Lippman Reading Flashcards
How does Lippman explain how we internalize and learn about the world?
As children we hear language being spoken around us and learn it
When we are placed in new situations as adults, we cannot rely on what we learn to understand.
Therefore in situations like; inexperienced man in a factory, stranger visiting another race
we will not understand as well
According to Lippman, what are the two problems with forming habits (or learning meaning based on things observed)?
- definiteness and distinction
- consistency or stability
How do we understand basic things?
we. pick out what our culture has ,already defined for us,
what is stereotyped by our culture
What was the experiment described by Lippman about reports?
A formal ball
Clown rushed in chased by black person (with gun)
Gun was fired then they both ran from the hall
Observers were asked to write reports on this (40 reports total)
only 1 report had less then 20 mistakes
Some reports (10%) even made up false claims
They were seeing the stereotypes of a brawl
How do our stereotypes appear as frames / shapes?
They appear in painting and sculpture and literature, but also from our moral codes and our social philosophies and our political agitations as well.
(They are baked into our social structure)
How does Lippman explain cultural differences with the example of American and Europeans?
You see the world according to (ex.) American standards
A change of mind where the eye sees differently
(might be how you dress, food u eat)
How does Lippman associate the melting pot to common humanity?
Pageant, ppl dress up as foreigners from European countries, then enter pot and leave as classy Americans
“express the most intimate difficulty to friendly association between the older peoples of America and the newer. The contradiction of their stereotypes interfered with the full recognition of their common humanity”
- Displaying a common experience of leaving behind history / culture, and dressing american so we are ‘all the same’
How do we use sterotypes?
There is neither time nor opportunity for intimate acquaintance. Instead we notice a trait which marks a well known type, and fill in the rest of the picture by means of the stereotypes we carry about in our heads
Ex. meeting a British person, we notice they are from Britain and assume they like tea or croquet or smth
(Or he is whiny, winy people are clingy and needy, therefore they are clingy and needy)
How does “We are told about the world before we see it” influence our sterotypes?
It creates and maintains our repertory of stereotypes
We have preconceptions / assumptions of people/places before we encounter them, which creates / keeps sterotypes.
Why do we use stereotypes?
need of economizing attention is so inevitable
We cannot pay attention to every detail as if we are learning something new. Therefore we default to sterotypes
According to Lippman, what matters about stereotypes (two things)?
character of the stereotypes, and the gullibility with which we employ them
So
- Nature of them (positive, neutral, negative)
- How often we deploy or mess up our application of them
How does film/ photography reduce our assumptions made about the world?
The shadowy idea becomes vivid; your hazy notion, let us say, of the Ku Klux Klan, thanks to Mr. Griffiths, takes vivid shape when you see the Birth of a Nation.
Historically it may be the wrong shape, morally it may be a pernicious shape, but it is a shape (better then being unaware, or vaguely aware)
Besides mental economy, why do we hold onto our sterotypes?
he systems of stereotypes may be the core of our personal tradition, the defenses of our position in society
People act how you’d expect and do things you have already seen. once we are firmly in, it fits as snugly as an old shoe
Attacks on this stereotyped world you live in is like an attack upon the foundations of your universe
