National Stereotypes Miss the Mark
National Stereotypes Miss the Mark
Are Italians Really Passionate? Germans Industrious?
Oct. 6, 2005 -- National stereotypes -- like the "Assertive American" or the "Passionate Italian" --may be more than just oversimplified judgments. A new study shows that they're blatantly false and fail to contain a "kernel of truth" even though they're often an established part of national identity.
Researchers found national stereotypes popularized and perpetuated by the media, hearsay, history, and jokes did not accurately reflect the personalities of the people living in the country, although many people in the nation in question actually believed them to be true.
"People should understand that we are all prone to these kinds of preconceptions and likely to believe that they are justified by our experience, when in fact they are often unfounded stereotypes. We need to remind ourselves to see people as individuals, whether they are Americans or Lebanese, Gen Xers or senior citizens," says researcher Robert R. McCrae, PhD, of the National Institute of Aging Laboratory of Personality and Cognition, in a news release.
In the study, which appears in the journal Science, researchers analyzed information from three different surveys of people across 50 nationalities. They wanted to find out if national stereotypes were based on fact.
One of the surveys asked people in different countries to evaluate their own personalities and another asked them to assess the personalities of other individuals who they knew well.
In the third survey, researchers asked nearly 4,000 people to evaluate the personality of a typical person from their culture.
The results showed that the first two personality assessments correlated well with each other, but neither agreed with the common perception of the national character "stereotype" revealed by the third survey.
For example:
"This study contributes to a basic understanding of stereotypes, which affect social interactions for many groups," says McCrae, in a news release.
National character also has a much darker side, they write. When stereotypes of national or ethnic groups are unfavorable, they can lead to prejudice, discrimination, or persecution, of which history and the world today are full of tragic examples, they add.
National Stereotypes Miss the Mark
Are Italians Really Passionate? Germans Industrious?
Oct. 6, 2005 -- National stereotypes -- like the "Assertive American" or the "Passionate Italian" --may be more than just oversimplified judgments. A new study shows that they're blatantly false and fail to contain a "kernel of truth" even though they're often an established part of national identity.
Researchers found national stereotypes popularized and perpetuated by the media, hearsay, history, and jokes did not accurately reflect the personalities of the people living in the country, although many people in the nation in question actually believed them to be true.
"People should understand that we are all prone to these kinds of preconceptions and likely to believe that they are justified by our experience, when in fact they are often unfounded stereotypes. We need to remind ourselves to see people as individuals, whether they are Americans or Lebanese, Gen Xers or senior citizens," says researcher Robert R. McCrae, PhD, of the National Institute of Aging Laboratory of Personality and Cognition, in a news release.
National Stereotypes Don't Mesh
In the study, which appears in the journal Science, researchers analyzed information from three different surveys of people across 50 nationalities. They wanted to find out if national stereotypes were based on fact.
One of the surveys asked people in different countries to evaluate their own personalities and another asked them to assess the personalities of other individuals who they knew well.
In the third survey, researchers asked nearly 4,000 people to evaluate the personality of a typical person from their culture.
The results showed that the first two personality assessments correlated well with each other, but neither agreed with the common perception of the national character "stereotype" revealed by the third survey.
For example:
- Americans said the typical American is very assertive, and Canadians said the typical Canadian is submissive. But Americans and Canadians had almost identical scores on measures of assertiveness, a little above the world average.
- Indian citizens said the typical Indian was unconventional and open to a wide range of new experiences, but personality assessments of Indians showed they are more conventional than the rest of the people in the world.
- Czechs rated the typical Czech as antagonistic and disagreeable, but Czechs scored higher than most people on measures of altruism and honesty.
"This study contributes to a basic understanding of stereotypes, which affect social interactions for many groups," says McCrae, in a news release.
National character also has a much darker side, they write. When stereotypes of national or ethnic groups are unfavorable, they can lead to prejudice, discrimination, or persecution, of which history and the world today are full of tragic examples, they add.
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