e, and then define, we define first and then see. In the great blooming, buzzing confusion of the outer world we pick out what our culture has already defined for us, and we tend to perceive that which we have picked out in the form stereotyped for us by our culture. "Personal experience contradicts a stereotype there are two ways out: a person who lacks flexibility and is not interested in changing his or her views either doesn t notice this contradictory or considers it as an exception which confirms the rule, and forgets about it. A curious person facing this situation changes his or her attitude to the surrounding world. Stereotypes cannot be completely false. Lippmann says they can be true or at least partly true. "The systems of stereotypes may be the core of our personal tradition, the defenses of our position in society ... they are a picture of a possible world to which we are adapted. In that world people and things have their well-known places, and do certain ".. Nachbar and K. Lause in their book Popular Culture: An Introductory Text note that stereotypes constitute an important part of the mass culture. Different reasons form different types of stereotypes: age (Young people listen to the rock music), gender (Men want from women only one thing), race (Japanese are hard to be differentiated from one another), religion (Islam provokes terrorism), professions (All lawyers are bilkers), nationality (The Jews are greedy). There are also geographic stereotypes (It is much safer to live in small towns), stereotypes about things (The German cars are of the best quality). Stereotypes are both natural and unnatural. Being cognitive products of the categorization process, stereotypes are natural. They are regarded as positive because stereotypes prepare participants of intercultural communication to contact between two cultures and lessen the culture shock. One more argument supports the positive aspect of stereotypes: the cognitive effort economy principle that facilitates perception of "other" cultures. On the other hand, stereotypes are unnatural because they are built on overgeneralization and simplification, which explains why they very often lead to conflicts.are a lot of different stereotypes to be defined: auto stereotypes which reflect peoples views about themselves, and heterostereotypes which reveal attitude to other nations. For example, thrift being a sign of the auto stereotype can be considered as greed for heterostereotype. Such fixed models of behavior have a great influence on people, forming the traits of character which are reflected in the stereotype. N. Ufimtceva differentiates ethnic and cultural stereotypes. The first ones cannot be self reflected; they are the gist of behavior and of so called "collective unconscious". The second ones, on contrary, can be self reflected, they refer to our consciousness.can also distinguish deep and superfici...
