Our brains begin to make connections and place things in categories at a very early age. These categories are stereotypes (or “cognitive shortcuts“) that allow us to make quick decisions based on the information we have. And that’s not always a bad thing! Finding commonalities and building categories helps us make sense of the world around us.
So what’s the problem?It’s when we don’t look beyond the first impression, beyond the easy label, to the individual in front of us. When we assign restrictive labels to people we’ve met (or haven’t met!) and enforce stereotypes of what people who fit that label can and can’t do. We’re putting people into ...
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