Stereotyping

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Stereotyping

• An overview

By Robin Manser
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The VIDEO Clip Euro 2000

• Who are the hooligans?
• What is occurring?
• What is the likely outcome?
• In two Groups I would like you to describe the
  typical football hooligan
• Job type class appearance age
• How are you informed of the opinions you display?
• What does the film clip show?

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What the research was about.(Football Hooligans)

• The main aim of this research was to look at an
  image of so-called football 'hooligans' that has
  emerged over the past twenty years. Add to this
  the other major stereotyping traits we are
  informed with through the media.
• Football shirts
• Skinheads
• Tattoos etc.

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The Method

• Questionnaires (Stewards/Police)
• Interviews (Stadium safety Managers)
• Do you think this methodology is ok?
• How may it have been improved?
• What would you add/take away from this
  methodology?

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OUTCOMES

• The outcome of the research implies that there
  are no particular age groups that can be
  identified as the main offenders.
• working class groups are the least likely to be
  involved.
• likely to be in employment, often at middle
  management level.
• Wear designer clothing and invariably are of
  smart casual appearance. Do not have obvious
  tattoos.
• We revealed one potentially useful study by
  Foldesi (1996), a Hungarian study in which
  questionnaires were delivered to 2,324 fans, and
  in-depth interviews performed on stadium
  employees and football officials.
• What designates middle class in the UK, for
  example, is unlikely to be the same as that in
  Hungary and the ratio of working class to middle
  class is likely to be different

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Appearances and the Media

• The image still remains of the hooligan
  representative of the 70's and 80's. The
  skinhead appearance, the 'bover' boots etc. The
  media went a long way to promoting this image,
  yet evidence suggests this is not so. The
  'casual' is discussed by Redhead and McLaughlin
  (1985) compared to the skinhead, "the casual is
  constantly changing, emphasising expensive
  clothes, with competition among rival 'fighting
  crews' over who is the most stylish. Respectable
  dress allows these fans to travel to away games
  undetected by local police. Buying expensive
  seats is also fashionable because it allows
  access to less heavily policed seating areas
  among rival fans. The casuals' quest for style
  has helped them evade attempts to control
  hooliganism". (p. 227)

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THE MYTH CONTINUED

• The myth of the British football hooligan is
  confirmed in an absolutely bizarre fashion by a
  Spanish article. Zamora (1995), talking of
  Spanish football hooligans, points out that
  "these groups are similar to the GB hooligans,
  with their heavy weight cowboy clothes, black
  jackets, hard rock music preferences and skinhead
  hair cuts". (p. 91)
• This is totally unsupported and unsubstantiated.
  The appearance of so called hooligans in the UK
  is evidenced as that of wearers of designer
  clothing, see Redhead (1985). This would appear
  to support the falsehood of the stereotypical
  image portrayed of the UK football hooligan.

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Important Points

• Do not assume that what you read is the absolute
  truth (in research).
• Would you believe the media?
• Thoroughly research your area?

• What have we learnt today?
• Stereotyping is informed to us through many
  channels
• It is important to critique others work
  (regardless of academic standing)
• Research must be thorough
• All research is specific to that time, location
  and those involved.
• Social science research can be continuously
  replicated with
• different results, because people and trends
  change and there is a transience

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REFERENCES

• Dunning, E Murphy, P. and Williams, J. (1986)
  "Spectator violence associated with football
  matches a state of the art review", paper
  prepared for the Sports Council on behalf of the
  Council in Europe, Leicester University Sir
  Norman Chester Centre for Football Research
• Dunning, E Maguire, J Murphy, P. and Williams,
  J. (1981) "If you think you're hard enough",
  New Society, 57, 980, pp. 324-344
• Foldesi, G. S. (1996) "Social and demographic
  characteristics of Hungarian football fans and
  their motivations for attending matches",
  International Review for the Sociology of Sport,
  31, 4, pp. 407-428
• Redhead, S. and McLaughlin, E. (1985) "Soccer's
  style wars", New Society, 73, 1181, pp. 225-228

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REFERENCES Contd.

• Williams, J. (1995) In Search of the Hooligan
  Solution, press release for the Sir Norman
  Chester Centre for Football Research, p. 3
• Williams, J. (1986) Football Hooliganism, The
  Social Science Teacher, 15, pp. 89-92 Zamora, A.
  E. (1995) "Youth subcultures in Andalucia",
  Cuadernos de Realidades Sociales, 45, pp. 89-98
• Thank You

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2nd Exercise

• What other forms of stereotyping can you think
  of?
• Examples
• Northerners are all working class
• I know what constitutes being a gay person
• Muslims are all terrorists

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What informs you of your responses?

• Examples
• Media (TV, Newspapers, Magazines)
• Peer group
• Anecdotes (Jokes, Satire)
• Films and Plays

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Some Research (Northerners)

• The second advert features an us and them
  situation between the boxer and his manager. It
  must be remembered, however, that the viewer is
  with neither of them the viewer is with the
  narrator, looking on. Class, therefore does not
  appear to play a part in this advert either,
  although the narrator does have a northern
  accent. This, perhaps, is an attempt to plug into
  some national stereotype of northerners being
  working-class.
• Phil Moran (University of Aberdeen, 1999)

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• The Gay Stereotype
• Stereotyping is not justified here any more than
  in matters of race, gender, or religion. When a
  person announces that he or she is gay, there is
  just no reason to conclude that we know other
  things about him or her such as moral character,
  dependability, or social maturity.
• http//www.truthtree.com/gay.shtml

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• The Muslim (terrorist) Stereotype
• The author, though, in his exuberance, managed
  to condemn the entire Islamic world through
  factual inaccuracy, faulty logic and
  name-calling. In affixing blame for the enormous
  wound terrorists have inflicted on our society,
  he commits two classic errors of logic
  generalization and stereotyping and
  unequivocally condemns an entire religious
  culture.
• http//www.iapb.org/january/iapb_special.html
• Dr. Larry Schwab, 2004

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What have we learned today?

• That we are informed by the media
• If we are given snippets of information, we tend
  to complete the story
• That we should criticise the work of others
  (regardless of academic standing)
• That research should be thorough
• That we all probably discriminate by stereotyping

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Research and theories/concepts

• Individual stereotypes
• Teachers, marking and the attractiveness of names
  (Haari, McDavid, 1973)
• Dion et al (1972) - photos of attractive people
• In response to Dion et al Dermar and Thiel
• 1975 Subjects given a list of sentences like
  "Carol, a librarian, is attractive and serious" (
  Hamilton and Rose, 1978)

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Theories and Concepts Contd

• Group stereotypes
• Process of stereotyping           
• Basic method - Katz and Braly (1933)
• subjects presented with a list of ethnic groups
  and 84 words describing personality Duncan (1976)
  Rothbert (1979) (selective remembering)
• Howard and Rothbart (1980) (negative memory bias)
• Stereotypes also enhance and amplify small
  differences - tendency to exaggerate the
  significance of a trait if it does not fit our
  stereotype of a certain ethnic or other group
• Linville and Jones (1980) - gave subjects written
  descriptions of applicants to law school - one
  group told an impressive applicant was black and
  that another was white
• Our expectations of people's personalities or
  capabilities may influence the way we actually
  treat them
• Mischenbaum (1969) - class of 14 adolescents in
  school for juvenile offenders.

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Campbell social consequences of stereotypes

• Over estimation of differences between
  groups, making groups appear vastly different
  from what they actually are
•                 underestimation of variations
  within the group
•                 distortions of reality
•                 stereotype used to justify
  hostility, discrimination, oppression
• Also used as  a reason for political inaction
• self-perception theory - gender identity - degree
  to which one regards oneself as male or female
• We usually go on to make further inferences about
  the actor well beyond the evidence.
• Stereotypes - Lippmann (1922)
• Taigiuri - the general inclination to place a
  person in categories
• When labelling is applied it effects our overall
  judgement (Tajfel, 1963)

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Deindividuation

• Deindividuation theory is a social psychological
  account of the individual in the crowd.
  Deindividuation is a psychological state of
  decreased self-evaluation, causing anti-normative
  and disinhibited behavior. The impact of
  deindividuation theory in science and society
  (especially 20th century politics) make it one of
  social science's more influential contributions.
  Deindividuation theory is rooted in some of the
  earliest social psychological theorizing, more
  than a century ago

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What is Deindividuation?

• According to deindividuation theory, the
  psychological state of deindividuation is aroused
  when individuals join crowds or large groups. The
  state is characterized by diminished awareness of
  self and individuality. This in turn reduces an
  individual's self-restraint and normative
  regulation of behavior. In social psychology,
  deindividuation is a major theory of group
  behavior