Stereotypes/Generalizations

A cultural generalization is a statement about a group of people. For instance, saying that Americans (used in this entry to refer to U.S. citizens) tend to be more individualistic compared to many other cultural groups is an accurate generalization about that group. A cultural generalization may become a stereotype if it is definitively applied to individual members of the group. For instance, it would be stereotyping a particular person to assume that he or she must be individualistic by virtue of being an American.

The term stereotype refers to a metallic template used in printing repetitive copies of a document. As it is used in the context of intercultural communication, a cultural stereotype is a rigid description of a group (all people of Group X are like this) or, alternatively stated, it is the rigid application of a generalization to every person in the group (you are a member of Group X; therefore, you must ft the general qualities of Group X). Stereotypes can be avoided to some extent by using cultural generalizations as only tentative hypotheses about how an individual member of a group might behave.

We cannot and should not avoid making cultural generalizations. Generalizations are an inherent part of human perception. Every describable object of perception has been assigned to a category that associates it with other assumedly similar objects and contrasts it with other assumedly different objects. For instance, horses may be assigned to the category of domesticated work animals, similar to oxen and camels, but different from pets such as cats and parrots. Horses may also (or alternatively) belong to the category of food animals (along with cows and goats) in contrast to the category of competitive animals such as roosters and dogs. But there cannot be a horse or any other object of perception without some set of associations.

The idea of “culture” is itself a categorization of people. In fact, it is impossible to refer to a group at all without making a generalization about what qualities are shared by members of the group. But like horses, people could be assigned to different cultural categories depending on which criteria are used to compare them to other groups. Also, individual members vary in the degree to which they share the group's common characteristics. To deny that variation—to assume that every individual is a static representative of a single group—is the essence of stereotyping.

It is possible to make accurate generalizations about prevalent qualities of a group without stereotyping individuals in the group. Accurate generalizations are based on the measurement of a chosen set of cultural criteria (for instance, styles or values) in a large number or a random sample of individuals. This process either generates groups based on similar patterns of criteria or it describes the patterns that exist within a group based on other criteria, such as national boundaries.

If the generalization rests on too small a sample, it may describe some unusual quality that is not represented widely in the group as a whole. This is why it is not a good idea to generalize from having met a few members of an existing group; they probably are not representative of the group. Basing a generalization purely on personal experience is likely to be inaccurate, but inaccuracy is not the basis of stereotyping. It is when generalizations—accurate or inaccurate—are rigidly applied to individuals that they become stereotypes.

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