Quote:
Originally posted by stuckinohio
I find it hard to believe that homosexuality and lisps have any parrelel except coinsidence (sp)
|
It seems, in your efforts to be kind and accepting toward everyone, you've managed to completely ignore (completely acceptable) potential relationships.
Let's look at it like this:
1 - Do people pick up mannerisms from their friends, associates and peers? For instance, if I were to use 'word' as a response in the affirmative, do you think others around me might start to do it?
2 - Do people indicate personality traits through verbal and non-verbal communication?
3 - Are there conscious (and psuedo-conscious) 'roles' we take on to communicate attributes to others, and to prepare them for future communication?
4 - Is there the potential for group attributes and dynamics to play a role in combining 1, 2 and 3 into the formation of taking on a certain quality within a certain segment of a certain community?
Note that this has the potential to play many roles, all of which are positive:
-Communicate to others potential 'standing' within their subgroup
-Seeking out others within the same group
-Defense mechanism in identification within the group ('playing to what is accepted/popular', as it were)
-'Softening' or preparing others for later disclosure of group status, if required
-Differentiating oneself from the general community
-Including oneself within the specific community
Now, had people been applying negative stereotypical feelings (such as "i hate people who speak like stereotypical _____" or "all ______ talk like ______") then I would agree with you. But social psychology would seem to provide ample opportunity, aside from coincidence, for the behavior to take root.
I'm not sure I'm qualified to say anything beyond "it's quite possible that it is not coincidence, or even probable", however, because I'm not a social psychologist by trade.