Text 3. The Paradoxical Effects of Stereotype Suppression: When Thoughts We Don’t Want Come Back to Haunt Us

In many social situations, people actively attempt to suppress stereotypic thinking. The reason for doing so is obvious; we don’t want to run the risk of offending members of various social groups by saying or doing things suggesting that we hold negative stereotypes of them, and we know quite well that our overt actions often reflect what we think. At first glance, this would seem to be a useful technique for countering the effects of stereotypes; after all, what we don’t think can’t hurt us, right? The answer, it appears, is “Wrong!” Recent findings indicate that while efforts to suppress stereotypes and drive them from consciousness may work temporarily, this suppression may be followed by a strong rebound effect, in which stereotypes come back to haunt us – and shape our thinking – with a vengeance. Clear evidence for such effects has been reported by Macrae, Bodenhausen, and their colleagues. Extending previous work by Wegner and his colleagues, these researchers reasoned that when individuals attempt to suppress stereotypic thinking, two processes are initiates: an intentional process that drives stereotypic thoughts from consciousness, and an automatic process that monitors thoughts for any appearance of the unwanted stereotypes. The result of this second process is paradoxical, in that it actually serves to activate or prime the unwanted thoughts over and over again (although, of course, at a very low intensity). The result? When the intentional process is tipped, stereotypic thoughts flood back into consciousness; in other words, they rebound strongly. So the research suggests that active efforts to suppress stereotypic thinking may sometimes backfire. True, they may prevent us from making social blunders when we encounter members of groups we stereotype. But suppressing stereotypes now may lead to their stronger recurrence late; and this, of course, can actually increase our overall risk of offending others.

EXERCISE 1.

Identify the underlined words as nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbials.

1. In general people don’t want to run the risk of offending members of various social groups by saying or doing, suggesting that they hold negative stereotypes of them.

2. Recent findings indicate that while efforts to suppress stereotypes and drive them from consciousness may work temporarily, this suppression may be followed by a strong rebound effect, in which stereotypes come back to haunt us – and shape our thinking – with a vengeance.

3. The research suggests that active efforts to suppress stereotypic thinking may sometimes backfire.

EXERCISE 2.

Correct the mistakes in the use of words and phrases in these sentences.

1. Suppress stereotypic thinking is a useful technique for countering the effects of stereotypes.

2. Vengeance is the result when our suppression stereotypes come back.

3. Findings about the rebound effect of suppressing stereotypes have been reporting by psychologist who study stereotypes.

4. Social blunders often based on negative stereotypes which have been suppressing.

5. The paradox is that unwanted thoughts activate over and over again.

EXERCISE 3.

In the text find the English equivalents for the following Russian words and phrases:

• вытеснить из сознания

• оказывать влияние на то, как мы думаем

• рисковать обидеть представителей различных социальных групп

• иметь негативные стереотипы

• противодействовать воздействию стереотипов

• убедительное доказательство

• возврат в более сильной форме

• приводить к обратному эффекту

EXERCISE 4.

Explain the idea in a simpler way.

1. People actively attempt to suppress stereotypic thinking.

2. Our overt actions reflect what we think.

3. Active efforts to suppress stereotypic thinking actually activates the unwanted thoughts.

4. Stereotypic thoughts flood back into consciousness.

5. Suppressing stereotypes may lead to their stronger recurrence later.

EXERCISE 5.

Develop the following ideas:

• Suppressing stereotypic thinking is a good but useless intention.

• We have to face the rebound effect while we try to suppress our stereotypes.

• It is a paradoxical process.

EXERCISE 6.

Translate from English into Russian:

1. Techniques for reducing prejudice have been derived from basic principles of social psychology. Efforts to reshape prejudiced attitudes through altered socialization practices and persuasion can sometimes be effective. Similarly, increased contact often enhances liking and can reduce prejudice if the contact occurs under appropriate conditions.

2. Breaking down the us-them boundary by inducing individuals perceive themselves and others as belonging to a single group is also successful in reducing prejudice and intergroup conflict.

3. Prejudice- reducing techniques based on cognitive mechanisms have also been developed. These include inducing individuals to think about others’ personal attributes rather than their membership in specific groups and procedures based on principles of attribution. Active suppression of stereotypic thinking, however, seems to produce only temporary beneficial effects.

UNIT 7. PERCEPTION

WARMING - UP

1. What do you know about perception?

2. What definition can you give to this process?

3. What organs are involved in this process?

4. How the pressure from other people can influence one’s perception?

Text 1 Perception