Ethnocentrism is a silent problem which many people are not aware of. Some scholars have defined ethnocentrism as “the making of judgements” based on criteria of one’s cultural groups. It is characterized by applying those criteria in judging other behaviors and belief of people who may be from the different cultural backgrounds. Bennett, a founding director and CEO of the Intercultural Development Research Institute (IDR Institute), has defined ethnocentrism as “assuming that the worldview of one’s own culture is central to all reality”. He also suggested that people who has ethnocentric mindset tend to use their own worldview to interpret other’s behavior and that the idea of a “universal truth” is usually based on one’s own value. Ethnocentrism …show more content…
Ethnocentrism is a major reason for divisions amongst members of different races and religious groups in a society. In international relations, ethnocentrism creates conflicts and inhibits resolution of conflicts. There are extreme forms of ethnocentrism that pose serious social problems such as racism, colonialism and ethnic cleaning. It is difficult to completely prevent ethnocentrism but it can be decreased by raising awareness of it. In general, ethnocentrism has been described as an individual psychological disposition which has both positive and negative outcomes. On the one hand, ethnocentrism serves as an antecedent towards “willingness to sacrifice for one’s central group” and help in constructing and maintaining one’s cultural identity. On the other hand, ethnocentrism leads to misunderstanding, viewing their cultural way of living as “natural” and what is going on in other cultures as …show more content…
People may develop biases toward or against an individual, an ethnic group, a nation, a religion, a social class, a political party, theoretical paradigms and ideologies within academic domains, or a species. Biased means one-sided, lacking a neutral viewpoint, or not having an open mind. Bias can come in many forms and is related to prejudice and intuition.
Bias on outgroups: When some individuals are categorized as being part of one group, they are considered part of the "ingroup"; others are considered to be part of the "outgroup" Members of the outgroup are viewed as less similar and, as a result “ingroups” may have biases against them. Thus, the outgroup bias includes negative categorizations, feelings, or ideas about people who are not part of our ingroup.
Outgroup biases also mean the person associates more desirable and positive traits to their in-group members as opposed to out-group members. Individuals also tend to overestimate the similarities within groups and the dissimilarities between groups. That means the person sees the individuals in another group as being very alike (out-group homogeneity effect), but they see the differences between separate groups as being much greater than they actually are.
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"We can at least try to understand our own motives, passions, and prejudices, so as to be conscious of what we are doing when we appeal to those of others. This is very difficult, because our own prejudice and emotional bias always seems to us so rational." - T. S. Eliot Personal bias is a strong motivator, whether we are aware of it or not. It can change the way we view a situation or event, just because of what we choose to pay attention to.
4.4 Bias According to the Florida Supreme Court Standing Committee on Fairness and Diversity (n.d.), bias is a point of view or even an attitude that colors judgment. It is an internal belief of one person and it can be called bias if it is acted out in a speech andhat the other people receive its impact. It is also a tendency to view things or people in a definite way.
In many ways we stereotype people based on their characteristics and tend to judge them in a positive and negative manner depending on, the different types of the out-groups we place them in. Such as envied out-group, pitied out-group and despised out-group. When we restrict interactions with out-groups. Dominant groups limit social interaction with out-groups which maintains group boundaries and limit access to out-group members. These limitations are useful, when the law is put out or unbreakable by spatial boundaries and physical segregation.
Society has been influenced by the way in which people identify themselves and one another. Some of those influences are positive, while some are negative. Stereotypes are people’s prejudices toward the people in minority groups that are not fully understood by the majority of society. Hence, stereotypes make people wrongly consider some individuals as the epitomes of a whole group of people. Therefore, the identities, opportunities and decision-making of different individuals of the minor groups are limited.
Ethnocentrism occurs when one culture comes into contact with another. It the evaluation of one culture based on preconceived ideas that have derived from the customs and traditions from one’s own culture. William Summer, an American sociologist, believes that an ethnocentrism is “A view of things in which one’s own group is the centre of everything and all others are scaled and rated in reference to it” (Sorrells 2013). This phenomenon can have detrimental outcomes; such as stereotyping and prejudice both of which may hinder intercultural relations and assimilation therefore impacting on societal cohesion.
Canada is a multicultural country. As a lot of people have immigrated to Canada from different parts of the world, they brought some cultural elements of their native culture along with them. These cultural elements have been blended into the mainstream culture of Canada. With so much diverse population, it is natural that people will be ethnocentric.
Implicit bias is having subconscious preconceived beliefs and judgements against someone, or a group that prevents objectivity. Its subconscious because it is embedded in our brains and we don’t realize we are judging someone. Its preconceived because we grow up
Ethnocentrism is a situation whereby a group has a belief that their culture is more superior as well as desirable in comparison to other cultures. In Avatar, the humans have an assumption that they have dominance and are superior to the Na’vi tribe. The humans express their dominance by an attack and destruction of the Na’vi tribe’s home tree. The humans are of the opinion that they should educate the Na’vi tribe in the human ways since they consider their ways to be better.
At the same time, ethnocentrism was rampant in the mall as most of the shoppers believed that their culture was ideal while other peoples’ culture was not important. Majority of people practice ethnocentrism unconsciously for they believe that every other person must follow their ways. Sitting outside a shopping mall presents an opportune moment for a researcher or observer to study people attitudes towards others from other cultures without their knowledge. Since the studies the shoppers without their knowledge, they behave in the expected ways thus providing the researcher with a chance to understand cultural ethnography that we display
Perceptions of Race and Ethnicity Quick History / Define Many ethnic groups experience a form of prejudice, with many minority groups encountering discrimination in their lives. Prejudice is ideas about the characteristics of a group that is applied to all members of that group and unlikely to change regardless of evidence against. Discrimination is the unequal treatment of individuals based on their membership in a social group, usually motivated by prejudice.
Misconceptions are assumptions, or a mistaken belief, a person has because he or she is apart of the group. These misconceptions are not exaggerated and usually have no truths to it. Misconceptions and stereotypes about people also often get falsely confused with prejudice and discrimination. Prejudice is a person’s hostile opinion or feeling is based on something they have no knowledge about, thought, or reason behind it. Discrimination is the unjust treatment of a person due, the group, class, or category to which that person belongs to.
Bias is prejudice about someone or something which has been created based on incomplete information. More often bias has a negative effect as it affects other people, our way of thinking that could be driven into stereotypes frame. Every day we face with a huge number of biases and some of us even do not know about the existence of them. If it gets to that point when something suffers from it, people need to overcome biases. There are a lot of examples of biases in our world.
Ethnocentrism and its prevalence in U.S culture Ethnocentrism is judging another culture solely by the values and standards of one’s own culture. Individuals who are ethnocentric judge other groups in relation to their own ethnic group or culture. I think The United States likes to refer to themselves as the “big mixing pot” of cultures. I would agree, we do have a wide range of different cultures, but that does not mean that we do not “evaluate and judge other cultures based on how they compare to our own cultural norms.” I think us as Americans feel this way, because we are too scared to change what we have learned and known since birth.
Throughout this essay, cultural relativism will be questioned, but also supported in some ways. The idea of cultural relativism reminds me of a sociological term--ethnocentrism--that essentially means the opposite. Ethnocentrism is essentially a bias about your own culture against other cultures. One can only see their culture (usually as dominant to the others), rather than attempting to see the perspective of whatever culture is in question. An example of real-life cultural relativism is female circumsition or clitordectomy.
People are living in the era of globalization. Every year, there is an increase in the number of immigrants and emigrants to foreign countries with the purpose of living and studying. As a result, cross-culture communication takes place in many nations. Obviously, no one can learn everything about all cultures and not any culture is completely similar. This inevitably entails culture conflict.