It is of human nature to form groups and surround themselves with others like them. The formation of groups allows for people to predict their lives and organize the society they live in. With this said it seems as if groups can do nothing, but make life easie
r. While it does simplify society, groups also impose problems. As stated before, people prefer to be associated with others like them, which is also known as the in-group. This may lead to a rejection and negative beliefs about outside groups they do not belong to. These alternative groups are known as out-groups. Having a strong preference for one’s own group and creating a clear segregation from out-groups leads to a negative environment. These negative feelings may have no explanation and often lead to the formation of stereotypes and various prejudices. But what exactly is a stereotype?
According to journalist Walter Lippmann a stereotype is “the tendency of people to think of someone or something in similar terms-that is, as having similar attributes-based on a common feature shared by each” (as cited in Nelson, 2002, p.1). In other words, a stereotype is similar to a generalization, but more redefined and often carries negative traits. Lippman wrote, “We pick out what our culture has already defined for us, and we tend to perceive that which we have picked out in the form stereotyped for us by our culture”(as cited in Nelson, 2002, p.1). What this means is that stereotypes help us sort out the information that should be paid attention to and what should be ignored. Paying attention to stereotype consistent information further reinforces them, making them harder to diminish. Stereotypical thought can also be seen on the Internet, and is both a cause and product of CMC miscommunication. Let’s discuss the prominence of stereotypes and expectancies through e-mail.
“Managing your own impressions on the internet is like navigating white water with two-by-fours for oars. Your impressions management toolkit is strangely devoid of the tools most familiar to you…. Your Commanding voice is silenced….
(Wallace, 1999, pg. 28)”
This statement leads us to an important point. This loss of certain tools and silence of voice pushes us to use expectancies when communicating in various CMC fashions. Expectancies are often the product of stereotypes because people look to confirm their held notions. With the lack of physical appearance and other cues expectancies and false beliefs are formed quickly via the internet. Most CMC interactions are brief and contain much less words than vocal exchanges. This simplicity leads to more “fill in the blanks” for the readers. Of course the missing information will be substituted with the readers expectancies. If these misunderstanding are never cleared up stereotypes may be being confirmed.
Epley and Kruger (2005) conducted an experiment comparing the stereotypical thoughts of groups that communicated by e-mail (CMC) or vocally by telephone. Results showed that stereotypes were more prominent in the CMC communicators. An example of one of the experiments was as follows:
What is not written in the e-mail will be filled in or assumed by the reader (Epley & Kruger, 2004). The assumed information will be provided by what the person thinks they know about the others involved. Online interactions are not as in depth or long as face-to-face interactions, which may make the elimination of stereotypes online a harder problem to solve. The problems discussed are all in result of miscommunication. The miscommunication can range from not providing sufficient amounts of information to the reader to the clarity of your thoughts in the ambiguous internet world.