What is a ‘Received Idea’?

A “received idea” (French: idée reçue) is a commonplace, stereotypical, conventional, or clichéd opinion that circulates widely in society and is accepted and repeated without critical examination, original thought, or supporting evidence.
The concept comes from Gustave Flaubert. In his unfinished satirical project Dictionnaire des idées reçues (Dictionary of Received Ideas, compiled in the 1870s and published posthumously in 1911-1913), Flaubert collected and mocked the ready-made opinions, prejudices, and platitudes that bourgeois people parrot as if they were profound or self-evident truths (e.g., stock phrases about art, politics, women, food, or foreigners). These are not original ideas but “received” ones—already floating in the cultural air, requiring no personal reflection.
Pierre Bourdieu adopts and adapts Flaubert’s term in his critique of television and journalism. In the book (based on lectures he gave in 1996), he describes how the journalistic field—dominated by commercial pressures like audience ratings (audimat)—favors speed over depth. This creates an environment where “fast-thinkers” (pundits, journalists, and intellectuals who appear regularly on TV) thrive by deploying received ideas.
Bourdieu explains: “The answer, it seems to me, is that they think in clichés, in the ‘received ideas’ that Flaubert talks about—banal, conventional, common ideas that are received generally. By the time they reach you, these ideas have already been received by everybody else, so reception is never a problem.”
He continues: “When you transmit a ‘received idea,’ it’s as if everything is set, and the problem solves itself. Communication is instantaneous because, in a sense, it has not occurred; or it only seems to have taken place. The exchange of commonplaces is communication with no content other than the fact of communication itself. […] Their very banality makes them something the speaker and the listener have in common.”
In contrast, real thought is subversive: it dismantles received ideas and requires time for logical demonstration and evidence. Television’s format (short segments, pressure to fill airtime quickly, competition for ratings) makes genuine thinking nearly impossible, so it rewards prefabricated, instantly digestible clichés instead. These function like “cultural fast food”—predigested and prethought.
TV and fast-paced journalism operate under constant time pressure. A received idea needs no research, no nuance, and meets no resistance.
Because the idea is already shared, communication feels successful even when nothing substantive is said.
This reinforces homogenization in the media field. The same “fast-thinkers” are invited repeatedly because they reliably deliver smooth, non-disruptive content that fits the commercial logic of ratings.
The dominance of received ideas in television helps depoliticize issues, reduce complex realities to anecdotes or stereotypes, and limit the space for critical, autonomous thought.