Cross- cultural Communication This page intentionally left blank

Assuming similarity with one’s own culture
There is often a tendency to assume similarities between the foreign culture 
and one’s own, rather than understanding the differences. An example is 
the British and American perceptions that there are very few differences 
between their cultures, although in reality there are many subtle ways in 
which the two cultures differ, and this is only fully recognized when the two 
live and work in each other’s culture.
Stereotyping
Stereotypes can be described as a group of beliefs and attitudes towards peo-
ple who are members of another distinct group. People form pre- established 
expectations about how members of other groups are likely to behave 
and what they believe in. Experiences often do not fit into our preconceived 
categories and we are then faced with ambiguity. Our response is to try to 
force them into an inaccurate category, thus distorting our perception of 
reality, with the result that we feel insecure and uncertain. The danger is 
that categorizing can lead to stereotyping and we categorize people of other 
cultures in the simplest way possible. The end result is a tendency to often 
invest these categories with negative emotions because they constitute the 
unknown. Stereotyping provides a quick, simple way of classifying people, 
particularly those from other cultures, but it does not allow for variation 
and may be positive or negative. Stereotypes are usually harmless if used 
only as a general rule of thumb, but can be hurtful, dangerous and racist if 
taken to be the whole truth about another group of people. This is because 
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14 Cross-Cultural Communication
all stereotypes contain value judgments. They are not based on personal 
experience but are often acquired from the media or the prejudices inherent 
in our own social group. For example, racial stereotypes reflect racial pre-
judices and when these are repeated in the media, there is the danger that 
they may become perpetuated and institutionalized. Another example is the 
way in which people are stereotyped or pigeon- holed due to their accent, 
dialect, physical appearance or social class and background. The result is the 
forming of often inaccurate opinions that have little factual basis and are 
grossly over- simplified. The socialization of people into particular cultures 
can give rise to distinct cultural values and associated perceptions, for exam-
ple, views on poverty, immigrants, standards of economic development and 
so on. Our own group loyalty often encourages us to believe that our group 
is ‘better’ and more important than other groups.
Although national barriers are disappearing as a result of globalization and 
the Internet, national stereotyping persists. A moderate amount of stereotyping 
is inevitable, acceptable and at times even humorous, but displays of deep 
ignorance which cause offence are matters of concern. There is therefore a 
need for objective and informed knowledge about other cultures.
Common stereotypical categories may be labelled in terms of, for example, 
race, age, gender, social class and dress. The danger lies in the speed and 
intensity of these generalizations and assumptions about other people, 
which are usually based on very thin evidence and knowledge. Stereotyping 
can take two different forms:
traits that we admire – ambition, modesty, cleverness, bravery;
traits that we deplore or dislike – laziness, stupidity, lack of ambition.
However, there is a place for stereotypes, as our brain tries to sort into 
categories, and stereotypes become initially useful
pigeon- holes until we 
learn more about other people and realize that within any group there are 
large individual differences. Stereotypes also play their part in providing a 
basis for possible further closer investigation.