• Understand the difference between stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination
• Understand how biases can affect communication in the workplace

Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination

Social perception is relative, reflecting both positive and negative impressions of people based on a range of factors. Our perceptions of people help to allow us to make decisions and snap judgments, but can also lead to biased or stereotyped conclusions. Although often used interchangeably, the terms used to describe these perception errors—stereotype, prejudice, and discrimination—have different meanings and connotations.

stereotype

Stereotypes are oversimplified generalizations about groups of people; stereotypes can be based on race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexuality—almost any characteristic.

Stereotypes may be perceived as positive (usually when referencing one’s own group, such as when women suggest they have better soft skills), but are often negative (usually toward other groups, such as when members of a dominant racial group suggest that a marginalized racial group is dangerous).

In either case, the stereotype is a generalization that doesn’t take individual differences into account. The problem of stereotypes is not that they are wrong, but they are incomplete and do not fully describe a person’s identity.

You can view the transcript for “Can stereotypes ever be good? – Sheila Marie Orfano and Densho” here (opens in new window).

prejudice

Prejudice refers to the preconceived opinions or judgments someone holds about a group without sufficient knowledge.

A prejudice is not based on one’s experiences; instead, it is a prejudgment, originating outside actual experience and often leads to unfair treatment or discrimination.

discrimination

Discrimination involves treating someone unfairly or differently because of certain characteristics, such as race, age, gender, or sexuality, rather than on their individual merits or abilities.

While prejudice refers to biased thinking, discrimination consists of actions against a group of people. Discrimination can take many forms, from unfair housing practices to biased hiring systems. Equal Employment Opportunity legislation and enforcement by the EEOC is an attempt to prevent discrimination in the workplace. However, we can’t erase discrimination from our culture just by passing laws to abolish it. Discrimination is a complex issue that relates to educational, economic, legal, and political systems in our society.

Prejudice and discrimination can overlap and intersect. One area of particular opportunity is raising awareness of unconscious bias.

In a Fast Company article titled “How Unconscious Bias Affects Everything You Do,” author Howard Ross relays a classic example of how major orchestras overcame systemic hiring bias to achieve relative gender equity. Although there were several contributing factors (for example, advertising auditions rather than relying on invitations only) the critical factor was implementing blind auditions where raters did not see the musicians.

The critical aspect of this example is that the bias wasn’t overcome until auditioners were asked to remove their shoes before entering the audition area. Before that, raters were still influenced in their judgment by the sound of a person’s shoes (i.e., the sound of either heels or flat shoes led the raters to make a judgment about the gender of the auditioner).

Unconscious bias isn’t limited to a particular industry or gender. Ross notes that “Over 1,000 studies in the past 10 years alone have conclusively shown that if you’re human, you have bias and that it impacts almost every variation of human identity: Race, gender, sexual orientation, body size, religion, accent, height, hand dominance, etc.” The conclusion: “The question is not ‘do we have bias?’ but rather ‘which are ours?’”