Third, the 3S model of multiculturalism can encourage a conception of groups as hermetically sealed and static, each reproducing its own distinct practices. Multiculturalism may be intended to encourage people to share their customs, but the assumption that each group has its own distinctive customs ignores processes of cultural adaptation, mixing, and mélange, as well as emerging cultural commonalities, thereby potentially reinforcing perceptions of minorities as eternally “other.” This in turn can lead to the strengthening of prejudice and stereotyping, and more generally to the polarization of ethnic relations.