Preexisting Stereotypes Research Articles

Empathy and Trauma: A Cognitive Approach to Mrs. Dalloway

Abstract: A popular (though not necessarily scientifically validated) theory holds that reading fiction builds empathy. Because literary characters are media representations, limited and defined by point-of-view, diction, and readers’ pre-existing stereotypes, they tend not to elicit empathy in a fair, even manner. This essay will explore such questions as whether certain characteristics elicit greater empathy than others and whether empathy is always genuine or the result of readers’ social pressure to react in a certain manner. To answer these questions, cognitive psychology theories are used to examine how empathy is created—or not created—for literary characters who experience trauma in Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway . This analysis will involve two variables: the mental activity of readers and the mental activity of characters within a fictional text.

Gender differences in remote work: a study on the boundary management tactics of women and men

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to identify potential differences in experiences and their causes from a gender-based perspective.Design/methodology/approachWe use secondary data, and we conduct a thematic analysis, to identify whether and how women and men negotiate differently.FindingsDespite remote work being considered as creating a level-playing field for both genders, women are still vulnerable to work and life demands, and pre-existing stereotypes become exacerbated. In addition, we show how technology might be used to manage physical and temporal boundaries, through integration or segmentation tactics.Originality/valueThere is a growing body of literature that focuses on work-life conflict among teleworkers. Yet, there is limited research that explores such conflicts from a gender perspective, specifically whether and how different genders manage boundaries between work and life differently.

Exploring French language and culture instruction at an Algerian university: insights from L1 students’ perspectives

Nowadays, it is imperative to comprehend the relationship between intercultural communication and international representations of cultures and nations. This study focuses on exploring the representations that Junior Algerian students hold concerning the French language as well as culture, in order to apprehend students’ attitudes towards the language in question, identify pre-existing stereotypes, and eventually promote a more competent understanding of the culture associated with the language. Through surveys’ responses by 130 juniors at the University of Oum El Bouaghi who have undergone a year of training in French Civilization, researchers attempt to comprehend the impact of the programs followed on the potential reconfiguration of these representations and to identify the relationship of these future educators with the French language. The researchers adopt a descriptive-analytic approach to evaluate the effects of this on students’ conceptions and associated images, concerning the French culture as a whole. The responses exhibited less positive associations with France compared to the French language itself, revealing a positive shift in stereotypical images of French culture among university students. Adopting an intercultural dimension to investigate this underscores the need to prepare learners culturally as well as linguistically in order to effectively interact with different cultures.

Организация службы социально-психологического сопровождения в вузе (на примере Ярославского государственного медицинского университета)

The article presents the rationale for formation of the social and psychological support service at a higher educational institution by the example of the Yaroslavl State Medical University (YSMU). The service is of particular importance, as the initial period of study at a university is associated with significant shifts, breaking of pre-existing stereotypes, stress, high anxiety and internal stress. This is a complicated stage of a human life, when not only physical, but also mental health of a person is finally formed, needs, motivation and personality of a future doctor are created, affecting the rest of the life. So, a higher institution is interested in the formation of a favorable educational and pedagogical environment, preservation and strengthening of students’ health, better effectiveness of education and quality of knowledge, and, thus, prevention of being expelled from the University. It should be noted that the need in this area development is confirmed by survey of students from the YSMU. The obtained results confirmed that the students were interested in the development of social and mental aid and support. It was the basis for creation of the Center for Social and Psychological Support at the University. According to the survey, the students need this kind of aid. Supply of students with practical aid, social support and support of mental health of students, and prevention of social disadaptation are the main problems solved with the help of professionals from the Center for Social and Psychological Support of the Yaroslavl Medical University.

Waiving goodbye to youth: Jurors perceive transferred juveniles differently from adults but render similar verdicts.

Juveniles are developmentally different from adults but are often treated similarly in the criminal justice system. In case processing, many juveniles are transferred to adult courts. Before case processing, many juveniles are interrogated with the same tactics used against adults. Limited research has examined jurors' decisions in juvenile transfer cases, particularly those involving confession evidence. In two studies, we built on this small line of research and extended it to examine whether jurors make different decisions for juvenile versus adult defendants with differing types of confession evidence. Participants listened to a trial that varied in defendant age (Study 1: 16, 23; Study 2: 13, 16, 23, 42), interrogation pressure (low, high), and interrogation outcome (denial, confession). They rendered a verdict and rated the defendant on dangerousness and maturity. Age did not affect verdict in either study, but it did affect perceptions of dangerousness and maturity in both studies. Study 2 replicated and extended our findings by showing that differences in dangerousness and maturity were driven by participants' preexisting stereotypes about juveniles as superpredators. Overall, jurors recognized juveniles' lesser maturity but did not account for it in their verdicts. The stigma associated with the superpredator stereotype may limit jurors' sensitivity to the developmental vulnerabilities of juvenile defendants.

Exploring the impact of interprofessional simulation on the professional relationships of trainee pharmacists and medical students: a constructivist interview study

Members of clinical teams can hold stereotyped views of one another that can form barriers to interprofessional cohesion and collaboration. Interprofessional education (IPE) is often championed as a way of teaching individuals to be better team players through the adoption of collaborative attitudes and behaviours. However, the potentially detrimental effects of IPE are not well understood. This study used the social identity approach (SIA) as a lens to explore the impact of interprofessional simulation on the identities and professional relationships of trainee pharmacists and medical students. Across three different locations in Scotland, trainee pharmacists were paired with medical students to participate in immersive simulation scenarios with post-scenario debriefs. Participants were individually interviewed shortly after their simulation session, using a semi-structured interview schedule based on SIA. Transcripts were analysed using template analysis, with sub-categorizations of SIA forming the initial coding template. Twenty-five interviews were undertaken across both groups. The interprofessional simulation session effectively challenged pre-existing stereotypes. For the trainee pharmacists, the alteration of self-stereotypes influenced motivation through self-enhancement and, in turn, altered group norms via the promotion of genuine collaboration and joint decision-making. However, social comparisons focussed on status remained prominent. This study has shown that interprofessional simulation can effectively challenge and alter stereotypes (including self-stereotypes), but social comparisons may be less easy to overcome in this context. As it continues to be embedded within healthcare education, the limitations of IPE must be better understood to ensure that the potential value of such opportunities is maximized.

“What an Emotionless Robot!”: Visuomotor Priming from Video Stimuli Influences Emotion Recognition

Viewing people and other animals elicits social and emotional processes. Similarly, robots are sometimes seen as social agents, but limited emotion-priming research for robots exists. Fifty-nine participants completed three sessions of an emotion recognition task, primed with a dog, robot or random motion (control) video. There was no significant effect from exposure to dog videos (or control) on emotional recognition; however, participants performed significantly worse following robot exposure. A follow-up study of 184 participants) included new videos of all stimuli. Similarly, no significant effects occurred after dog exposure, but robot priming decreased performance. Robot priming appears to worsen emotion recognition, which is interesting. This may be due to motor resonance priming - mimicking observed behavior and actions - or due to pre-existing stereotypes of robots and perceived experimental demands. Further studies should include controlled variations of all videos and live interactions to compare priming effects on emotion recognition.

Highlanders and the City: Migration, Segmentation, and the Image of the Highlander in Early Modern London, 1603-c.1750

The study of Scottish migration in the early modern period has experienced extensive growth in recent decades, but has tended to privilege overseas movement over the presence of Scots elsewhere in Britain. This is particularly true of migrants from the Scottish Highlands: much has been written about Highlanders in America or Continental Europe, but almost nothing is known about their experiences in England and Wales, and in particular in London, consistently the major destination of Scots moving southwards. This article seeks to address that gap by exploring the extent and nature of Highland migration to London during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It begins by surveying the surviving evidence for Highlanders’ presence in the English capital, suggesting that they were most readily to be found in the elite and mercantile sectors, and were comparatively rarer among the ranks of artisans, professionals, or the poor. It is also argued that Highlanders tended not to form a coherent ethnic ‘bloc’, but instead were subsumed within the wider Scottish diaspora. This, however, was paradoxical, because London was during this period developing a strong image of ‘the Highlanders’ as distinctive from ‘the Scot’. The article therefore goes on to explore the origins of Highlander imagery, and concludes that those Highlanders actually resident in London contributed very little to it. Instead, image-makers drew predominantly on pre-existing Scottish stereotypes, travellers’ reports, outlaw tales, and political discourse, for example surrounding Jacobitism. All of this suggests a degree of invisibility around the Highland community in early modern London, and that, the article suggests, underlines the fundamental blurriness of the Highland/Lowland divide within Scotland. It also indicates that a segmented, rather than ethno-cultural model of assimilation might offer the most reliable means of understanding the Scottish diaspora in early modern London.

Stereotype accommodation concerning older people.

From a cultural learning perspective, immigrants can integrate novel stereotypes learned in host countries into pre-existing stereotypes. Research has not previously addressed this possibility in relation to stereotypes specifically about older people. This cross-sectional study examines whether cultural differences concerning stereotypes about older people, duration of stay in the host culture and cultural orientation affect stereotype accommodation amongst immigrants from 40 host countries. In two multinational, country-representative datasets-the European Social Survey (ESS) and the World Value Survey (WVS)-stereotype accommodation is measured along dimensions of warmth and competence and operationalised as absolute differences between the meta-beliefs of immigrants and the corresponding average meta-beliefs of the general population in host countries and countries of origin. Complex regressions that corrected beta-coefficients at the individual level for country effects show that more meaningful cross-cultural differences in the stereotype about the social warmth of older people predicted that immigrants' meta-beliefs were less similar to the origin culture than the host culture. This finding is a first step towards understanding the effect that moving from one culture to another has on the stereotypes about old age held by immigrants, and, potentially, how this will impact their own well-being when they become old.

Discursos de ódio: uma análise à luz da colonialidade: Hate speech: an analysis in the light of coloniality

Hate speech are a form of discrimination and are predominantly directed against social groups in a position of subordination. During modern colonialism, the domination of the colonized took place through derogatory discourses that legitimized their inferiority status. This inferiorization was the result of the disqualification of the characteristics of these peoples distinct from the European pattern of behavior and production of knowledge. In Western democracies, negative representations against these same groups are still frequent even today. They are present, in the same way, in expressions that surpass the offensive and intolerant character and configure hate speech. International guidelines point out that the discriminatory component that configures an expression of hatred is sometimes linked to pre-existing stereotypes about certain collectivities, reinforcing them. Based on these premises, this article investigates whether and to what extent the hate speeches in the western societies can be deemed a colonial phenomenon. It is an exploratory research, with bibliographical e documental review based on the postcolonial and decolonial theoretical perspective. Finally, we verify that: a) hate speech can be considered expressions of coloniality in the Western culture societies; b) hate speech also occurs as a reaction, on the part of dominant social groups, to situations of empowerment and attempts of discriminated social groups to break up their subordinated status.

Change in Classroom Dialogicity to Promote Cultural Literacy across Educational Levels

In a highly diverse world, cultural literacy is an essential tool for living together in harmony, and dialogic teaching may be a way to promote and develop it among children and adolescents. We define cultural literacy as a set of attitudes (inclusion, tolerance, and empathy) and skills (dialogic argumentation) needed to understand others in our everyday lives. This paper focuses on the effect of a professional development programme to promote dialogue and argumentation to help children and adolescents overcome pre-existing stereotypes and prejudices and foster students’ participation in discussions that contrast divergent viewpoints. This was done through debates on social responsibility issues, living together, and belonging as presented in books and short films addressing the following topics: citizenship, the celebration of diversity, democracy, globalisation, human rights, cooperation, sustainable development, and climate change. After the professional development programme was implemented, we video-recorded two of the 15 student–teacher interaction sessions during the project’s implementation (session #3 and session #8). We analysed the data using a validated coding scheme across three educational levels (three preschool, four primary school, and four secondary school classrooms). We observed moderate gains in secondary education and preschool, but statistically significant gains in primary education.

“Small Teaching” with First-Year Undergraduate Students

This contribution to the forum on James Lang’s Small Teaching analyzes one instructor’s implementation of Lang's techniques in a world religions course for first-year undergraduate students. Two types of strategies are considered in depth: those that use prediction to help students acquire and retain knowledge of class material, as well as those that cultivate connections to previously mastered material and encourage active learning. For example, one activity asked students to use prediction as a tool for preparing for local guest speakers, helping to unsettle pre-existing stereotypes and assumptions. Another activity asked students to create concept maps to draw connections across religious traditions. Ultimately, the author argues that these “small teaching” strategies did not require substantial work or resources from the instructor or her students but went a long way in fostering learning and critical thinking. The insights gleaned from this article could be applied to other courses and teaching contexts.

Can scientists communicate interpersonal warmth? Testing warmth messages in the context of science communication

ABSTRACT Warmth and competence are two fundamental dimensions of social judgments that shape stereotypes of social groups/professions. In perceiving others, people assess their intentions (warmth) and their abilities to act upon those intentions (competence). As stereotyping can influence attitudes and subsequent behaviors, pre-existing stereotypes of scientists as ‘cold’ may undermine trust in science and interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education. How, then, can scientists portray interpersonal warmth? Drawing on the stereotype content model’s warmth-competence literature, this study aimed to communicate scientists’ interpersonal warmth using the morality and emotional aspects of the warmth dimension in the context of a College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR) as a test case of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) colleges. We used two, 3 (message type: control, prosocial, emotional-prosocial) × 2 (gender: women, men) between-subjects experimental design (n = 849) to examine the effect of message type and participant’s gender on perceptions of scientists’ interpersonal warmth. Results suggest that the combination of prosocial behaviors and emotional appeals were associated with perceived warmth of scientists. Furthermore, there was a significant interaction between message type and gender (Experiment 1) and a significant main effect of gender on perceived warmth (Experiment 2). These findings suggest further exploration of the morality and sociability aspects associated with warmth to reduce unflattering stereotypes of scientists.

Electronica, gender and French cinematic girlhood in Céline Sciamma’s films

ABSTRACT This article examines the music in Céline Sciamma’s films with an emphasis on Naissance des pieuvres (2007), arguing that, in a film where the girl characters so rarely express themselves through dialogue, the music offers a means of communication that does not rely on the verbal. It is through music that this film invites the spectator into the girls’ cinematic world, and this music provides an insight into the sensations and emotions that the girls experience. The article argues that the use of the electronic genre increases this potential for expression. Because electronic music is bound up in French musical culture, and because it offers specific opportunities for female expression, the genre is particularly significant in a French girlhood film. This article examines how the electronic genre aids in the creation of a specifically ‘girl’ space in Céline Sciamma’s films offering the girls a space in which they can express themselves freely without pre-existing signification or stereotypes. Via both the musical sounds themselves and the signification attached to the electronic genre, the film’s music provides an audible expression of the characters’ experiences, inviting us into the girls’ cinematic space and allowing us a point of entry into their world.

Sexuality and the politics of the body in Zainab Hifni’s Features

ABSTRACT The increasing interest in Saudi women’s literature written in recent years is mainly ignited by its audacity to address forbidden themes, and ability to shatter pre-existing stereotypes about them as oppressed and silent women. The fact that Saudi women novelists write about sex in a society that is typically perceived as pious, hermetically closed, and ultra-conservative, severely disrupts this notion. In effect, through these types of writings Saudi women novelists are leading a textual-sexual revolution. This article aims to investigate this emerging trend by analysing Zainab Hifni’s novel Features. Through the medium of this novel, Hifni dislocates traditional sexual and textual boundaries, and challenges social patriarchy in its core by demonstrating that the very men who are ‘in charge of women’ have in effect breached the patriarchal injunctions that restrict women’s existence.

Evidence for stereotype accommodation as an expression of immigrants’ socio-cognitive adaptation

Through intercultural contact, immigrants can change the stereotypes they had previously held about the majority ethnic group in their host cultures. Other undocumented processes of socio-cognitive adaptation following migration are also possible; immigrants’ preexisting stereotypes about social groups (e.g., politicians, older people), for example, may change because of host-cultural learning. This article examines the stereotype accommodation hypothesis, which states that differences in cultural stereotypes between immigrants’ host and origin cultures are a source of inconsistent stereotype-relevant information that immigrants may or may not incorporate into their preexisting beliefs. Support for this hypothesis is found in two studies of locals in Romania, Germany, and France (N = 532), and Romanian immigrants in Germany and in France (N = 225). Length of stay in the host culture and acculturation orientation predict the stereotype accommodation regarding politicians, the only social group for which stereotypes substantially differ between origin and host cultures. The results represent the first step in a research agenda for studying migrants’ socio-cognitive adaptation beyond the question of inter-ethnic stereotype change. The article thus discusses future avenues for the study of behavior and discrimination from the perspective of immigrants as agentic individuals.

‘Unparalleled Opportunities’: The Indian Y.M.C.A.'s Army Work Schemes for Imperial Troops During the Great War (1914–1920)

ABSTRACTThe present article aims to contribute to the global history of the First World War and the history of ‘imperial humanitarianism’ by taking stock of the Indian Young Men's Christian Association's Army Work schemes in South Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The outbreak of the war was hailed by some American secretaries of the Y.M.C.A. working in India as presenting overwhelming opportunities for their proselytising agenda. Indeed, the global conflict massively enlarged the organisation's range of activities among European soldiers stationed in South Asia and for the first time extended it to the ‘Sepoys’, i.e. Indian and Nepalese soldiers serving in the imperial army. Financially supported by the Indian public as well as by the governments of Britain and British India, the US-dominated Indian Y.M.C.A. embarked on large-scale ‘army work’ programmes in the Indian subcontinent as well as in several theatres of war almost from the outset, a fact that clearly boosted its general popularity. This article addresses the question of the effects the Y.M.C.A.'s army work schemes had for the imperial war effort and tries to assess their deeper societal and political impact as a means of educating better citizens, both British and Indian. In doing so, the article places particular emphasis on the activities of American Y-workers, scrutinising to what extent pre-existing imperial racial and cultural stereotypes influenced their perception of and engagement with the European and South Asian soldiers they wanted to transform into ‘better civilians’.

Social Entrepreneurship and Disability Inclusion in the Hospitality Industry

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to examine hospitality businesses that engage in social entrepreneurial activities and hire a significant percentage of people with disabilities in frontline positions. The study suggests that hospitality can make a significant social impact by questioning preexisting stereotypes toward people with disabilities and provide significant knowledge to startup hospitality social entrepreneurs. Furthermore, many of these social entrepreneurship initiatives are aligned with principles of blue ocean strategy. Social enterprises provide employment for individuals with disabilities, raise awareness among the public, and create a disability-friendly environment by offering a unique experience to the guests. This study is among the first to examine hospitality social enterprises with an intentional focus on providing employment opportunities to people with disabilities who serve guests.

Stereotype Accommodation: A Socio-Cognitive Perspective on Migrants’ Cultural Adaptation

Cognitive heuristics, or people’s stereotypes, are central to human interaction. Yet, the literature has been concerned with inter-ethnic stereotypes held by migrants and therefore has insufficiently addressed what might happen to individuals’ cognitive heuristics in the process of acculturating to host cultures. The authors discuss this gap in the literature by drawing on the culture learning perspective and work on cultural adaptation to examine migrants’ cognitive cultural adaptation. The concept of stereotype accommodation is introduced as a cognitive process whereby migrants incorporate the stereotype-relevant information learned in their host cultures into their preexisting stereotypes. Furthermore, a framework is presented for how cross-cultural differences, learning opportunities, individual differences, and cognitive resources might contribute to stereotype accommodation. The conclusion of this analysis is that, like any other individuals, migrants hold cognitive heuristics about varying groups in society and, moreover, these can be influenced and potentially modified by the mental short-cuts that are relevant in their host cultures.

\u201cAspirations of people who come from state education are different\u201d: how language reflects social exclusion in medical education

Despite repeated calls for change, the problem of widening access (WA) to medicine persists globally. One factor which may be operating to maintain social exclusion is the language used in representing WA applicants and students by the gatekeepers and representatives of medical schools, Admissions Deans. We therefore examined the institutional discourse of UK Medical Admissions Deans in order to determine how values regarding WA are communicated and presented in this context. We conducted a linguistic analysis of qualitative interviews with Admissions Deans and/or Staff from 24 of 32 UK medical schools. Corpus Linguistics data analysis determined broad patterns of frequency and word lists. This informed a critical discourse analysis of the data using an “othering” lens to explore and understand the judgements made of WA students by Admissions Deans, and the practices to which these judgments give rise. Representations of WA students highlighted existing divides and preconceptions in relation to WA programmes and students. Through using discourse that can be considered othering and divisive, issues of social divide and lack of integration in medicine were highlighted. Language served to reinforce pre-existing stereotypes and a significant ‘us’ and ‘them’ rhetoric exists in medical education. Even with drivers to achieve diversity and equality in medical education, existing social structures and preconceptions still influence the representations of applicants and students from outside the ‘traditional’ medical education model in the UK. Acknowledging this is a crucial step for medical schools wishing to address barriers to the perceived challenges to diversity.