Or if he
is a more serious soul he may while on tour have found himself at
celebrated spots. Having touched base, and cast one furtive glance at
the monument, he buried his head in Baedeker, read every word through,
and moved on to the next celebrated spot; and thus returned with a
compact and orderly impression of Europe, rated one star, or two.
In some measure, stimuli from the outside, especially when they are
printed or spoken words, evoke some part of a system of stereotypes,
so that the actual sensation and the preconception occupy
consciousness at the same time. The two are blended, much as if we
looked at red through blue glasses and saw green. If what we are
looking at corresponds successfully with what we anticipated, the
stereotype is reinforced for the future, as it is in a man who knows
in advance that the Japanese are cunning and has the bad luck to run
across two dishonest Japanese.
If the experience contradicts the stereotype, one of two things
happens. If the man is no longer plastic, or if some powerful interest
makes it highly inconvenient to rearrange his stereotypes, he pooh-
poohs the contradiction as an exception that proves the rule,
discredits the witness, finds a flaw somewhere, and manages to forget
it. But if he is still curious and open-minded, the novelty is taken
into the picture, and allowed to modify it. Sometimes, if the incident
is striking enough, and if he has felt a general discomfort with his
established scheme, he may be shaken to such an extent as to distrust
all accepted ways of looking at life, and to expect that normally a
thing will not be what it is generally supposed to be.
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