He is a Harvard Man. How different
from the statement: he is a Yale Man. He is a regular fellow. He is a
West Pointer. He is an old army sergeant. He is a Greenwich Villager:
what don't we know about him then, and about her? He is an
international banker. He is from Main Street.
The subtlest and most pervasive of all influences ere those which
create and maintain the repertory of stereotypes. We are told about
the world before we see it. We imagine most things before we
experience them. And those preconceptions, unless education has made
us acutely aware, govern deeply the whole process of perception. They
mark out certain objects as familiar or strange, emphasizing the
difference, so that the slightly familiar is seen as very familiar,
and the somewhat strange as sharply alien. They are aroused by small
signs, which may vary from a true index to a vague analogy. Aroused,
they flood fresh vision with older images, and project into the world
what has been resurrected in memory. Were there no practical
uniformities in the environment, there would be no economy and only
error in the human habit of accepting foresight for sight. But there
are uniformities sufficiently accurate, and the need of economizing
attention is so inevitable, that the abandonment of all stereotypes
for a wholly innocent approach to experience would impoverish human
life.
What matters is the character of the stereotypes, and the gullibility
with which we employ them.
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