# How useful are stereotypes?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-useful-are-stereotypes/295978>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [March 24, 2005, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-useful-are-stereotypes/295978 "2005-03-24T00:49:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2005, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-useful-are-stereotypes/295978/21 "2005-03-25T12:34:54Z")

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> [@Zoe](#):
>
> > [@](#):
> >
> > **grimpixie** : All stereotypes are based on a grain of truthfulness - or at least start out that way.
> 
> Cite, please.

Perhaps I was a little hasty in saying “all” - there were lies that were repeated so often that they became absorbed into some people’s stereotypes - remember the “[sideways vagina](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=243210)” thread? Apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany were particularly adept at this sort of propaganda.

But I would stand by a claim that **most** stereotypes originate in an experience based on a limited selection of people who share some characteristic which is then assumed to be true of all people who share that characteristic.

> [@](#):
>
> Still, most stereotypes did not arise in a vacuum. They usually developed after a behavior pattern or trait was seen with great frequency and consistency among several members of a racial or ethnic group. The mental process of generalization produced the stereotype. Some stereotypes are positive and some are negative. All are irrational and anti-individualist.

From [this article](http://www.fff.org/freedom/0400f.asp) dealing specifically with Jewish stereotypes, but I think the comments are generally applicable.

Grim

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