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Interactive Activities · Activity 14 of 18
How Stereotypes Affect Empathy (Ages 13–16)
A classroom session on how stereotypes affect empathy. The teacher shows how judging people by their appearance can hurt them; students then look at photos, say what kind of person they think each one is, and find out who the people really are. In Portuguese with English subtitles.
Key takeaways
- A classroom session with students aged 13–16 on how stereotypes lead us to judge people by their appearance.
- The teacher asks students what they would think of her if she walked in dressed and behaving very differently.
- The class discusses how quick judgments, in person and online, can hurt people we do not know.
- In the activity, students look at photos, say what kind of person they think each one is, and then find out who the people really are.
What is the aim of this session?
To show students how stereotypes make us judge people by their appearance without knowing them, and how those judgments can hurt. The teacher stresses that everyone does this at some point — at school, at home, online — and that no one has the right to judge.
How does the activity run in class?
The teacher starts with an example: what would students say about a new teacher who entered the room with an unusual appearance and a closed expression? She then gives the class images of men and women. Students say what kind of person they think each one is, and afterwards the teacher reveals who the people actually are. The recording is in Portuguese with English subtitles.
Video transcript
Generated automatically from the video's audio or subtitles; it may contain small errors.
Good afternoon everyone. Today we are going to our third activity to work on empathy. What I want to show you today is to tell you about stereotypes. I'll explain what stereotypes are, and the fact that they make us blocked, or often lead us to label people. I will give you a clear example. I enter this room for the first time. I will be your Portuguese teacher; you don't know me. And I enter this room with steel boots, a steel chain in my pants, pants all torn, and a completely closed facial expression. What would you say about me?
The first time I see this figure, it is out of the ordinary. But what do the torn pants, the boots or the chain in my pants say about me? Nothing, strictly nothing. That person who comes in here looking like that can be the best person in the world. What do we all do? We label without knowing the person. How many times do we see this on the internet? People, let's say extremely thin public figures, and we say: oh, how ugly, my God, what a horror, all the bones are showing. But we don't know that person. Maybe they are going through a serious problem of anorexia or bulimia; there is an associated mental problem.
And what do we always do? We judge. We spend our lives judging people we don't know. We put labels on people. Is this right or is it wrong? It's wrong. Initially it can even be a source of fun. But what is important: when we label a person, that person can pretend not to notice, but they do notice. And will they feel good or bad? They will feel bad. It will hurt somehow, because we are judging them by appearance without knowing them. We all do this: in personal life, along the school journey, in the family. Each of us here inside this room has already done this.
It is very important that we think that labelling a person by what we see can, and will, hurt the other. Now, do I like to be hurt? No. So I won't hurt others. This is very important. We are not machines; we have feelings. No one has the right to judge. We are all the same; nobody is better than anybody. So this is what we are going to work on today. I will give you some pictures and you will tell me what kind of person you think is in that image. I will give you cards with photos of men and women, and you will tell me: this one has the face of this, this one looks like that. And then I will show you who those people are.
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