Apply your knowledge of ethnocentrism, stereotypes and attributions to the analysis of stereotype / behavior in the given intercultural situations. The first has been done for you.

Stereotype / Behavior

Attributions

Interpretation in the context of that culture

A Russian man standing in a line behind an American woman offered her a chocolate bar several times; each time she politely refused.

1. An American woman’s attribution: the man is so meddling (Stereotype – Russian man are annoyingly persistent).

2. A Russian man’s attribution: the woman is impolite.

Attributions concerning their behavior do not coincide. Their judgments about the causes of respective behavior were different.

In the context of Russian culture, the behavior when a person offers something at least three times is normal. In the context of American culture, this behavior is strange: you offer something only time; direct answer should immediately follow.

A Russian professor was hosted by an American counterpart at their home. Offering a glass of wine an American professor said, “Sorry, we don’t have vodka”

My best friend Alexander was invited to dinner at a nice restaurant by an American friend and his wife. At the end the waiter brought the check and put it in the middle of the table. Alexander was dumbfounded, when his friend offered to split the check three ways (Alexander, his friend and friend’s wife).

A welcoming party in honor of a group of forty American students and teachers was held in one of the best restaurants. There were speeches, exchange of ideas along with good food, beverage, etc. At the end of the dinner most Americans started taking out what was left from the food. The Russian teachers were shocked; the waiters could not disguise their astonishment at greedy Americans.

Positive

Negative

Stereotypes are not always wrong. Some of them contain too much truth for comfort. The problem with stereotypes, really, is that they prevent us from getting to the richer reality which lies beyond them (Kohls, 1984, 6).

Stereotypes are generalizations that ignore subtle differences among members of groups, individuals in a society. (Stewart and Bennett, 1991, 163-164).

Stereotypes help reflect the perceived reality with relative authenticity (Hermann Bausinger)

Are dangerous (provoke racial prejudice)

Stereotypes are not necessarily a bad thing. Because sometimes and quite often, they can be true. Stereotypes can offer someone unfamiliar with a culture hints on how to act around certain people, what to and not to say.

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Stereotyping is putting a label on someone or a group who is different in a way that society looks down upon, Like looks, beliefs, and a persons background. the other kids are doing. http://www.123helpme.com/preview.asp?id=101343

It is the individual’s natural defense in confronting cultural difference (Stewart and Bennett, 1991, 163).

Are based on half-truths, distortions, and often untrue premises. (Porter et al.p.246)

Contain a certain amount of truth

Fail to specify individual characteristics (Porter et al. p.246)

Harmless sorts of jokes we tell about other nationalities

Stereotypes keep us from being successful as communicators because they are oversimplified, and/or exaggerated. (Porter et al. p.246)

Stereotypes are rubbish

Stereotypes tend to impede intercultural communication in that they repeat and reinforce beliefs until they often become taken for “truth.” (Porter et al. p.246)

Human beings have a psychological need to categorize and classify (Porter et al. p.246)

Stereotypes develop through limited personal contact (data) (Porter et al. p.246)

They are mental structures, which simplify the complex stimuli from one's environment and facilitate their comprehension

They are the products of limited, lazy, and misguided perceptions

They are mental structures, which simplify the complex stimuli from one's environment and facilitate their comprehension.

As such, stereotypes are not bad or good, but they can influence intercultural interactions in different ways.

Stereotypes tend to change

Stereotypes are often resistant to change.

Eliminating stereotypes is not possible, or, if it were done, it would be detrimental to human cognition.

stereotypes are understood to be detrimental to intercultural communication and the elimination of stereotypes was believed to be a prerequisite for any successful intercultural exchange (Johnston & Macrae 1994).

A stereotype must have a grain of truth because it is a stereotype.

To believe a stereotype has a grain of truth is as mindless and infantile as to believe that all advertising claims are true, because they are adverts.