I think all of us have dealt with problems because of preconceived ideas. This is a result of poor documentation or a result of the tendency to generalize things from particular situations.
This thread can deal with problems of racism too..

I will begin with a preconceived idea about my country, about romanians in general. Because a lot of gipsies and unemployed people left and are still leaving Romania for better developed countries like Spain and Italy, all of you think Romania is country full of gipsies and thieves, which is not true . This is a bad generalization and many people who come in Romania for the first time just open their mouths and say things like "hey, I didn't know you have cars!". Even in Africa you can find a lot of cars (see, I have a preconceived idea about africans )

A second preconception that affects me is that people think rockers/metalheads are dirty, stinky whereas I shower 3 times a day. This is of course another generalization, some are stinky...

This thread is about discussing all kind of preconceptions and make other people change their opinions about it...

well, first preconception would also be about my country. generally people think this is a jungle full of drug dealers and guerrillas fighting military all the time, and that's not true. for example Bogotá is a very big city, and although we do have security problems, it's not like there's war all around all the time.

second could be also referring to metal. i know that a lot of people that know pretty much nothing about metal, think that it's only composed of BM or DM, and that all metal is like that and that there's no real composition or theory behind it. imo, that sucks, specially because they don't take the time to look deeper and relaize that what they think about metal isn't true.

other than that, i can't think of anyhting else right now. i'll just wait for new posts to discuss further

Written by tulkas on 15.04.2008 at 04:38

well, first preconception would also be about my country. generally people think this is a jungle full of drug dealers and guerrillas fighting military all the time, and that's not true. for example Bogotá is a very big city, and although we do have security problems, it's not like there's war all around all the time.

"Since the mid-20th century, Colombia has been torn by violence. Struggles between left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitary groups, and the Colombian armed forces have convulsed much of the countryside. Colombia has also been plagued by an illegal drug trade that flourished in the country as a consequence of the growing demand for narcotics, particularly cocaine, in the United States and other rich, industrialized countries. The Colombian government has attempted to limit drug production and negotiate a peaceful settlement with the rebel forces. At the beginning of the 21st century, however, Colombia still experienced upheaval, and violence had become a daily experience for many Colombians."

I read many more articles about Colombia's drug trades. Some helped your country to overpass some difficulties like:
"After 1980 Colombia began exporting large amounts of illegal drugs, primarily cocaine. The estimated value of illegal drug exports amounted to almost half the value of Colombia's legal exports from 1980 to 1995. Earnings from the drug trade helped Colombia avoid the debt crisis that afflicted much of Latin America during the 1980s"

I guess your country doesn't have very strict rules about drug dealing... I found even in Encarta a lot of pictures with coca plantations.
I don't know, maybe you can tell what is really happening and how do these politic fights and drug dealing look on the outside, to ordinary people...

Written by eximius on 14.04.2008 at 23:53

A second preconception that affects me is that people think rockers/metalheads are dirty, stinky whereas I shower 3 times a day.

That'll end up ruining your skin, too.

Preconception about my country: most of the world thinks it's a part of Spain (when we exist as a nation way before Spain was Spain). That's more of a misconception than a preconception, but well... Apart from that, I don't think people (who actually know what Portugal is) have many bad prconceptions. What I listen to the most is that they think it's a country with a great gastronomy - and I'lll have nothing to say against that, it's true.

Wrong preconceptions about women: pretty women are dumb, whereas smart women are ugly. There might be dumb ugly women too, but never - ever - smart pretty women.
Another wrong preconception about women: they don't like Metal.

Written by eximius on 15.04.2008 at 14:42

Written by tulkas on 15.04.2008 at 04:38

"Since the mid-20th century, Colombia has been torn by violence. Struggles between left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitary groups, and the Colombian armed forces have convulsed much of the countryside. Colombia has also been plagued by an illegal drug trade that flourished in the country as a consequence of the growing demand for narcotics, particularly cocaine, in the United States and other rich, industrialized countries. The Colombian government has attempted to limit drug production and negotiate a peaceful settlement with the rebel forces. At the beginning of the 21st century, however, Colombia still experienced upheaval, and violence had become a daily experience for many Colombians."

I read many more articles about Colombia's drug trades. Some helped your country to overpass some difficulties like:
"After 1980 Colombia began exporting large amounts of illegal drugs, primarily cocaine. The estimated value of illegal drug exports amounted to almost half the value of Colombia's legal exports from 1980 to 1995. Earnings from the drug trade helped Colombia avoid the debt crisis that afflicted much of Latin America during the 1980s"

I guess your country doesn't have very strict rules about drug dealing... I found even in Encarta a lot of pictures with coca plantations.
I don't know, maybe you can tell what is really happening and how do these politic fights and drug dealing look on the outside, to ordinary people...

of course there's problems with guerrillas and drug dealing and planting, i'm not saying the contrary, not at all. what I meant was that there are also good things here, and not everything is war and drugs or whatever. sure, if you read articles about these subjects it's obvious you won't find anything referring to the different types of tourism you can enjoy here, or studying oportunities, etc.

by reading only these news and articles about Colombia, then you'll obviously get that preconception you have. same thing would happen with me reading news about gypsies or whatever in romania... know what i mean?

Written by tulkas on 15.04.2008 at 22:41


of course there's problems with guerrillas and drug dealing and planting, i'm not saying the contrary, not at all. what I meant was that there are also good things here, and not everything is war and drugs or whatever. sure, if you read articles about these subjects it's obvious you won't find anything referring to the different types of tourism you can enjoy here, or studying oportunities, etc.

by reading only these news and articles about Colombia, then you'll obviously get that preconception you have. same thing would happen with me reading news about gypsies or whatever in romania... know what i mean?

well, I don't really have a preconception about your country. You have a lot of nice beaches and beautiful women.
I guess my grandma knows a lot more about colombia than me because she watches telenovelas

@veneficus: hahaha, i don't think that's the best way to get an idea about our country, telenovelas suck a lot. but oh well, at least she has a 'good' image, i'd belive...

Hej,
Well here we know about portugal of course, but also have many preconceived idea about them like... They are hairy and work manually.

About romania my main preconceived idea is that romania in still in what looks to be our 80's or 90's.

People think we're all fatties, and well, we kinda are, but I'm not fat. I promise.

Written by Dangerboner on 16.04.2008 at 05:13

People think we're all fatties, and well, we kinda are, but I'm not fat. I promise.

haha, you're right. we tend to generalize all the time and think that all you do is eat mcdonalds hamburgers and that you're fat... but then again, like you say, there are a lot of people in the US that do have overwheight problems due to eating and eating and watching tv. good to know you're not one of them, hehe

Ohh, I get a lot of these. Of course there's the US thing like pyroleprechaun said... People also have preconceived ideas about my state. Usually people ask me questions like whether or not I have livestock or stuff about farming when I tell them where I live. I know Kansas is lame, but I swear we're not all hicks! I don't even know anyone who lives on a farm.

People also think some things about me because I'm a girl. Like that I am weak or incompetent. People also sometimes assume those things because of my age and, again, location.

Written by yvesson on 16.04.2008 at 01:43

Hej,
Well here we know about portugal of course, but also have many preconceived idea about them like... They are hairy and work manually.

Ah, that too, yes. Maybe that image of portuguese people was conveyed by the massive wave of people that emmigrated to other European countries (mostly to France and Germany) to escape the dictatorial regime, during the 60's. But I believe there's also a preconceived idea that we're hard-working people, isn't there?

Well, not all of us are hard-working , and guess what: we can deal with digital technology already! In fact, I'll take this chance to say that we've got many talented scientists working in different areas of study (biology, astronomy, physics, you name it) and making important discoveries. Only, of course, they don't get so many attention as a soccer player, go figure...

Oh, about the hair, we're not hairier than the average european, I guess... only darker, maybe.

My preconceptions about France, before I went there (in '89): everybody wore those funny hats, striped shirts and carried a baguette everywhere. After I went there: great yummy patisseries, marvellous monuments, wonderful landscapes. As for the people, there's all kinds, just like here: the nice and the arrogant ones. But one thing I'll never understand is how you can eat the bread you carry under you armpits without any kind of protection. Over here that's plain lack of hygiene.

Oh, and pardon me, but french people speaking english makes me laugh. Please don't take offense.

Hej,
Well I think the bread can be put anywhere without protection, cars, even bicycle in summer. But personnaly I don't eat much bread (I keep it for the birds ^^).

Misconceptions bout languages....people think that Estonian is a dialect of Russian and Irish is a dialect of English which is not true in both cases...Estonian and Russian for instance aren't even remotely related tho we share a grand deal of vocabulary.....

Our brains are built to create these stereo types. All animals create what psychologists call actors in their heads. They use the actors to try and predict what friends or foes do in the real world. So for example a Gazelle would have an actor for a lion and another for an elephant. They are both a threat but in very different ways.

We have much more sophisticated Actor models in our much larger brains. we evolved these as we are relatively weak as a species so we need to have very good predictive abilities. As a tribal animal we evolved the ability to create actors for different tribes. These stereo typed actors are useful as they are easy to pass on to children who need to know who to trust but don't understand the nuances of human behaviour.

In the modern setting we still use the actors and stereo types but they sometimes get in the way. This is why most people are racist in as much as they carry preconceived ideas about external groups. That doesn't mean we all act on these stereo types though as we have layers of social rules to control our behaviour on top of our intuitive behavioural systems.

Written by owl on 15.04.2008 at 17:12

Preconception about my country: most of the world thinks it's a part of Spain (when we exist as a nation way before Spain was Spain). That's more of a misconception than a preconception, but well... Apart from that, I don't think people (who actually know what Portugal is) have many bad prconceptions.

Yep, but you were invaded by the Spaniards for like 60 years in the past, weren't you? I mean between 1580 and 1640 or something.

Well, back to topic: I have a lot of prejudice towards intimate relationships, mostly because I have never had a girlfriend or even been in love, for instance. I do not believe in love, and my opinion is more or less the following: if love does exist indeed, it has to be either once and forever in your life or it is just fake. This is why I am so afraid of relationships: given that most (if not all) of the girls at my age have had at least one boyfriend in their lives, it is stupid to start a romance with anyone of them, I mean:

If she has already had a boyfriend and ended their relationship, there was no love at all in that couple. Now, suppose that I start dating her. In that case, we are doomed to break up like she did with her former boyfriend, for there can be no love between both of us if she repeats what she did in the past, and nobody can guarantee me that she will not. On the other hand, I might consider the remote possibility that she does indeed like me and we date for a longer time, but then, why did she start dating her former boyfriend in the first place? Well, in the end it is safer to keep not believing in love in my opinion.

People assume I do drugs because I have long hair. People also think I'm on drugs because I always act like I'm on drugs. (I'm not on drugs)

Written by Taktsekte on 28.04.2008 at 23:55

Yep, but you were invaded by the Spaniards for like 60 years in the past, weren't you? I mean between 1580 and 1640 or something.

Not invaded... Technically 'inherited', so to say... Royal sucessions, and such. Either way, I don't think there's that historical reason behind many people thinking Portugal is part of Spain, but rather geographical ignorance.

another preconcieved idea i thought of the other day is concerning us who practice martial arts. everytime i tell someone i practice taekwondo, or they find out or whatever, they immediatly assume that i'm like a killing machine, and that martial arts is just going out and kicking asses, and that's all.
that's not right, i mean, yeah, it does give you fighting abilities and whatever, but the purpose is not just going out and kicking evryone's ass, there's a lot more behind it and that's not the 'objective' (at least in most of the cases) of martial arts.

@tulkas: I practice Taekwondo as well, but I have never felt other people having any prejudice towards martial artists, to be honest...

@owl: I know, I know, our Felipe II saw a great opportunity to 'fill that power vacuum' by 'stationing his troops' all over Portugal... which I still see as an unashamed invasion...

@VeneficuS: Fair enough, when I think about Colombia, the first thing that comes to mind is Juan Pablo Montoya! Gosh, I have to stop watching so many car races. ^_^

Written by tulkas on 30.04.2008 at 04:50

another preconcieved idea i thought of the other day is concerning us who practice martial arts. everytime i tell someone i practice taekwondo, or they find out or whatever, they immediatly assume that i'm like a killing machine, and that martial arts is just going out and kicking asses, and that's all.
that's not right, i mean, yeah, it does give you fighting abilities and whatever, but the purpose is not just going out and kicking evryone's ass, there's a lot more behind it and that's not the 'objective' (at least in most of the cases) of martial arts.

I know there are people who study martial arts and who are willing to kick everyone's ass just for fun or in order to kill boredom or in order to show off....that also allows them to act like douchebags on the street, breaking things, pulling young trees out of the soil, laughing loudly at other people and playing pranks on others or just yell at passersby...basically....they can do everything they want because nobody dares to fight with them....altho when they don't like someone's face they'll go and say "You're such a pussy bitch....you annoy me...wanna have a fight with me?"

apparently we have polar bears walking in the streets

People think I'm always sad because I listen to metal. They are sooooo wrong

And they think I'm not a real girl because I wear combat boots, I must be a deviant. They also think I'm mean because of the way I look and when they get to know me they realize I'm very nice and talkative and open.

Ok, I'm not being pretentious, I promise.

About preconceived ideas I have about people or countries or whatever... hummm I think that my translation studies teacher is gay

Written by BloodTears on 02.05.2008 at 21:08

People think I'm always sad because I listen to metal. They are sooooo wrong

Some people think the same... Some clasmates call me:
The Satanist Emo... Well.. I laughed as fuck the first time I heard that. But that's indeed.. trash.

Not all the metal means satanism and things like that...

A preconceived idea that I have.. is that I use to thing that most of the people who listen to rap are assholes that go aroung with the bling-bling [the cheesiest thing I'd ever seen in me life after a manowar song] and try to play "gansta" and go with every girl that they meet.

Tat's my though about it.. I know it's bad, but must of the people that I know who listen to rap.. are idiots at their best.

Hmm, I see everyone commented country, well ok, I'll try, I suppose most of uniformed people thinks Serbia is huge battlefield even though on territory of Serbia there was not one war since world war two (and region where I live not maybe even then) not counting Serbian province Kosovo and Metohija, which is like 10 percent of our country and is not war all the time. I remember one guy impressed by wars and destruction asked me how much tank cost, I mean, what a fuck dude, how should I know that, it seams they think you can buy airplane, tank or nuke on a regular bazar, market, just beside the potatoes and oranges, no, man, you can no wear weapons here, even knifes and there is not even a permit to carry weapon like in most of European states and USA, you can have permit for weapon just to keep it at house, also, not sure but it seams some people think crime rate here is something fucking huge, last year in whole Serbia there was less than 10 murders and not one media robbery (I mean on banks, jewlery shops), the biggest robberies are when some kids steal some cash from a gas station, you can leave your car whenever you want and 99,50% you will find it here, haven't heard someones car was stolen for 10 years.

2nd one that is bothering me, all metalheads complains about other people judging them, making harsh criticisms without justification while 90% of metalheads do exactly the same, now I look at my friends, metalheads will say, look at this bitch all dressed up, what a fuck dude, if she feels like wearing pink shirt and white skirt, let her do it, same as you wanna carry black top with true nekro band logo not Jean-François Champollion decode, damn, not only metalheads are cool, I know some dudes saying all non metalheads chicks are cock sucking bitches while non metalheads are retards that listen shit just to fuck those bitches, deny it as much as you want, but I am not making anything up, 5 out of 10 of you think for blond dressed up girl look at this princess all dressed up etc etc etc I wonder how do we wants people to respect us if we do not respect them for what they are, not everyone likes long hair and combat boots (which I do not wear myself anymore, am I any less metalheads than some big foot wearing combat boots on 40C?)

Written by BloodTears on 02.05.2008 at 21:08

People think I'm always sad because I listen to metal. They are sooooo wrong

And they think I'm not a real girl because I wear combat boots, I must be a deviant. They also think I'm mean because of the way I look and when they get to know me they release I'm very nice and talkative and open.

Ok, I'm not being pretentious, I promise.

I can completely relate to you. I often have people telling me that they never expected me to be so nice, which is why they avoided talking to me beforehand. Of course, they figured I was mean because of what I wear as well, and what music I listen to, which I find is ridiculous.

People thinking you are an elitist when you a rag on a band like Dimmu Borgir. No.1 lol factor of mine, not just for Dimmu, but for bands of allll ddeeee geenreeesss!

Written by Nexus on 02.05.2008 at 22:49

Written by BloodTears on 02.05.2008 at 21:08

People think I'm always sad because I listen to metal. They are sooooo wrong

And they think I'm not a real girl because I wear combat boots, I must be a deviant. They also think I'm mean because of the way I look and when they get to know me they release I'm very nice and talkative and open.

Ok, I'm not being pretentious, I promise.

I can completely relate to you. I often have people telling me that they never expected me to be so nice, which is why they avoided talking to me beforehand. Of course, they figured I was mean because of what I wear as well, and what music I listen to, which I find is ridiculous.

The opposite happens to me.
Because I don't wear all black or combat boots every day, people tend to assume I listen to stuff like... I don't know, Aguilera, maybe. At the best of chances, they might think the heaviest sound I like is rock, but they certainly drop their jaws when I decide to tell them what I really listen to.

So, another preconceived idea here: whoever doesn't wear all black cannot like Metal.

Written by Sunioj on 02.05.2008 at 22:49

People thinking you are an elitist when you a rag on a band like Dimmu Borgir. No.1 lol factor of mine, not just for Dimmu, but for bands of allll ddeeee geenreeesss!

Hey, I like Dimmu

Far as preconcieved notions about the US. Well, I hate how people think that we're all a bunch of War Mongering, Elitist assholes bent on world domination and imperialization.