What exactly is a stereotype and what's the definition for it?

Question

Sorry, but I looked it up a dictionary and I still don't really understand it, can someone explain what it means in actual person so I can know what it means?

Answer 1

Stereotypes are considered to be a group concept, held by one social group about another. They are often used in a negative or prejudicial sense and are frequently used to justify certain discriminatory behaviours. More benignly, they may express sometimes-accurate folk wisdom about social reality.

Often a stereotype is a negative caricature or inversion of some positive characteristic possessed by members of a group, exaggerated to the point where it becomes repulsive or ridiculous.

Stereotype production is based on:

Simplification
Exaggeration or distortion
Generalization
Presentation of cultural attributes as being 'natural'.

Stereotypes are seen by many as undesirable beliefs which can be changed through education and/or familiarization. However, stereotypes need not be confined to negative characterizations about individuals or groups, and can thus have positive characterizations.

There are also genuinely positive stereotypes about groups. Some groups have, as a deliberate political strategy, tried to evolve new genuine positive stereotypes for themselves.

Some common stereotypes:
The miserly Jewish person
The effeminate homosexual
The hillbilly redneck

Answer 2

A stereotype is a preconceived idea applied to one person or group of people. This idea is not necessarily true and often wrong because of over simplifying a category. For example
1. Americans are all rich --Not True
2. Muslims are all terrorists-- Not True
3. Indians all smell like curry-- Not True
4. South Americans are all drug traffickers-- Not True
5. European women don't shave-- Not True

Although these generalizations may hold true for some of the individuals of one or the other group, it is not true for the entire group.
A stereotype is a sweeping generalization that is more often proven false.

Answer 3

I agree with the previous answers,I just want to add the exact meaning of the Greek word stereotype.Stereo ΣΤΕΡΕΟ means solid which is not Flexible

Answer 4

Simply put, it is a generalization of a certain group or issue.