Many non-Indigenous Canadians may have a ways to go in shedding negative stereotypes of Indigenous people, according to a recent study by a University of Alberta master's student in psychology.
When asked to respond to identifiers commonly used to describe Indigenous peoples in Canada including Indigenous, Aboriginal, Native, First Nations, Métis, Inuit, Indian and North American Indian participants in a survey rated them all as conveying less warmth and competence than those describing other ethnic groups.
A key distinction in the survey by Plains Cree graduate student Lakota Wood was that respondents were asked to rate how "typical Canadians" perceive those identifiers, rather than how they might perceive the labels themselves.
