PSYC1030 Week 5: Prejudice & Stereotyping

Flashcards covering key definitions, psychological theories, and landmark studies in the field of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination as presented in PSYC1030.

The 100ms rule

Research by Willis & Todorov (2006) indicating that first impressions regarding competence, trustworthiness, and likability are formed in under $100\,ms$, with added time only increasing confidence.

Prejudice

A negative/unfavourable attitude toward members of a group, based solely on their membership in that group.

Cognition (Prejudice Component)

Automatic and unconscious beliefs about an attitude object that serve as the basis for the affect and behaviour components.

Affect (Prejudice Component)

Strong feelings, usually negative, about a group that can be more powerful than beliefs alone.

Behaviour (Prejudice Component)

The intentions to behave in negative ways toward a group and its members.

Stereotype

A generalisation about the characteristics or behaviours of a group; it is a schema used to categorise and simplify the world.

Sexism

A type of prejudice based on sex/gender where men are perceived as competent and independent, while women are characterized as warm and expressive.

Kernel of Truth

The concept from Levine & Campbell (1972) that stereotypes are not pure invention but significant exaggerations of small underlying differences.

Behavioural interpretation

The process where stereotypes act as filters through which we see reality, causing us to interpret an individual's behavior as evidence for our stereotype.

Stereotype Violation & Subtypes

Keeping an original stereotype intact by creating a specific subcategory for deviations, such as 'Female' Soldier or 'Golden Retriever' boyfriend.

Face-ism

A concept from Archer et al. (1983) where emphasizing the face implies mind and identity (common in depictions of men), while emphasizing the body implies physical appearance is the primary feature (common in depictions of women).

Legitimising Myths

Beliefs used to justify power structures and make gender-based inequality appear normal and acceptable, such as the idea that women are not built for leadership roles.

Princeton Trilogy studies

A series of studies (Katz & Braly, 1933; Stack et al., 1951; Karlins et al., 1969) that tracked how stereotypical traits checked for Black and White Americans changed over decades.

Aversive Racism

A theory by Gaertner & Dovidio (1986) where individuals find racial prejudice aversive and endorse fair treatment yet subconsciously harbour negative feelings toward minorities.

The Police Officers Dilemma

A computer game study by Correll et al. (2002) where participants had to decide whether to shoot or not shoot targets that were either armed or unarmed and Black or White.

Implicit Association Test (IAT)

A testing method used to measure automatic associations between specific categories (such as African Americans vs. European Americans) and evaluative items (Good vs. Bad).

Fear of Reporting Discrimination

The tendency to avoid reporting because social costs, such as being perceived as a troublemaker or fearing retaliation, outweigh the benefits.

Stereotype Threat

A phenomenon described by Steele and Aronson (1995) where members of stigmatized groups fear they will confirm negative stereotypes, leading to anxiety and decreased performance.

Self-fulfilling Prophecies

A process where expectations of a person change the way you interact with them, which then causes their behaviour to align with your expectations.

Test of Inflected Acquisition

The test used by Rosenthal & Jacobson (1966) to study self-fulfilling prophecies in schools by falsely telling teachers $20\%$ of students were 'bloomers'.