On the NPR TED Radio Hour, Sunday 12th July, Newstalk FM

'Playing with Perceptions':

Where do stereotypes come from? Why do some perceptions persist, and is there any truth or value to the assumptions we make? 

Playwright and performer Sarah Jones endured a racial profiling incident while crossing the street with a friend. The experience led her to think about how we perceive others and how they see us. 

She has a chameleon-like ability to change personas. Through these personas, she explores the fine line between stereotyping and celebrating different ethnic groups.

The problem with typecasting

Iranian-American comedian and actor Maz Jobrani describes a comic's role in challenging stereotypes, especially when it comes to Middle Eastern Muslims in America.

The actor, who is typically cast as the 'the terrorist' in plays and movies, claims stereotypes overshadow the majority and highlight the minority, "you can have a thousand Iranian or Arab doctors saving lives everyday in the United States, and the lack of exposure that would get compared to one Muslim trying to blow up a car bomb in Times Square".

In order to deal with this "depressing" stereotype, Maz turned to stand-up comedy to "find the funny" in his situation. 

Prejudice is a positive

Paul Bloom explains why prejudice is not necessarily a negative thing, in fact he says its natural, rational and even moral. 

"You don't ask a very elderly person to help you move a sofa, and that's because you stereotype them." He says that if we weren't able to make certain stereotypes, we wouldn't survive. 

He also identifies three generalisations involved in human judgement; Age, Sex and Race. While Age and Sex are always relevant for any primate, race is a modern factor that has emerged only in recent history. "Our focus on race is less determined, for instance, no experiment that has ever found that children who focus on race are biologically built to be intuitive racists, but rather they have learnt that race matters in the world we live in."

Listen back to TED Radio Hour 'Playing with Perceptions' here.