Flashback Friday.
Studies show that people will often act in ways consistent with how they are treated. Therefore, treating someone according to a stereotype will likely produce behavior that confirms the stereotype. This is called a self-fulfilling stereotype.
Consider Rick Genest:
In a Bizarre interview, illustrated by photographer Neville Elder, he was asked why he spent $4,000 on tattoos that made him look like death. He replied:
I hated pretty much everything and everybody. I just wanted to pass out in the gutter and swear at cars as they went by, shit like that. I wasn’t a happy person at all. That’s why I got the skull tattooed on my face in the first place, I suppose—I wanted to fucking kill everybody.
But that’s not how it worked out. His tattoos didn’t freak everyone out and ruin their day; people loved them. They flocked to him. They complimented him and took pictures with him. And Genest began to feel… good.
…since having them done I’ve become a much happier and nicer person… I started getting all this positive feedback – people would come up to me and say how cool they thought it looked. I started getting invited to parties and bars all the time. Strangers ask to have pictures taken with me.
He continues:
I’ve been having so much fun with it that life has definitely changed for the better. I honestly wouldn’t change a thing… not that I have much choice in the matter.
So basically his tattoos were a big fuck you to the world. He “hated pretty much everything and everybody.” But they inspired others to start treating him positively and, in response, he became a positive person.
Sometime after this article was published, Genest was “discovered” and since then he’s done quite a bit of modeling and acting. His life is certainly different now, but the happiness his tattoos brought him didn’t come from the fame and fortune, it came before all that, just from people being friendly. An awesome example of the self-fulfilling stereotype.
NOTE: This post appeared in 2009 and was fleshed out for a two-page essay for Contexts magazine.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 28
Craig — September 9, 2009
What exquisite irony. It's like a O'Henry story. Or Mark Twain after an epic bender.
Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist — September 9, 2009
that doesn't surprise me.
Vettekaas — September 9, 2009
Now if only being treated positively were the norm! I'm all for self-fulfilling stereotypes if it means that people are happier.
Brandon — September 9, 2009
He's treated positively? Sort of. I don't know how great I'd feel if people constantly asked to have their picture taken with me. There's very much a circus sideshow element to it. What do they really think of the guy when they're showing the pictures to their friends the next day?
LGreenberg — September 9, 2009
How would this story be different if the guy under the tattoos wasn't particularly good looking?
Village Idiot — September 9, 2009
So I guess this is another option to consider for those planning on fucking killing everybody. Alternatives are a good thing,especially in this case.
I think it's interesting that his tattoos seem to produce a less intense flavor of the same kind of fame as a mass murder spree, (the appeal of stopping to look at a car wreck, or something like that) but this way he'll live longer and get to wallow in his brief burst of fame instead of get shot full o' holes by a SWAT team. God help him when all his ink fades into bruise-like splotches. Or rather, God help us.
Kayte — September 9, 2009
I'd be interested to hear from this guy about stereotype threat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype_threat) now that he has these tattoos but feels like he's a happy, well-adjusted dude. I'm sure lots of, uh, less progressive folks see him and expect that he hates pretty much everyone and everything, and that he wants to fucking kill them.
Clara — September 10, 2009
I don't think this is a bad thing at all. He is actively choosing what he wants to be known as. It just so happens what he has chosen there are very few of and so he is more noticed. We choose what we want to be known as, mothers, workers, leaders, political, apathetic. He is choosing for people to look at him and think about his tattoos and how neat the tattoos are and how brave he is for getting all them instead of look at him and think wow isn't he emo and self-hating. I think we all do this, not to the extent he does, but in lesser situations. We would rather be known for something we decide than something we have no control over.
Ben Zvan — September 10, 2009
Am I dumb or just missing the point? What's the stereotype? People who have tattoos go to parties? People who are treated well are happy? White guys have more money to spend on body mods?
Tattooed Zombie | LoveLiveGrow — September 14, 2009
[...] ran across the Bizarre post about Rick by way of Sociological Images, where they discussed people acting differently based on how they’re treated.Prior to [...]
Markhor — November 21, 2009
The main thing I notice about him is that he has gorgeous eyes. It's good that he is being treated well though.
alex — November 22, 2009
Re: "Self fulfilling prophecy"...You keep using that phrase. I do not think it means what you think it means.
amanda — November 22, 2009
I agree with Alex. This dude expressed his disgust with the world through his tattoos and his tattoos have, in turn, made him happy. This really has nothing to do with "self-fulfilling prophecy".
The stereotype is that people who get covered in tattoos, particularly "scary" tattoos are freaks and socially unacceptable. Obviously he has not been treated that way. In order for this to be an instance of a self-fulfilling stereotype he would need to have been a happy well adjusted guy, gotten the tattoos, had everybody treat him like crap, and then turn into a spiteful jerk.
(And I'm also going to agree with a couple of others here- he has been treated well because he's gorgeous- beneath the ink, and from the pictures above it looks like he's getting a lot of female attention.)
Anonymous — December 18, 2009
What is that going to look like in then 30 years.....
Anonymous — January 15, 2010
What are you going to look like in then 30 years.....
Hermitbiker — January 26, 2010
.... don't know about the "Self-Fulfilling Stereotype" .... just stumbled here.... still trying to figure out another reason.... other than like he said "FTW" !! :)
Hermitbiker — January 26, 2010
PS. .... forgot to say how I got here.... I did a SU search on the word.... nonsense !! :)
elbowsinhoney — March 22, 2011
now he's a muse and walking fashion shows in paris. there you go!
http://cocoperez.com/2011-03-22-nicola-formichetti-talks-rick-genest
American Stereotypes in Film & Television: the Global Influence on Race — September 20, 2011
[...] References: Wade, Lisa and Sharp, Gwen. “Skull Face And The Self-fulfilling Stereotype”. The Society Pages. http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2009/09/09/skull-face-and-the-self-fulfilling-stereotype/ [...]
T-T — October 28, 2011
WOW I love this guys tattoo, i wonder were he got it done and how long it took for him to get it done.. :-D
p.s. hes kinda cute.. ;)
Nentuaby — March 6, 2015
Mmmm. Isn't this more aptly the self-refuting stereotype?
Skull Face And The Self-Fulfilling Stereotype - Treat Them Better — March 6, 2015
[…] Skull Face And The Self-Fulfilling Stereotype […]
Treated Kindly, He Became Kind | BroadBlogs — October 21, 2015
[…] By Lisa Wade, Ph.D. @ Sociological Images […]
Helena — December 13, 2023
There are different manifestations of the desire for originality. We see the radical side most often because it actually attracts attention. But if you look at it in general, tattoos are an ancient social phenomenon when people decorated and distinguished themselves from the crowd. New times bring new motives, for example Harry Potter Tattoos - https://glaminati.com/harry-potter-tattoos/ I give neither positive nor negative assessment to such manifestations of individuality. The most important thing is that the participants themselves like it)