"Stereotypes are devices for saving a biased person the trouble of learning"

-Unknown Source

You can see me, but what do you see?  You see me and you start to process ideas about who you think I am.  You can't help it.  Since you don't know me personally and you are not a mind reader those ideas of who you think I am are only assumptions. Our assumptions are based on how we have become trained to see the world. That training is a result of hearing and processing the same views over and over again. Our assumptions about other people lead us to categorize them according to stereotypes.

What is a stereotype? A stereotype is a preconceived impression of a social group based on physical appearance or background information.

You went to Harvard so you must be  ______.

You are from the south so you are _____.

Blacks are _________.

Overweight people are _______.

Here's one I have heard my whole life, and it hurts: "Good looking people are not smart."

All kidding aside, stereotypes, for the most part, are damaging and can result in limiting another person.

When we categorize others, we limit them and rob them of the opportunities and respect they deserve.  believe it or not, we also limit ourselves.  In 1995, following a series of experiments, Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson coined the term "stereotype threat."  These experiments indicated that black college students performed more poorly on standardized tests than white students when their race was emphasized as part the test. When race was not emphasized, black students results were equal or better than white students. The results of these experiments showed that performance in academic contexts could be negatively affected simply by the awareness that an individual's behavior might be viewed through the lens of racial stereotypes. Further studies showed that performance could be affected across race and gender, as women who were made aware of their gender performed poorly in math. When competing with their Asian peers in this study, white students performed poorly.

"Stereotype threat" has an effect on us all and can do more than simply limit achievement; it can negatively effect an individual's self belief.  As a result, individuals limit their own success.  "Stereotype threat" contribute to educational and social inequality, causing people to limit their own career choices, not to prepare as hard as they could, and in some cases causing them simply not to try.

By letting oneself be defined by a stereotype an overweight person begins to believe that they are unable to do the work to lose weight. A cigarette smoker believes that it's impossible to quit. Once we accept our own limits according to the stereotype of the group we belong we limit our own change and growth. Relying on stereotypes goes far beyond just limiting others.

One of the significant factors as a result of Barack Obama's election as President was the change in self belief that he represented for young black Americans. Until he succeeded, it seemed that the notion of becoming president for black youth was never considered and, therefore, was not pursued.  We have to work together to resist defining any group by a stereotype and to resist identifying ourselves according to a stereotype as well.  Every child should believe that they can achieve anything.

A lot of the work in Tools To Life is based around changing your internal belief system though affirmations. You cannot change how you act unless you change how you think. You change how you think by changing how you talk to yourself. Simply agreeing that we should not contribute to negative stereotypes will not create the change. We need to actively get behind the change by refusing to contribute to conversations that foster stereotypes and also by making affirmations that assert thoughts that break from stereotypes.

When it comes to "stereotype threats," research shows that encouraging affirmations changes the results of the behavior. When people were encouraged to think about positive characteristics, values, skills and rolls they performed differently. In 2004 Frantz, Cuddy, Burnett, Ray and Hart showed that Whites were less likely to respond in a stereotypical fashion when they were committed to non-racist beliefs prior to the event. In 2006 Martens, Johns, Greenberg and Schimel showed that women were able to escape the gender basis of poor performance in math and performed higher when they were encouraged to affirm that they could succeed.

More and more studies have proved that what we affirm changes how we believe in ourselves and how we treat others. Make an effort to change the way we limit others and the way we limit ourselves by changing how we think about any group. When you see me you see a person, and it's up to you to find out what type. It's also up to you to find out what you are capable of.

There is no definition of you or of anyone else that matters other than the definition that you assign to yourself and others. Actively change how you think and how you talk in order to make a difference in your life and change the world.

Join me all week on the Daily Podcast as we break through stereotypes