Social cognition is the study of groups, how we interact and how the context of the group influences individual behavior and identity. Social cognition is how we make sense of the information from our environment in personally relevant ways. Stereotyping is the natural way that our minds process information. It is a heuristic that we develop relative to our experience and our sense of self. There is too much stimuli to evaluate each data point so we create these shorthand rules to facilitate speed and efficiency of processing data. Without these, we could not function.
The current social climate has labeled stereotyping as a negative without acknowledging the cognitive function it plays. Real experience is that people are different and their experiences are different, and the rules they make to navigate the world are based on those differences. While the goal of equal opportunity is a good one, the effort to achieve it by erasing differences between people has not, and will not, work. By labeling stereotypes or beliefs as inherently negative, we are contributing to conflict and undermining the confidence people have in their own cognitive ability.
The pressure to not stereotype creates cognitive dissonance. We can’t, and shouldn’t, be forced to deny our identities or be told our thinking is “bad.” We can, however, acknowledge how our brains work and create a system that challenges bias by expanding the information we use to create our stereotypes. Imagined Communities addresses this by creating more experiences, better relations, better choices, and better opportunities to expand the information that forms our understanding of how things are without denying our cognitive need to parse information into functional heuristics.
Until now, we have been constrained by geography and access in providing wider experiences. Imagined Communities provides that access. It celebrates differences in people and the neighborhoods they build together, encouraging people to enrich their identities by interaction with others through shared experiences and collaboration. This kind of interaction accepts differences but builds common ground without denying those differences. Supporting residents’ ties to community roots creates the ability for growth from the inside out, rather than the outside in. Virtual experiences allow people to explore places they have not been, observe and practice different attitudes and behaviors, experiment with careers or projects, and gain confidence without violating their own identity or culture.
Just as we stereotype the outside world, we stereotype ourselves. Every individual makes assumptions about their competence, their choices, their personal resources, and how they relate to others. Work by Albert Bandura, Martin Seligman and others have repeatedly shown the importance of self-efficacy and personal agency in a multitude of arenas, from interpersonal choices and school or job performance to mental health. Individuals who perceive their world as narrow, their opportunities as limited, and their abilities as low are prone to depression, substance abuse, low achievement, and unproductive life choices.
Imagined Communities provides the chance to practice positive social behaviors by collaborating with others, skill development through content production, practice at prosocial behaviors through mentoring, and an increased awareness of options and resources through expanded social networks.
