03. Bias and Discrimination

Primacy Effect

A template created about a person based on the initial information received about them.

Halo Effect

The categorisation of people into ‘good’ and ‘bad’. Attractiveness influences perception of people as ‘good’.

Social Schemas

Cognitive frameworks that place people into categories based on their characteristics. Allows us to quickly make sense of a person.

Types of Schemas

1. Scripts: how to behave in a situation

2. Self-schemas: standard of behaviour

3. Person schemas: impression of a specific person

4. Role schemas: impression of how a certain person should behave based on their profession

Stereotypes

A person/role schema that is based on a social assumption due to their group identity. Can be true or false, and tend to be generalised. We struggle to process information that contradicts this generalisation.

Prejudice

An opinion formed without sufficient knowledge, often based on stereotypes or social categories. Typically negative and leads to discrimination.

Effects of prejudice

Creates social stigma, allows for downward comparisons, justifies power systems.

Looking Glass Self

A concept that one way to learn about ourself is to look at other’s reactions to us

Self-fulfilling Prophecies

Individuals fear confirming the negative stereotypes about their social group, which worsens performance and feeds stereotypes.

Stone et al. (1999)

A golf study with black and white participants, presented the study as investigating either sporting intelligence (stereotypically white characteristic) or natural athletic ability (stereotypically black characteristic).

Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968)

A teacher is told that (random) students will excel in the future, which they do because the teacher responds differently to them, encouraging them to be better. Works the other way around as well.

Tokenism

People are only employed based on characteristics needed for the company to appear diverse and acceptable

Adverse Racism

Avoiding interaction with people of a different race due to anxiety of appearing racist, which in turn leads to a more subtle discrimination and reinforces racial biases.

Adorno et al. (1950)

Investigated how Nazis were brought up, found often they had a cold and harsh parenting style. Proposed that this parenting style led to excessive respect for authority and displacing anger onto weaker others, and authoritarian personality.

Social Dominance Orientation

Acceptance of myths regarding social hierarchies which justify inequality, to maintain privilege and know your place in the world.

The Second Sex (1949)

Women are seen as the ‘second sex’, defined in relation to men. Men determined what it is to be a woman, used as a foil for men to appear active, capable, necessary and strong.

Marginalisation of Women

Man/mankind is often perceived as the default human, seen as scientific, rational, dominant and capable, while women are seen as emotional, irrational, submissive and dependent.

Optimal distinctiveness

The balancing act between the need for inclusion in social groups and the desire for individuality.

Moss-Racusin et al. (2012)

A study that examined gender bias in academic hiring, revealing that both male and female evaluators preferred male candidates over equally qualified female candidates. If they would hire them, it would be on a lower starting salary and with less mentoring.

Orientalism

A framework that depicts the East as barbaric, weak, and fundamentally different from the West, often serving colonialist and imperialist agendas by contrasting Western superiority and the need for interference.

Infra-humanisation

The tendency to attribute less than human characteristics to certain groups of people, historically people of colour.

Hoffman et al. (2016)

This study found that Black participants were perceived as experiencing less pain than white participants, due to medical myths about Black people.