Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People

The authors turn their attention to stereotypes, which were given their modern-day meaning by Walter Lippmann. At the time of the manual printing press, stereotypes were metal plates used by printers that held a whole page of print to make many identical copies. In 1922, the term “stereotype” was appropriated by Lippmann to mean “pictures in our head” (73) giving a group of people the same qualities—which were generally not good. While metal stereotypes are now obsolete, the term continues to live on as Lippmann defined it. We often use stereotypes as “a starting point for our perception” (73) of people.

Stereotypes can sometimes be true and sometimes false. Some members of the group will embody the trait associated with the group while others will not. For example, the stereotype “Boston drivers are aggressive” (73) correctly applies to some Boston drivers but not others. Some stereotypes also hold more validity than others, as the stereotype that feminists are female may be true more of the time than the stereotype about Boston drivers. However, the question remains whether it is wise to hold on to a stereotype simply because it might be true sometimes.