Names Can Trigger Stereotypes and Implicit Biases

The Intrepid Explorer - Living – Life – Large

Dan Abernathy

March 25, 2024

Names are more than just words or labels; they are our identity. From personal names to the names of objects, places, brands, and even ideas, the classification plays a significant role in shaping our perceptions and interactions with the world.

Names can also trigger stereotypes and implicit biases. Research shows that our perception can be influenced by a name, with certain names associated with specific ethnic, socioeconomic, or cultural backgrounds leading to bias, both positive and negative.

The intricate interplay between names, understanding, and social structures reveals a narrative about the power of terminology in shaping perception. Names, far from being simple labels, carry profound psychological and social implications.

Understanding this power is a crucial step towards adopting greater awareness of our biases, promoting inclusivity, and creating a more empathetic society. A name is not just a word, or label; it's a filter through which we view the world.

The long controversial hypothesis, linguistic relativity, is a principal suggesting that the structure of a language influences its speakers' and thus individuals'. Dialects determine or shape their perceptions of the world. Linguistic relativity, also referred to as linguistic determinism, articulates that language determines thought.

The linguistic relativity hypothesis, the proposal that the particular language we speak influences the way we think about reality, forms one part of the broader question of how language influences thought.

Existing practical approaches are classified into three types. Structure-centered approaches begin with language differences and ask about their implications for thought. Domain-centered approaches begin with experienced reality and ask how different languages convert it. Behavior-centered approaches begin with some practical concern and seek an explanation in language.

Do we think before we speak, or do we need to be told how to shape our thoughts? Is the structure of words already distinctive and do not influence our thoughts? Is it true that even though we are able to understand, we are not able to actually think in that way because we are being told this is not the way to think and react?

The particular way we hear and speak influences the way we perceive reality. As we comply with what we are being told, we are told with an influencing expression it manipulates are perception. Our source for information would be the news and the news media is only telling us and offering to us, in a directed way, what they want us to know so that we will be persuaded to believe the way that we are being trained to believe.

This can be recognized with so many topics going on in today’s world. The particular way we are being directed and spoken to, influences the way we think and react to reality. It is part of the broader question of how the vice of communication influences thought.

Albert Einstein warned that the time would come when the very rich would control the means of communication and that it would be almost impossible for ordinary people to make informed decisions.

All that we hear is being filtered through all that we are allowed to hear. This is now the truth, as the wealthy now own the media. 37 years ago, there were 50 companies in charge of American media. Today, six corporations control 90% of the media in the United States: AT&T - $121.45 billion, CBS - $1.6 billion, Comcast - $169.76 billion, Disney - $212.54 billion, Newcorp - $14.96 billion and Viacom - $19.25 billion.

This whole calculating principle most recently touched me as I was observing the plight of the wild horses running free in the American West. Because of the controversy and squabble over the BLM grass wanted for the beef industry, their majestic title was ripped from their flowing manes and they were labeled, feral horses.

Now again I see it as I constantly see the massive flood of illegal aliens turning the Rio Grande River into a muddy border tsunami. When a foreign national crosses the U.S. border to live without official authorization, in a country of which they do not have citizenship, they become an illegal alien.

To Address the causes of migration and to manage migration throughout North and Central America, and to provide safe and orderly processing of asylum seekers at the United States Border, President Biden’s Executive Order 14012, affirms that the “Federal Government should develop welcoming strategies that promote integration and inclusion and not use the terms “alien” or “illegal alien” to describe migrants.”

Calling someone that has entered into the United States without the right documentation an illegal alien, is considered to be dehumanizing. They will feel like an outsider, disconnected, and alone. It’s better to refer to them as we are told to, undocumented immigrants, migrant newcomers or just a day-crosser. The Supreme Court now uses the term “noncitizen” in place of “alien.”

Embodied with bizarre reasons that cannot be comprehended, about 2,200 daily asylum seekers and refugees who have been invited to become permanent residents of the United States. Additionally about 5,000 noncitizen” make unauthorized entries each day.

When a meandering migrant, wanders into the old U.S. of A they become eligible for the major federal public assistance programs; Supplemental Security Income, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Emergency Medicaid, Full-Scope Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program and Medicare Part A.

Mark Twain, a famous writer most of us have heard of said, “If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're miss-informed.” His words are now the hard truth.

As we are directed into belonging to what we are told to believe by the media for reasons that are passed down from a source we do not truly know, I think of what I was told by a timeshare salesman I once knew. “Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Tell them what you are telling them then tell them what you have just told them.” This is “the dumbing down of Americans,” and why we are not only believing what we are told, but we are also living with it. - dbA

You can find more of the unfiltered insight and the Art of Dan Abernathy at www.contributechaos.com.