Group Perception Quotes

Let's look at two things real quickly: the civil rights movement in Mississippi in the Sixties and the Arab Spring starting in Tunisia and Cairo. What they had in common was people who were told, and who believed inside themselves, that they were a certain way, and the society at large believed it.

A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.

I've been studying sexism for many years, and it's much easier to document the existence of sexism than it is to document the existence of interventions that reduce it. It's really hard to find ways to change the way people see people in different groups. It should be our goal, and we're working for that, but it's hard.

... anything a powerful group has is perceived as good, no matter what it is, and anything a less powerful group has is not so good, no matter how intrinsically great it might be.

The band? No way! There ain't no band. The band is not 'the band' right now. It's just three guys.

The entire race is usually judged by the actions of one man or woman.

Thousands of people seeing the same thing cannot all be wrong.

Nobody likes Jews. You can't say people like Jews. We're not popular. We're too smart to be liked. But it has been unacceptable to express anti-Semitism since the Holocaust.

A man who saw a miracle would reject his eyes' witness, if those with him saw nothing.

There is a collective as well as an individual humor inclining peoples to sadness or cheerfulness, making them see things in bright or somber lights. In fact, only society can pass a collective opinion on the value of human life; for this the individual is incompetent.

Groups tend to believe their work is harder, more strategic, or just more valuable while underestimating those contributions from other groups.

For this reason, strangers are not really conceived as individuals, but as strangers of a particular type: the element of distance is no less general in regard to them than the element of nearness.

Whenever I speak, I talk to the collective consciousness of my audience.

The only way we know it's true is that we both dreamed it. That's what reality is. It's a dream everyone has together.

So the name of a group has to say something. The name has to be strong.