High School Stereotypes And Misconceptions

2015 Words9 Pages
As I mentioned before, stereotypes as well as misconceptions have been around for many years but there 's one important question, why do people use them? One of the most familiar places that stereotypes are used in is high school. High schoolers use stereotypes to socially categorize people into certain groups. Some examples of these groups could be the jocks, nerds, AP students, cheerleaders, emos, athletes or just the regulars. Stereotypes are used by high schoolers and adults in order to reduce as much possible analization of a person. By assigning them to their designated group people can simply assume that a person has all of the characteristics of a member of a certain group. As simple as this may sound, social categorization can lead to misconceptions being formed about a person and can leave a negative image of this person. Misconceptions on the other hand, are a whole different story. Misconceptions are commonly used to assume characteristics of someone in a group. Examples of misconceptions could be that people who read books are nerds or that football players are dumb. Misconceptions usually only exist because people lack the knowledge to really investigate and instead misconceive an entire group based on their experiences with only one particular individual that is part of it. Based on this information, misconceptions are almost always completely false and based on a particular individual’s opinion. Before finding the differences between stereotypes and