Written by: Jerome Fitts

“The way we think about others”- social cognition (Cherry. K, 2023), is a phrase that may be illegal to express openly. We must be selective of what we say to one another these days or else we could be described or perceived as_?

Do any of you remember the phrases?; “Don’t put me in a box” or “This or that does not define me!”. The reality is that perception is based on how we display ourselves.

The thing of it is, the two-second attention span of people can misrepresent the description.

My submission for this week’s post; 

How do people categorize things and people as either familiar and safe or unfamiliar and possibly dangerous? 

People categorize things and people based on what they see and experience. In 2024, if those perceptions are based on being led by what they heard or unfortunately read it influences them. Then there is a description of certain “things” and “people”.The dangerous possibility is based on a perceived notion from what others may say or advertise.

For example: “Those are rock and rollers and it is bad or good for you” or when others give away another person’s resume’ in a conversation such as; “This is Bob and he is a cab driver and divorced.”

Why do people categorize? 

People categorize things or others because they find a way to relate to something they do not understand. Just as it has been written in an article in PressBooks; “The natural cognitive process by which we place individuals into social groups (Jhangiani & Tarry, 2022).”We also have to consider that humans are not as smart as they were in the past.

Can you escape categorization? 

Unless someone lies then no. Everything has to be described at some point.

How does this impact us and how we navigate the world?

First and foremost there is Google. All search bars are based on description, status and characterizing whatever information. We rely on this information daily.

It may be misleading out of spite or praise but at the end of the day, we have to experience it ourselves. Be it a product, an ethnic group in a certain territory or a new type of vaccine. We are led by those categorizations and putting one foot forward is decided by the explorer of such navigation.

If we cannot escape categorization, can we ever eliminate prejudice? 

No. This could be a separate discussion post altogether but in the fickle and sensitive world we live in, prejudice will always exist. The power of choice is our choice. The latter goes back to last week’s discussion post about where we belong- right?

When should we use groups to solve problems versus having an individual complete the work? 

When there is a need to facilitate a task that requires a team or encouragement to proceed forward.

“It seemed reasonable to assume that others’ presence will arouse or energize people (Mullen et al., 1997).” As well as having others around boost performance. (BibliU, n.d.)

You sweat together and you win together.

This social facilitation effect also occurs with animals. In the presence of others of their species (BibliU, n.d.).

References:

MSEd, K. C. (2023, January 24). Social cognition in Psychology. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/social-cognition-2795912#:

Jhangiani, R., & Tarry, H. (2022, January 26). 11.1 Social categorization and stereotyping. Pressbooks. https://opentextbc.ca/socialpsychology/chapter/social-categorization-and-stereotyping/

BibliU. (n.d.). BibliU – Reader. My App. https://bibliu.com/app/?bibliuMagicToken=M4pLiGMLHbDHbYIKind7ftcLbhZoFSGN#/view/books/9781260807509/epub/OEBPS/ch17.html#page_165