How Do You Prevent Stereotyping?
To prevent stereotyping, strategies such as cooperative interaction, intergroup contact, interpersonal friendships, recategorization, cognitive training, intergroup differentiation, and motivating self-regulation and empathy are very instrumental. Unwavering efforts to promote internal motivation against prejudice, as well as increasing awareness of unhealthy bias support and encouraging individuals to accept fears and challenges are important. Learning to recognize and, therefore, avoid generalizations is also another powerful tool for preventing stereotyping.
So as to prevent stereotyping, it is important to understand that noticing differences is something natural, but having to judge them or not judge them is a decision. It can be manifested at various levels such as individual, family or even societal levels. It can either be deliberate or on purpose; however, unconscious stereotyping can also be harmful. Other than the fact that it is accompanied by codes of silence, it hinders people from expressing an honest and meaningful opinion about a certain person, a group or a race.
Being too nice to others is also considered as a form of stereotyping. When others are treated very nicely because they are considered of a minority group, it is a used as a cover for stereotyping, but it still makes it stereotyping. This is so because to avoid it, everyone is treated equally so no one would experience being set aside.
