Homework due tomorrow - READING

Hey everyone!

For homework tonight, please read the following short article about stereotypes. Then answer the questions in your notebook. This is important because tomorrow we are talking about the article, okay?

Beauty May be Only Skin Deep, But its Effects Go on Forever: Stereotypes in Everyday Life

Mark Snyder, a psychologist, wondered whether stereotypes - our assumptions of what people are like - might be self-fulfilling. He came up with an ingenious way to test this idea. He (1993) gave college men a Polariod snapshot of a women (supposedly taken just moments before) and told them that he would introduce them to her after they talked with her on the telephone. Actually, the photographs - showing either a pretty or a homely woman - had been prepared before the experiment began. The photo was NOT of the woman the men would talk to.

Stereotypes came into play immediately. As Snyder gave each man the photograph, he asked him what he thought the woman would be like. The men who saw the photograph of the attractive woman said that they expected to meet a poised, humorous, outgoing woman. The men who had been given a photo of the unattractive woman described her as awkward, serious, and unsociable.

The men´s stereotypes influenced the way they spoke to the women on the telephone, who did not know about the photographs. The men who had seen the photograph of a pretty woman were warm, friendly, and humorous. This, in turn, affected the women they spoke to, for they responded in a warm, friendly, outgoing manner. And the men who had seen the photograph of a homely woman? On the phone, they were cold, reserved, and humorless, and the women they spoke to became cool, reserved, and humorless. Keep in mind that the women did not know that their looks had been evaluated - and that the photographs were not even of them. In short, stereotypes tend to produce behaviors that match the stereotype.

Although beauty might be only skin deep, its consequences permeate our lives (Katz 2000).

Stereotypes have no singl, inevitable effect. They are not magical. People can resist stereotypes and change outcomes. However, these studies do illustrate that stereotypes deeply influence how we react to one another.

QUESTIONS:
1. What was the experiment described in the article?
2. What is a stereotype?
3. What were the stereotypes that were being tested?
4. What were the results of this sociological experiment?
5. What are some other stereotypes you see in your life?

So, that is the homework, DUE TOMORROW for BOTH CLASSES! Be prepared for discussion about this article as well as stereotypes and how they relate to what we have been talking about, meaning gender, sex, dominant culture, and social controls.

Take care and see you tomorrow!