I am proposing an assignment that grows out of an interesting piece of research (Neu, 2015) in which students collected images of those they’d approach and avoid as potential group members. When interviewed, students identified the social cues, conveyed by features such as hair style, clothing, age, and ethnicity, that they used to categorize these hypothetical group members. Findings revealed that most students selected to approach images of people who looked much like they did and avoided those or people who didn’t, often relying on stereotypes and discriminatory innuendos. Unlike previous Assignments of Note entries, which highlight published assignments, this one offers for consideration two versions of an assignment based on the activity used in the research.
