The Importance of Appearances and Stereotypes

The NYTimes ran an article discussing the phenomenon of Susan Boyle – the women who dazzled British audiences (and later those worldwide) when her voice deceived her appearance and was shockingly beautiful.

We were all shocked because her image did not match her voice. And before she started singing most people judged her early. Some would label this a stereotype. The article points out that while in this case it was wrong, often it is helpful and even good to stereotype.

We have to stereotype because it allows us to make sense of a lot of information without really having to examine and process everything around us.

This was especially crucial to our ancestors:

Eons ago, this capability was of life-and-death importance, and humans developed the ability to gauge other people within seconds. Most stereotypes break down into two broad dimensions: whether a person appears to have malignant or benign intent and whether a person appears dangerous. In ancestral times, it was important to stay away from people who looked angry and dominant.

And the interesting part is that when something doesn’t fit our stereotype (like an older, homely woman who claims she is a beautiful crooner) we tend to ignore any evidence to the contrary until it is almost impossible to ignore. And then we decide this is a crazy one time occurance to reassure our stereotypes. This allows us to continue to make sense of the world.

In those cases, said John F. Dovidio, a psychology professor at Yale, we focus on the contradiction — Ms. Boyle’s voice, for example. While that makes us see her as more of an individual, we also “find a way to make the world make sense again, even if the way we do it is to say, ‘This is an exceptional situation.’ It’s easier for me to keep the same categories in my mind and come up with an explanation for the things that are discrepant.”

Sure, some stereotypes are negative. But largely, knowing to stay away from the wildly growling dog is a good thing to stereotype, and so stereotypes can be quite useful.