It can be assumed that everyone, in one way or another, is exposed to certain stereotypes. Regardless of whether people agree with, dismiss, or simply overlook these beliefs, the act of observing a stereotype will have some affect on the individual. The question at hand is; Do people act on stereotypical beliefs without doing so on purpose? This study shows that, when asked to identify a person from a selection of news stories, the participants were likely to choose black males as the criminal wrong doers.
It is easy to see that certain stereotypes, like a black males predisposition for criminal behavior, could be problematic for criminal recognition. For instance, if a witness to a crime were thinking through a cloud of stereotyping, it is very possible that the witness’s imagination might become a factor.
The racial standpoint of the study’s participants were also taken into account. This reveals a possible problem with the study’s approach in general. The majority of people, whether prejudice or not, are unlikely to admit their prejudices. The fact that racism is heavily frowned upon creates a huge problem for this study. A study, could easily observe an overly racist group of people, which would most likely result in a heavily skewed outcome, due to hidden stereotypes. On the other hand, a person who is afraid of seeming racist, might choose answers which go against their stereotypical views.
Intuitively, the study seems to make sense. If people have underlying stereotypes that black men are inherently violent criminals, then they will assume that the probability of a black male committing a violent crime is higher. But problems with the actual process of studying facts can easily lead to problems with results.
For some reason, when I was clicking on the link it was showing me “Page is not found”. You may want to resubmit the link. The subject you touched upon is very interesting and unsettling! Stereotypes and prejudice live in anyone, however hard we try to get rid of them. Even very educated people make some decisions based on stereotypes. categorizing, which may lead to stereotyping, is one of the ways we process information.
However, when people’s freedom at stake decisions should be as unbiased as possible. The problem is that there may be other prejudices involved, aside of those of identifying person. Police can compose the row of people from whom victim identify offender with certain agenda, influenced by their prejudice. Or some information that was leaked to the victim during the case process may affect their identification of offender.
Link Fixed. Thanks!!
You make a good point about a person not wanting to seem racist, and therefore choosing answers that go against their stereotypical views. However, a scenario like that seems likely in any study which relies on data filled out by a number of people. Certainly some valuable data is collected in these studies, but it cannot be nearly as accurate as we would like it to be. Everyone lies. Suppose there is a survey about lying; who wants to admit how many times in a day they really lie?
What I’m trying to say is, any study involving surveys has to be taken with a grain of salt. We fear being judged, and in doing so may alter our answers in fear of being looked at a certain way, of being stigmatized for what might be taken as an unusual answer. Even though in theory, the participant is a nameless, faceless number in a survey, that does not make the individual any less subject to his or her own set of insecurities regarding an answer they fear might be labeled as not part of the norm. We choose the way we present ourselves in order to come across the way we’d most like. So we alter the things we say, and don’t provide a genuine answer to a question in a survey.
All that aside, it is unsettling how much we can rely on prejudice to arrive at a conclusion, especially in regards to identification. I could be wrong on this, but I’m pretty sure that this is why eyewitness accounts do not hold as much weight as other types of evidence in a criminal court of law.
Stereotypes absolutely affects suspects recognition, the way we catagory other groups strongly affect our judgement. when i was taking PSY&LAW last semester, the professor brought our a very interesting point that when a crime occured, the police are always looking for the suspect form certain race group in where the crime happened. For example, in a chinese neighborhood where the mexican might be the primary suspect when a robbery happened: because chinese stereotypes mexican as an dangerous exit, In a similar stiuation, where in a white neghborhood, african american are often labelled as violent, dangerous and criminal: no wonder the african american might be the primary suspect in a white neighborhood. The problem we have is that our prejudice are influenced by the information we have shared commonly. We are living in a fast pace society, people are too busy to correct their misunderstanding or to find out the true of other group, instead, morning newpapers, group rumor become the trustable sources: therefore, as a consquence, each group has serious prejudice to other.