Susan and Simon

Susan Boyle just sang to me through my IPod. I am one of those who made her the highest-volume pre-order artist in Amazon.com's history. She is a YouTube sensation, so you can go there if you are not familiar with her story.

American Idol judge, Simon Cowell, made a fool of himself on the British version of the TV show when he was guilty of stereotyping and prejudice againt Susan Boyle, and almost discriminated against her, the first time she stood before him to sing.

In Social Psychology terms, he had activated a "schema" based on all of the other "strange looking" people who made fools of themselves in front of him.

Now here was another one, a woman who was a little strange looking, not the most attractive woman in the world, standing before him. His mental conclusion before she ever sang a note? "Next contestant, please!"

Then she opened her mouth and Simon opened his mouth, as his jaw dropped. What a voice coming out of this lady!

Chalk one up for waiting to judge a person based on their own merit, instead of pre-judging them based on a stereotype. Stereotype is deciding that all the characteristics of a group are true of an individual in that group, simply because they are in the group. Stereotype is neither negative nor positive. It is one's attitude toward a group that is either negative or positive. If your attitude is negative, it leads to the third step, prejudice.

Prejudice is a negative attitude toward an individual simply because they are in a group you have a negative attitude toward. Prejudice can lead to the next step, discrimination, which is negative or harmful behavior toward an individual because they are part of a group. Simon came within a nanosecond of discriminating against her, but, fortunately, he held his tongue until she sang.

When we do not know much about a person we have a tendency to fill in all of the gaps with what we know about a group they are part of (stereotype): "The things that are true of her group must be true of her." The more we come to know about them, the fewer gaps we have to fill, our opinion of them changes.

Don't look so smug, we all do it. "She's a librarian, and you know what librarians are like...Shhhh!" Or, "He's an accountant, and you know what accountants are like. Boring!" "She's a blond, and you know what that means."

"Dr. G is a Shrink, and all Shrinks are crazy, so you know Dr. G must be crazy!"