intergroup discrimination and prejudice

What are Stereotypes?

Beliefs about the attributes that are characteristic of a particular group (cognitive).

What is Prejudice?

Negative attitude or affective response towards a particular group and its members (affective). Essentially a negative evaluation.

What is Discrimination?

Unfair treatment or behavior towards members of a particular group, based on their membership in that group (behavioral).

What are common and less prototypical bases for prejudice and discrimination?

Common bases:

• Race / Ethnicity
• Gender
• Age

Less prototypical basis:

• Left-handedness
  • Association in many cultures with awkwardness and clumsiness
  • Attempts to convert schoolchildren
  • Corporal punishment

Describe the New Jersey Turnpike Study (“Driving while Black”) as an example of discrimination.

Black drivers constituted 13.5\% - 15\% of motorists but 35\% of drivers stopped by police.
Police theory of Black drivers carrying drugs was disproven by data showing they were no more likely to carry/use/deal drugs.
This demonstrated evidence for discrimination.

How was discrimination observed in the treatment of Black and White patients in a psychiatric hospital?

Two responses to violent behavior: gentle seclusion or harsh restraint (straight-jacket + sedative drug).
Restraint was used almost four times as often for Black patients compared to White patients.

Explain the findings of Pager's 2003 audit study on entry-level jobs.

Four 23-year-old college graduates (two Black, two White) applied for 350 entry-level jobs with matched resumes.
White applicants were called back almost 3 times as much as Black applicants.

In what context was prejudice observed during Hurricane Katrina?

Prejudice was observed in various forms during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

How does social learning (Bandura) contribute to prejudice?

Children learn from parents and other authority figures through several mechanisms:

• Classical conditioning (associations)
• Operant conditioning (social reward and punishment)
• Observational learning (modeling)
• Explicit instruction

How do conformity pressures influence prejudice?

Normative and informational pressures from peers, relevant to both children and adults, can lead to conforming to prejudiced beliefs or behaviors.

Describe the UMaryland study on the effect of perceived consensus on prejudiced beliefs and behavior.

High and low prejudice subjects were told either 81\% or 19\% of UM students agreed with their prior prejudice responses (perceived high/low consensus).
Subjects then chose a seat in a hallway, with an African American confederate seated closest to the door.
Results: Subjects who received social validation (vs. invalidation) for their beliefs were more likely to act on them (e.g., high prejudice subjects sat further away with high consensus).
Note: The seating measure is a noisy (error-prone) measure of racial attitudes, but still useful.

What is the core idea behind Ingroup, Outgroup Categorization and how does 'The minimal groups paradigm' illustrate this?

Humans naturally categorize people into groups, even based on trivial differences, and once categorized, these group differences matter.
Minimal groups paradigm: Studies show that simply assigning people to arbitrary groups (e.g., "dot overestimators" vs. "underestimators," "Klee vs. Kandinsky fanciers") leads to ingroup favoritism and outgroup disfavor, even when resource allocation is involved.
Subjects often prefer to maximize relative ingroup advantage rather than absolute group benefit.

Who hypothesized the authoritarian personality and what are its key traits?

Hypothesized by Theodor Adorno. Key traits include:

• Highly respectful of and even submissive towards authority
• Authoritarian aggression
• Anti-intellectualism
• Valorization of "toughness"

What is Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and its relation to prejudice?

A dispositional predictor of prejudice measured by a 22-statement scale.
Examples of statements: "What our country needs most is discipline, with everyone following our leaders in unity" and "The established authorities generally turn out to be right about things, whereas the radicals and protesters are usually just 'loud mouths': showing off their ignorance."
People scoring high on RWA tend also to be highly prejudiced.

Name another dispositional predictor of prejudice.

Social Dominance Orientation.

What is the Modern Racism Scale used to measure?

Measures explicit prejudice in an era where blatant racism is socially unacceptable.
Example item: "Black people are getting too demanding in pushing for equal rights." Agreement indicates high explicit prejudice.

What is the Symbolic Racism Scale used to measure?

Measures explicit racial prejudice in more subtle forms.
Example item: "Its really a matter of some people not trying hard enough: if black people would only try harder they could be just as well off as whites." Agreement indicates high explicit racial prejudice.

What is a common criticism of the Modern Racism and Symbolic Racism scales?

Critics argue that these scales may confound racial attitudes with politically conservative attitudes.

Describe the trend in explicit prejudice over the past 50 years and what still persists.

Over the past 50 years, explicit racial and other prejudices have declined significantly in the US (post-Civil Rights Movement).
However, racial discrimination, as well as many racial disparities, remain, and evidence for subtle (rather than outright) bias is still amply demonstrated in lab and real-world contexts (e.g., selection decisions).

Explain the concept of "aversive racism."

Posits a distinction between explicit and implicit processes.
Individuals who advocate for racial equality and believe themselves to be non-prejudiced may still hold non-conscious negative feelings and beliefs about Black people.

What is the difference between explicit and implicit processes in the context of aversive racism?

• Explicit: Operates at the conscious level, best measured by traditional self-report measures.
• Implicit: Operates at the unconscious level, harder to measure, requiring creative techniques. Both stereotypes and attitudes can (in theory) operate implicitly.

What is the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and what does it measure?

A speeded categorization test designed to measure implicit associations between binary constructs (e.g., race and positive/negative dimensions).
Differences in response times between sorts of cases are taken as a measure of these implicit associations.

How are positive and negative IAT scores interpreted?

• Positive IAT score: The subject was faster to categorize white-good and black-bad than white-bad and black-good.
• Negative IAT score: The subject was slower to categorize white-good and black-bad than white-bad and black-good.

What are the limitations regarding the IAT as a diagnostic tool for individual prejudice?

There is no one-to-one mapping between an individual’s IAT score and their level of implicit prejudice.
While highly prejudiced individuals are likely to show a strong IAT effect, this does not mean that individuals who show a strong IAT effect are likely to be highly prejudiced.
The IAT cannot be confidently used to identify or "diagnose" prejudiced individuals.

How can the IAT sometimes predict behavior independently of explicit attitudes?

A study showed White participants' IAT scores correlated with biased behavior towards Black experimenters (r = .34), even though explicit attitudes did not significantly predict biased behavior.
This suggests that the implicit measure (IAT) predicted behavior better than the explicit measure in this context.

What is the overall perspective on the potential and interpretation of implicit measures like the IAT?

Implicit measures (like the IAT) hold significant potential but are also nuanced and complex.
It is important to follow up on that promise while being cautious not to over-interpret these measures.