Stereotype 05: Geographical discrimination and stereotypes

Geographical discrimination and stereotypes

Geographical stereotypes are the specific manifestation of stereotypes, and this field has not been studied much in China, mainly manifested as geographical discrimination. Geographical discrimination is a relatively common phenomenon of socio-cultural discrimination in the process of social development, and is a cancer to the development of social equity, justice and democracy. It is a stereotyped, one-sided concept and wrong tendency triggered by factors such as regional cultural differences, economic development balance, and human psychological activities.

The regional stereotypes in China are quite serious, due to the household registration system on the mainland that allows citizens to have many restrictions in choosing their regions, especially in the current social situation of our country with serious bifurcation and unbalanced economic development. The main means of discrimination are demonization, deliberate distortion, etc. There are several common types of regional discrimination: regional discrimination in university admission, regional stereotypes in job recruitment, regional stereotypes in urban and rural areas, and regional stereotypes in specific regions, as shown in Figure 5.1, where northerners think southerners are finicky and southerners think northerners are big spenders.

Generally speaking, from the perspective of social cognition, regional stereotypes are largely influenced by the following three points.

Level of self-awareness

The susceptibility of an individual is determined by self-awareness. The degree of harm that an individual suffers from stereotype threat is influenced by the level of stigma awareness. Individuals with high stigma awareness experience stronger threat because they are more concerned about whether others take stereotypical evaluations of themselves.

(2) Group identity

The magnitude of its strength has an impact on the magnitude of the stereotype threat effect. Specifically, the degree of importance of the group characteristics of the group to which one belongs when self-evaluating group identity. Those with high identity are more inclined to assign themselves to the group, are more motivated to maintain a positive image of the group, and when there is a group identity threat, they invest more psychological and behavioral resources to protect the social identity of the group and therefore also experience a stronger threat.

(3) Domain identity

It refers to the meaning of success in a certain domain to individuals, and its level can also regulate individuals' susceptibility to stereotype threat. Individuals with high levels of domain identity are more vulnerable to stereotype threat.

Anti-territorial discrimination is a common task of the whole society, which requires the joint efforts of all parties, and the government, society and individual citizens should all take up their respective responsibilities and obligations. Modern society is a society under the rule of law, and the fight against regional discrimination must also rely on the rule of law. Due to historical and practical reasons, the phenomenon of geographical discrimination in China's real social life is still quite common and serious. To oppose regional discrimination, the most important one is to rely on development, especially to accelerate the development of backward areas, so as to gradually narrow the regional gap. The most crucial thing is to break the stereotype, eliminate or reduce the regional stereotype is to break the stereotype effect, get rid of the old thinking stereotype, think in a different way, and be brave to treat the problem with new vision and thinking.

Stereotypes are widely used and are usually useful as inductive conclusions, while in fact they may not be accurate when placed on a particular person or event. Therefore, it is often important to introspect about this and make sure that we do not use stereotypes unfairly or inaccurately in our own evaluations and decisions.

(5.1)

5. Reference.

Zou, Q. Y.. A Study of Geographical Stereotypes. Activity Normal University. 2006.