Envying evolution: What can the X-Men teach us about stereotypes?

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Envying evolution: What can the X-Men teach usabout stereotypes?Posted on June 7, 2011 | 9 Comments

This weekend marked the opening of X-M en: First Class, prequel to (and assumed reboot of) the

wildly successful X-M en movie franchise.

For those who are unfamili ar wit h the X-M en seri es, the stor ies revolve around groups of mutants,

super-powered beings who supposedly represent the next stage in human evolut ion and whose

powers run the gamut from telepathy to cellular regeneration. Apart from stunning visual effects and

fun acti on sequences, one of the most compell ing aspects of the X-Men movies is how easy it i s to

understand and relate to the prejudi ce faced by the X-Men and other mutants at the hands of the

fr ightened, non-mutated humans. In fact, theres quite a lot that t he X-Men movies can help us

understand about t he nature of stereotypes, how we form them, and what makes us acti vate them in

our everyday li ves.

H ow Do W e For m Ster eotypes?

What makes us form a stereotype? And why are some stereotypes different fr om others?

According to the Ster eotype Content M odel, we form stereotypes of social groups based on where

our percepti ons fall on two dimensions warmth and competence.

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We perceive groups to be high on warmth when we see them as likable, fr iendly, and/ or

unthreatening; i f others are perceived as competit ors, we knock that social group down on the

warmth dimension.

We perceive groups to be high on competence when we see them as ambi tious, successful, and/ or

high status. I f groups are low on the social status ladder, we view them as incompetent.

The idea behind this model is that we experience di fferent emotions in response to each groups

perceived level ofwarmth and competence. Here is what the model mi ght look like wit h the typical

emotional responses fil led in:

We usually consider our ingroups (or cultural major it ies, like Whi tes and Chri stians in Ameri ca) to

have high levels of both warmth and competence; as a result, this combination eli cits feeli ngs ofpr ide

and admir ation, along with a tendency to acti vely or passively help members of this group (by

directly helping them or merely by wanting to associate with them). On the other side of the

spectr um, groups li ke drug addicts or the homeless are often perceived as being low on both warmthand competence. This produces feeli ngs li ke disgust and anger; peoples typical behavior in response

to these emotions involves wanting to harm these group members via neglect or di rect attack. High

levels of warmt h combined with low levels of competence is characteri sti c for groups like the elderl y

and disabled; when we encounter groups that we deem likable yet incompetent, our stereotypes are

based onpi ty, and thi s eli cits a mixed behavioral response: whi le people will sometimes try and

actively help them, they are often passively harmed through neglect.

But where do our X -Men li e? With t heir superpowers, they are quite competent; in fact, the very basis

of the humans fear revolves around the mutants potenti al for utter control and destruction. Yet their

extreme otherness (in both pheno- and genotype) and perceived competit ion for resources places

them squarely on the low warmth side. High competence/ low warmth people seem to encapsulate

the worst parts of all worlds they have the high status of the admired group without the likability,




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and they have the cold, exploit ative nature of the disgusting group without the incompetence to

prevent them from succeeding. Groups like the X-Men mutants are perceived as over-pri vileged

outsiders, and this elicits a distinct emotional r esponse: Envy.

I f the ulti mate goal of total mutant eradication running thr ough the X-M en series evoked an

unsett li ng mental parallel to the Holocaust, theres a good reason why and its not just the fact that

sometimes-vi llain M agneto is a Holocaust survivor. Envy is the most dangerous emotional base for

stereotypes; it fuses begrudging respect with intense dislike, which is a volati le, complex mix of

emotions that can lead to passive admi ration under nonthr eatening social sit uati ons and violent

attacks as soon as your surroundings become slightly unstable. In fact, envied groups are the most

frequent targets of genocide and mass murder. People dont necessaril y want to eradicate the groups

that they pity, or even the groups that make them angry they want to eradicate the groups that make

them jealous.

W hen D o W e Activate Stereotypes?

To a certain extent, people automatically (and spontaneously) classify other people into groups based

on stereotypes all the time but i ts not as if we all walk around using stereotypes as our only basis of

judgment and decision-making. Typicall y, we have the presence of mind (and cogni ti ve control) to

know that even i f we are aware of certain stereotypes, we should not go around applying them

without excepti on to everyone that we meet. H owever, there are several condit ions that make it more

likely that we will rely on stereotypes.

1. Youre Tir ed. When peoples cogniti ve capaciti es have been drained because theyve been thinking

a lot, putti ng a lot of effort into other tasks, or are simply tired they are more likely to rely on

stereotypes. If youvebeen sit ti ng in a bori ng commi ttee hearing for hours debating the relative merit s

and flaws of the Mutant Registration Act and straining your attention until youre cognit ively drained,youre more likely to rely on stereotypes when forming a decision about your vote.

2. Your Self -Esteem Just Took A Hit. When your self -esteem has been threatened by a certain social

group, you are more moti vated to apply stereotypes to this group in an effor t to compensate. So,

imagine youre in a museum and you see a group of young students. In t his group of students, theres

a boy tossing around a lighter and a cute gir l named Rogue. I f you are rebuffed both when you ask for

a light and when you attempt t o hit on the girl , the ego-blow has probably knocked your self-esteem

down a few pegs. I f you then realize that you were just rejected by a group of mutants, you are even

more likely to apply stereotypes when you begin fighting them, maybe hurl ing epithets like Freak! in

their direction along with your punches.

3. Youre Competing For Resour ces. When you perceive that t here is a limi ted pool of resources and

youre competing for them against another group, you are more likely to stereotype the other group as

competi t ive and (as a result) less warm, leading to the types of emotions (l ike disgust, anger, or envy)

that would invoke violent r eactions. So, if Senator Kelly pushes the Mutant Registration Act by

painting a pictur e of an us vs. them world where mutants are competing with humans for resources,

jobs, mates, and overall survival, the constituents are more li kely to adopt negative stereotypes of the

mutants and carr y out the violent, harmful behavioral responses that arise from envy.

So What Can We Learn Fr om The X-M en?

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X-M en can teach us thr ee things about the way that we form and apply stereotypes in our everyday

lives.

1. Be wary of how you view social groups that you might considercompetition. The two low warmth

social groups (regardless of competence) are the most l ikely to provoke harmful behavioral responses,

but stereotyping a group as low warmth/ high competence can lead to part icularly dangerous

outcomes, especially when the sociopolit ical climate is unstable. I f you are faced with X-M en, try

not to be jealous of their awesome powers it will only lead to tr ouble.

2. Try not t o be ti red, thr eatened, or l ow on self -esteem when a sit uation ari ses where you have the

opportunity to rely on stereotypes to form judgments or make important decisions. I f a mutant

tir es you out, steals your job, or insults your hair cut, it wi ll be especially har d to avoid

judging him/ her using group-based ster eotypes.

3. Stereotypes are not an accurate way to judge every single member of a social category they are

group-based social categorizati ons based on societal perceptions, notnecessari ly based onreality. The per ception of mutants as a low-warm th group, for example, does not mean

it is accur ate to extend this judgment to an individual m utant lik e Nightcrawler, who is

ver y friendly and quite harm less (wh en not being controlled by W illiam Stryker) .

But even so, you probably shouldnt make Wolverine angry.

I want to be very clear t hat I am nottr ying to imply t hat any of these perceptions of exploi tativeness,

coldness, incompetence, etc. are accurate for the indi cated social groups that I ve provided as

commonly used examples. I am merely explaining an existing model ofstereotype formation (whichrepresents cultural biases and group-based generali zati ons, not to be confused with any one persons

individual opinion, including my own opinions and, I m assuming, the opinions of the models

authors). This is nota model of individual att itude formation, nor should i t be interpreted as in any

way indicati ve of any single persons atti tudes towards elderly people, disabled people, homeless

people, drug addicts, or mutants.

There have been several wonderful blog posts recently on the science of X-Men and the X-Men

movies. For two of my favori te recent examples, please see Erika Salomons post atA Theory of Mind

on evolution as it is portrayed in both X-Men and Planet of the Apes (Mutants, Apes, and Evolut ion

Oh My!) and John Rennies post at Scient if ic Ameri can on what the X-Men movies dont qui te getright about how evoluti on reall y works (The Evolutionary Errors of X-Men). I f you have also writ ten a

blog post about X-Men, please link t o it in the comments!

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Harri s, L. T., Cikara, M., & Fiske, S. T. (2008). Envy as predicted by the stereotypecontent model. I n R. Smi th (Ed.), Envy: Theory and research. New York: Oxford University Press.

FiskeST, Cuddy AJ, Glick P, & Xu J (2002). A model of (often mixed) stereotype content: competence

and warmth r espectively follow from perceived status and competi tion. Journal of per sonality and

social psychology, 82(6), 878-902 PMID: 12051578

Cuddy, AJC, Fiske, ST, & Glick, P (2007). The BIAS Map: Behaviors from intergroup affect and

stereotypes. Journal of Per sonality and Social Psychology, 92, 631-648 DOI: 10.1037/ 0022-

3514.92.4.631

Govorun, O, & Payne, BK (2006). Ego depletion and prejudice: Separating automatic and contr olled

components. Social Cognit ion (24 ), 111-136 DOI : 10.1521/ soco.2006.24.2.111

Sinclair , L., & Kunda, Z. (2000). Mot ivated stereotyping of women: Shes fine if shepraised me but

incompetent if she cri ti cized me. Personali ty and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 1329-1342 DOI:

10.1177/ 0146167200263002

Staub, E. (1989). The roots of evil : The origins of genocide and other group violence. New York:

Cambridge University Press.

Fiske, S. T. (1998). Stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination. I n D.T. Gilbert , S.T. Fiske, & G.

Lindzey (Eds.) The Handbook of Social Psychology (pp. 357-411). Boston: McGraw-Hil l.

9 RESPONSES TO ENVYING EVOLUTION: WHAT CAN THE X-MEN TEACH US

ABOUT STEREOTYPES?

This entry was posted in Movies, Social Psychology, Stereotypes and Prejudiceand tagged

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mandy v | June 9, 2011 at 12:43 am | Reply

I f I were a mutant, my power would be to to have nine lives like a ki tt y. Does anyone in the

movie already have that one?




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M elanie T | June 9, 2011 at 8:58 am | Reply

Unsure, unless you want to count Wolverine

Pia Guerrero | June 10, 2011 at 7:34 pm | Reply

Hi Melanie, thi s is a great post. Would you grant us permission to cross-post onto our

website with full credit to you? ~Pia, Co-Founder/ Editor

M elanie T | June 10, 2011 at 8:35 pm | Reply

Absolutely! As long as you credit me as the author (and preferably link to my blog as

well ), I am more than happy to do this. Thank you for your kind words, it s much

appreciated!

Pingback: Things Worth Reading | A Theory of Mind

SP | June 20, 2011 at 4:12 pm | Reply

Terr ifi c art icle! Loved i t!

Pingback: What Can The X-Men Teach Us About All Kinds of Stereotypes? | Adios Barbie

Tisha26 | June 21, 2011 at 4:50 am | Reply

I have a questionWhat about the mutant group? Groups themselves have divisions. I fyou perceive yourself as simi lar (homogeneous) to your group you wi ll share values and

act like a group member and if you see the group as divided and diff erent well then you

wil l t ry to be an individual. Same goes for high status versus low status. You identi fy more

strongly with your group i f they have a higher status etc. Group dynamics aside, the

mutants are clearly separated into two groups and these groups are held together not by

identi ty alone but by a common goal. So the one group would be the x-men (pro humans)

and then the bad guys (pro mutants). Onecould argue that pro-humans actually envy

humans they all long to fit in; whilst the pro-mutants are proud of how they look and will

fight for their identity.

Not all mutations are the same do you just l ike the pretty mutations?. Some mutants

have overt mutations, whilst some are hidden. So i would argue that the mutants with

overt mutations are low warmth and perceived low competence and hence the feeling of

disgust BUT the hidden mutations are the ones that incite envy. The reason why humans

lash out on what they can identi fy (overt mutations) is dif ferent to why they want to

control and destroy unidenti fiable mutants. Fear and survival play a role as well. But i

would argue that f rom the pro- mutant perspective humans may incite pity and/ or disgust

and hence the contention. Stereotypes are a two way street and not all groups are neat

and ti dy!

Let us not forget the apartheid governments obsession wit h identi fying whites to the

point where we had the pencil test. Divide and conquer as they say




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M elanie T | June 21, 2011 at 8:38 am | Reply

That is an excellent point , Tisha. I ts important to remember that all groups (mutant

and otherwise) are quite heterogeneous. However, people are more likely to view

outgroups ashomogeneous (a bias that lends it self to comments such as [ insert

racial descriptor here] all look alike! ), though they see their own ingroups as being

qui te varied. For example, where a Whi te/ American person may see someone asAsian or even be as (seemingly) specific as to say that someone is Rwandan, we all

know that some of the most devastating intergroup violence in history has occurred

between factions within these groups (Chinese vs. Japanese people in the Sino-

Japanese wars, Hutu vs. Tutsi people in the Rwandan genocide). On the other hand, a

Chinese or Rwandan person might view someone asAmerican, whereas that

American may prefer to call h im/ herself Texan, Southern, Cali fornian, a Midwesterner,

a New Yorker, etc.

Based on this logic, I would speculate that whi le the mutants correctly viewed

themselves as quite heterogeneous (drawing boundaries based on X-M en vs.Brotherhood of Mutants, or Overt vs. Covert mutations), the humans more li kely just

viewed the entire group as mutants, much the way (as mentioned above) a Whi te

person would see Asian or Rwandan instead of Chinese/ Japanese or

H utu/ Tutsi. I would again speculate that the humans lashed out at the overt mutants

because they were the ones that were easiest to identify and, in their mind, all mutants

were one homogeneous group with the same end goal. Wi th this in mi nd, for

example, if a human heard Magneto talking about wanting to destroy humankind,

he/ she would not assume thi s remark applies only to the Brotherhood of Mutants and

maintain peaceful feelings towards the well -intentioned X-Men; he/she would simply

assume that this remark accurately r epresents the feelings of all mutants. The mutantsthemselves, however, would li kely draw a very clear l ine between the int entions of t he X

-Men and the intentions of the Brotherhood. Does thi s make sense? I f not, I can explain

fur ther. This might merit another blogpost with some more speculati on

On another note, I had never heard of the pencil test and your comment prompted me

to Google it and learn a li tt le more. Thank you for educating me thi s morning, though

I m dismayed and saddened by what I found.


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