​Definition of a stereotype:

​a widely held idea or image of a particular type of person or thing

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​Examples of widely held stereotypes:

• ​Most people picture a cowboy having a horse.

• ​Older people are slow and incompetent when doing work.

• ​All teenagers have bad attitudes.

• ​Architects are usually men.

​Scientists are often subject to stereotypes.

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​I am going to make a prediction of the stereotypes that the majority of you drew when asked the question:

​ "What is a scientist?"

​My predictions what most of you drew based on sterotypes.

• ​more of you drew men than women

• ​the scientist was wearing a white lab coat

• ​the scientist you drew had glasses

• ​the majority of students had a scientist with facial hair of some type

• ​the scientist will have wild and crazy hair

• ​the scientist looks like he/she might be a little wacky

• ​there will be table in the picture often showing mixing chemicals

• ​there will be some type of explosion shown

• ​the scientist will be wearing pants

​A few other stereotypes that are almost as common and often in the drawing:

• ​the drawings hardly ever show a barefoot scientist

• ​if a female was drawn she looks really smart, but males often look a bit crazy

• ​a lot of drawings show microscopes or computers

• ​a lot of drawings show an atom like you see in the picture here

• ​most of the scientists look happy

• ​most people drew a single person rather than a group