Stereotypes are generalisations or assumptions that people make about the characteristics of members of a particular group. Portrayals of people in those group are often misguiding. We develop stereotypes when we are unable or unwilling to obtain all the information required to make fair judgments about individual persons or situations. In the absence of a total picture, stereotypes in many cases leave us wondering.

Our society often creates stereotypes, but these stereotypes lead to discrimination when used unfavourably.

If you create your own stereotype using what you know about a person and don’t look at the bigger picture, you are likely to make errors in your judgement of a group.

In a conflict, the opponent is expected to be aggressive, selfish and deceitful, while one’s side is viewed in positive ways. The opponent will then develop a negative perspective of the other. In this manner, conflicts and misunderstanding heighten.

Many magazines, photographs and advertisements show teenage girls grooming themselves by putting makeup (to look fairer), brushing their hair and worrying regarding their appearance. And this is supposed to be cool. This more or less tries to say that only teenage girls who are concerned about their beauty and their appearance are cool and anyone who is not concerned with this are not cool.

These kinds of stereotypes restrict the ways we choose to express ourselves.