ETHNIC STEREOTYPES: TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING THE ESSENCE

The article examines the essence of ethnic stereotypes, which are an integral element of intercultural communication in the modern world. An ethnic stereotype is a stable subjective image of another people, its representatives, belonging to the field of the unconscious and determined by culture. It is necessary to understand that an ethnic type, on the one hand, gives an idea of a foreign people, but since it develops in the consciousness of a certain ethnic group, it characterizes this group itself, allowing it to differentiate itself. An ethnic stereotype acts as a barrier in intercultural communication, giving it subjectivity, evaluativeness, emotionality, and determining the behavior of the actor: from predisposition to tension and possible aggression, depending on the context. However, it also performs positive functions, since it helps to accelerate and simplify perception in the context of a constantly incoming and updated large amount of information. Ethnic stereotypes are assimilated in the process of socialization; that is why they are characterized by conservatism and static. Moreover, even if stereotypical thinking about a particular ethnic group is abandoned due to interpersonal interaction, a return to the stereotype is possible. In the conditions of the information society, the problem of ethnic stereotyping is most acute, since the media, along with the institutions of socialization of the individual (family, education system), become important sources of their formation and transmission in the context of the spread of “hate speech”. The main tool in overcoming this problem can be the formation of skills of communicative competence, implying an adequate understanding of the foundations of one’s own and other cultures, and building various behavioral models based on the designated behavior, as well as conducting a purposeful state policy to form mutually respectful relations between different cultures that make up the nation.