Reducing Prejudice & Discrimination

What is Allport’s (1954) Contact Hypothesis?

Under certain conditions, contact between groups will reduce prejudice

What are the conditions in promoting prejudice-reduction?

Equal status, common goals. intergroup cooperation & institutional support

What does direct intergroup contact involve?

Face-to-face interactions between members of different groups

Does direct intergroup contact reduce prejudice? (Pettigrew & Tropp (2006)

Greater reductions in prejudice are seen under the conditions specified by Allport, but these conditions are not essential for prejudice reduction

What is an issue with Allport (1954)’s Contact Hypothesis?

Direct contact isn’t always possible or appropriate

What are the mechanisms as to how direct contact works?

Reducing intergroup anxiety, increasing empathy, increasing outgroup knowledge

What is Vicarious Contact?

Observation of an interaction between ingroup and outgroup members

What is Extended Contact?

Knowing that ingroup members have contact with outgroup members

What are mechanisms as to how extended / vicarious contact work?

Reducing intergroup anxiety, increasing empathy, creating cognitive overlap between self and outgroup, changing perceptions of social norms

What are some issues with extended contact?

Difficult to deliberately manipulate people having contact with outgroup members

What is Imagined Contact?

Mental simulation of a social interaction with a member or members of an outgroup category

What are the mechanisms behind imagined contact?

Reducing intergroup anxiety and increased trust in the outgroup

What is an issue of imagined contact?

May not be replicable

What is the colourblind ideology?

We shouldn’t see people in terms of the colour of their skin- we should see people as individuals and look beyond group differences

What are critiques of the colourblind approach?

If we ignore intergroup distinctions, we ignore actual intergroup disparities and differences in experiences

What is the Method behind Apfelbaum et al. (2010)’s study?

Children were given either colour blind or value diversity approaches to storybooks and were told scenarios that varied in racially biased behaviour was described

What are the results of Apfelbaum et al. (2010)’s study?

Children were less likely to perceive discrimination in the colourblind story condition relative to the value diversity story condition (even when discrimination was explicit

What is consciousness raising in the context of educational strategies?

factual education, increasing awareness & perspective taking

What was the method of Bigler et al. (2007)?

Lessons that included or omitted information on racism

What were the results of Bigler et al. (2007)?

Participants who received history lessons talking about racism had significantly more positive and less negative attitudes toward African Americans than participants who received control lessons

What did a meta-analysis by Corrigan et al. (2012) find with mental health stigma?

Educational interventions were successful at reducing mental-health stigma

What did a meta-analysis by Paluck et al (2020) find with prejudice & discrimination?

Small but significant effect of multicultural, anti-bias and moral education interventions on reducing prejudice

What is Prejudice Confrontation?

Directly confronting prejudice or discriminatory behaviour in others

Is prejudice confrontation effective? (Wood et al., 2025)

Confronting prejudice significantly reduces intergroup bias, particularly reducing use of stereotypes and increasing intentions to control intergroup bias in the future

What was the method of Czopp et al. (2006)?

White participants completed a task with a White confederate which required them to take turns making inferences about sentences paired with photos of White and Black people.

What was the feedback task in Czopp et al. (2006)?

Participants were randomly assigned to receive either confrontation of prejudice, other confrontation or no confrontation from the confederate

What was the results of Czopp et al. (2006)?

Participants confronted about use of stereotypes reported a greater reduction in prejudiced attitudes than participants in the other confrontation and no confrontation control conditions

What was Chaney et al. (2020)’s result?

White participants confronted for using negative Black stereotypes used fewer negative Black stereotypes AND fewer negative Latino stereotypes than White participants who weren’t confronted

How do personality theories explain reducing prejudice?

By changing personality factors (e.g., reducing authoritarian traits through socialisation).

How can frustration-based theories reduce intergroup conflict?

By reducing frustration, limiting aggression cues, and providing safe outlets for aggression.

What is the “weapons effect”?

The presence of weapons increases the likelihood of aggressive behaviour.

What is the difference between assimilation and multiculturalism?

• Assimilation: ignores differences, absorbs minorities

• Multiculturalism: recognises and values diversity

What are superordinate goals and their limitation?

Shared goals reduce conflict, but failure or identity threat can worsen relations.