Psychology of Social Interaction - 9: Prejudice

PSYC 3330

cognitive triangle of attitude and prejudice/discrimination/stereotyping

• affect → prejudice

• behavior → discrimination

• cognition → stereotyping

prejudice

a preconceived negative/positive judgement of a group or its members

• 3 major targets

  • marginalized

  • unconventional

  • privileged

implicit association test (IAT)

from dual attitude system, the implicit/automatic/unconscious beliefs we hold

• measures speed of associations

• controversy:

  • may not measure true implicit attitude

  • results may not measure true prejudice

  • many external factors

discrimination

unjustified negative/positive behavior toward a group or its members

• can be overt/obvious or covert/subtle

stereotype

negative/positive beliefs about a group or its members

perceived progress in racism

• caucasian: measure progress by comparing past vs present → higher perceived progress

• african americans: measure progress by comparing present vs hoped future → lower perceived progress

resume study

subtle/modern racism → names that are more stereotypically african american get called back 1/15 times, while stereotypically caucasian names get called back 1/10 times

• similar results for airBNB, lyfts, ubers, lyfts, stop → search → handcuffs

prejudice against sex/sexism

researched to be more frequent in today’s society than racism because of

role violations

• leadership

• societal consequences

• women are wonderful effect

• benevolent sexism

leadership (sexism)

attributes of being opinionated, strong-willed, etc are male-coded → women displaying these are in violation and are seen as worse, but conforming to female-coded roles as a leader makes them also seem weak

societal consequences (sexism)

men get more flack than women for role violations because it is seen as a betrayal to act like the lesser sex, even across cultures (unless the culture has high gender equality)

women are wonderful effect (sexism)

on first impression, women get more positive response compared to men

benevolent sexism (sexism)

idea that women are meant to be cherished and protected → coddling of women, women are expected to be dependent

positive but still bad

• ex: experimenter struggled with a task, help came in 2 forms

  • doing it for them → done by men or those who value traditional roles

  • teaching them how to do it themselves → others

prejudice against gender identity/sexual orientation

occurs but there has been much dramatic improvement

strongest predictors: older, less educated, male, especially heterosexual males who value traditional roles

• by changing the injunctive norms (what you’re supposed to feel) about them through invoking american’s sense of freedom and equality, they were able to change the descriptive norms (what most people feel)

• social connection (teacher/parent being gay) does not predict children’s future sexual orientation

  • some genetic connection but rather weak, we may never know the perfect predictors for this

social sources of prejudice

• social inequality

• socialization

• systemic

social inequality (social sources of prejudice)

more social inequality → more prejudice

• cognitive dissonance: for example, values of equal treatment → awareness of inequality creates dissonance → internal attribution that they are lesser/lazy → prejudice

• belief that they are going to take jobs → discriminate based on BELIEF

• social dominance orientation (SDO): trait related with wanting your group to be on top and not wanting social equality because it means you’d lose

socialization (social sources of prejudice)

prejudice is taught, especially by parents when you are young

usually subtle lessons on what to expect from certain groups

can also be taught equality

systemic (social sources of prejudice)

aggregate level, the averages of injustice

motivational sources of prejudice

• frustration + aggression

• henry trajfel’s social identity theory

• avoid prejudice

frustration + aggression (motivational sources of prejudice)

frustration → hostility → aggression/violence

• realistic conflict theory: groups compete for limited resources. when these resources become scarce due to supply decrease/demand increase, it creates paranoia, frustration, and eventually aggression towards the group who you are directly competing with the most

  • not everyone, just whoever is “threatening” your resources the most

  • ex: immigration up/economy decline → violence against minorities up/support for anti-immigration policies up

henry trajfel’s social identity theory (motivation sources of prejudice)

part of identity is group membership due to it being biologically wired in us, even when the groups are arbitrary

particularly with groups you strongly identify with the most

• in-group favoritism: favor your own group, even when you have no clue if the out-group is better

• out-group homogeneity: perceive out-group as all the same → confirmation bias

• in-group heterogeneity effect: get to know your group as individuals → perceive in-group as diverse and unique

• dehumanization of the out-group: using terms that are animal/subhuman/lesser, particularly occurs during war. we humanize animals more than out-groups

avoid prejudice (motivation sources of prejudice)

being prejudice is socially unacceptable, so those with prejudice attempt to hide it and only show it in acceptable settings/when they have an excuse to fall back on

• ex: white participants have been previously measured for having prejudice against black people →

  • room 1: 3 white members vs room 2: 3 black members

    • same movie being played in both rooms: pick room 2 because they cannot hide their prejudice

    • different movies are being played: pick room 1 because they can say they just wanted to watch a different movie