Ethnocentrism & Prejudices

The connectedness of our world provides a great opportunity to reach others and grow in countless ways, but also this connectedness also provides more space for misunderstandings and cultural conflicts.

But WTF stop. What the hell is "ethnocentrism"?

Ethnocentric ways of thinking assume that others perceive the world like you do.

As you already know conflics may arise on different levels from work to personal stuff. Business contacts such as sales conversations break every day due to minsunderstandings. Sometimes these misunderstandings are because of stereotypes that we make about others. The hard fact about stereotypes is however that they may be based on partial rules. And sometimes those are really just a misinterpretation of a cultural practice.

Definition:

A stereotype is a generalization which is quite often simplified and with a negative connotation.

Example:

There is a very common stereotype in the US that all Mexicans are illegal immigrants that crossed the boarder illegally. Of course, this is not true.

I hope this short and precise article gave you a lovely overview about the most crucial aspects when talking about ethnocentrism & stereotypes.