Chapter 6: Stereotypes and Prejudice

Sterotypes

• Function

  • help categorize social groups + subtypes

    • lots of info about a stranger

  • Fast judgments allow quick action

  • often correct

• Problems

  • can affect behavior without even realizing

  • can decrease self-esteem and performance

    • Ex: test scores

    • brain focuses on self-evaluation, not task

  • doesn’t’ allow for individual variation ( outgoing homogeneity)

  • Ignore info that doesn’t fit the stereotype

  • fail to see common traits across groups

  • can lead to prejudice and discrimination

Prejudice

Attitude that a group deserves inferior statusSteroetyp

Stereotype Content Model

• forms of prejudice based on perceived competency

  • Ability, status + worthiness, warmth

• Contemptuous

  • low competence - low worth

  • Ex: homelessness, immigrant

• Envious

  • High competency + low warmth

  • Ex: influencers

• Paternalistic

  • Low competency + high warmth

  • Ex: Fast food workers

Ambivalent Prejudice

holds both positive and negative explicit attitudes

• admire a group but they think they are beneath you

Aversive prejudice

hold positive explicit attitudes

• negative implicit attitudes

• egalitarian beliefs + implicit prejudice

• can lead to guilt, threatened

Response Amplification

overcompensating or not guilt

• hard to change

Ingroup Bias

even for temporary, arbitrary groups

Social identity

believing our group is better boosts our self esteem

• confirm to stay in groups

Realistic group conflict theory

competition for scarce resources causes conflict between groups

conflict increases hostility toward outgroup + loyalty toward ingroup

Example; robbers cave experiment ( sheriff, 1954)

Social Dominance

Society is hierarchical

• groups at the top

  • disporportionate shave of wealth, education, and healthcare

  • Justify their advantage by claiming those at the bottom are not wealthy

Authoritarian Personalitites

• Submissive to authority figures

• Intolerant of those weak or different

• Prone to contemptuous prejudice

• Rigid in their moral codes

• more likely to act on hostile feelings

• Transmitted by social learning

Warmth and Control Mode

• High control and low warmth = authoritative

• High control and high warmth = authoritative

• Low control and low warmth = neglectful

• Low control and high warmth = permissive

Ingroup

a group which we belong

outgroup

any group we don’t belong in

outgroup homogeneity effect

the tendency to perceive outgroup members as being more similar to one another than memebers of one’s ingroup

Illusionary Correlations

which is th ebelief that 2 variables are associated with each other when no actual association exists

1. associative meaning

   1. 2 variables associated with each other because of pre-existing belief

2. Shared Disctinctiveness

   1. 2 variables are associated because they share some unusual feature

Subtyping

cognitive process in which people perceive an individual who doesn’t fit their sterotype as being an exception to the rule of and they create a separate subcategory of the sterotype for that individual

Explicit Steotype

a consciously held belief

Implicit Stereotype

automatic belief

Implicit Prejudice

involves unconsciously healed prejudicial attitudes

Explicit prejudice

attitudes that are consciously held even if not publicly expressed

Forms of prejudice

• High competency + high warmth = no prejudice

  • targets ( middle class, white people, christians)

  • Negative emotions ( no)

  • Positive emotions ( respect, admiration, affection)

• Low warmth + high competence = envious prejudice

  • Targets: Jews, asians, rich, black professionals

  • Positve emotions ( admiration of abilities)

• Low comp + high warmth = Paternalistic prejudice

  • Targets (people with disabilitites, older adults)

  • Positive emotions ( pity, liking)

• Low comp + low wamrth = contemptuous prejudice

  • Positive emotions ( none)

  • Targets: homeless people, muslisms, LGBTQ

Aversive Racism

Attitudes toward members of a racial group that incorporate both egalitarian social values and negative emotions

Ambivalent sexism

Sexism directed against women based on both positive and negative attitudes ( hostility and benevolence) rather than an uniform dislike)