotypes.").
Thus, such stereotypical generalizations though are very common but they hardly have any link with truth and come into existence due to lack of exposure and knowledge.
All in all, stereotypical generalizations come into existence due to many reasons other than truth such as biased media attitude, conclusions based on little or no evidence and lack of knowledge about other societies and cultures. Although, some people in a society would still argue about the veracity of stereotypes by referring to highly generalized scholarly researches and some unusual facts, however, stereotypes are not grounded in truth and exist because of various other communal influences.