chapter 12

define prejudice

the emotional component of intergroup bias

(Emotional prejudice goes beyond simple positive-negative evaluation, it includes differentiated emotions such as fear, disgust, envy, pity, anxiety, and resentment)

what do affective prejudices drive?

discrimination more than cognitive stereotyping does

what prejudice forms stronger predictions?

emotional prejudice

how do moods affect stereotypes?

1. Angry moods do make people stereotype more in accord with common sense

2. Sad moods make people sterotype less because they think harder

3. People often stereotype more in happy moods than in neutral ones because they cant be nothered to think hard

define passive help

refers to providing assistance without actively engaging or taking direct actions

(Shows that you care and are willing to help without taking the lead in problem solving)

Ex. providing emotional support, leaving positive reviews, donating to charity

define passive harm

refers to expressing negativity indirectly rather than directly

(Often trying to avoid direct conflict)

Ex. making excuses, ignoring someones needs

define active harm

refers to deliberate actions that directly cause damage or negative consequences to someone else

Ex. physical assault, verbal abuse, spreading rummors, discrimmination, harassment, theft, vandalism

according to the stereotype content model, what 2 fundamental dimensions describe social perception?

warmth/trustworthiness and capability/agency (competence)

what do stereotypes along the warmth/trustworthiness and capability/agency dimensions result from?

structural relations between groups

what predicts warmth steereotypes?

percieved competition for societal resources

Ex. cooperative insiders and allies are perceived as warm and sincere, but allegedly exploitative outsiders are perceived as cold and untrustowthy

what predicts competence stereotypes?

perceived status

Ex. rich people are allegedly capable, whereas poor people are allegedly not capable

what are stereotypes circumstances of?

immigration, history, and geography

what ways are people viewed?

1. many cultures identify a set of entrepreneurial outsiders seen as capable but not especially warm (Jewish and Chinese people have often been percieved this way)

2. older people are seem as incapable but warm, homeless people and undocumented immigrants are seen as neither smart nor nice

what do people high in competence and low in warmth do?

They elicit envy and jealousy, mixed emotions that say "You have something we want and that we should have, we will take it if we can"

what does envy breed?

a volatile behavioral mix, a. grudging association going along to get along when the social order is stable, combined with b. Active attack under social breakdown (genocides often take this form)

what do Peoples cognitions about social structure (competitive, high status) do?

underlie the stereotypes (not warm but capable) which in trun elicit the emotions (envy, resentment) and the behaviors (passive support but potential active harm)

what groups are seen as high in warmth but low in competence?

Groups such as older people and those with mental or physical handicaps

what do people with high warmth but low competence recieve?

pity, a mixed emotion saying, "you arw worse off than us, but as long as its not your fault, we feel sorry for you" (condescendinng)

what does pity motivate?

a confusing mix of helping and neglecting, pity is demeaning because it involves unequal status and undermines the targets own control

what Cognitions about social structure starts the high in warmth and low in competence chain?

percieved noncompetition and low status convey warmth and incapacity, which elicit emotions (pity, sympathy) and corresponding behaviors (active helping but social negelct/passive harm)

what groups are low in warmth and low in competence?

Groups such as homeless people often poor people and drug addicts are sterotyped as having no redeeming features, neither warm nor competent

what do the groups low in warmth and low in competence receive?

contempt and even disgust, an emotion usually directed at things (dehumanization)

what is the response when people look at photographs of homeless or addicted people?

the normal social neural response (medial prefrontal cotext activation) simply falls below a significant baseline, and instead the insula (associated with disgust) activates, these findings suggest that extreme outgroups seem somehow less human

what feelings are felt for people low in warmth and low in competence?

Contempt and disgust both involve looking down as does pity, but contempt and disgust lack any positive affect at all (we dont feel bad for them, we blame them for their own misfortunes)

what does disgust evoke?

avoidance, explosion, and fear of contamination, contempt also is a distancing emotion. They result in both active attack and passive negelct (active harm and passive harm)

what feelings are felt for individuals high on competence and high on warmth?

pride and admiration which stems from cognitions about social structure (high status, noncompeting) and traits (competent, warm) resulting in both active and passive help

what does prejudice refer to?

ones overall general feeling (favorable vs unfavorable) toward a social group, whereas inteegroup emotions generally refer to ones specific feelings (respect, anger, guilt) toward a social group

define intergroup emotions

emotions people feel on account of their membership in a group to which they belong and with which they identify

what do intergroup emotions reveal?

more complex and differentiated picture of how individuals feel about social groups and show discrete emotions that predict specific discriminatory behaviors, which explains much of the variable expression of prejudice and different emotions motivate different behaviors

what does the emotional experience depend on?

self categorization

what happens when a social identity is activated?

individuals will interpret events in terms of the implications for their ingroup as opposed to the implications for themselves as an individual

what does intergroup emotions theory focus on?

intergroup particulars more than abstractions, it analyses specific intergroup experiences rather than general societal dimensions (wartmth and competence)

ex. people thinking of themselves as students will likely react with anger to a propose rise in tuition at a state run college (harmful to student not consistent motives) than they would when thinking of themselves as members of a group that would benefit form the tuition rise (state tax payers who subsidize the college)

what is the step process of intergroup emotions theory?

1. Evaluating stimuli initially as good for me vs. bad for me, resulting in primitive positive negative reactoions (Are the ingroup and outgroup motives consistent or inconsistent)

2. After the primary appraisal, more complex emotions result from analyzing the situation further (Is the outgroup more or less powerful than the ingroup? Do we perceive thag we are being treated fairly?do we see the outgroup as socially deviant?)

what is contact hypothesis?

direct contact between hostile groups will reduce intergroup prejudice under certain conditions

what are conditions that are deemed ideal for intergroup contact to serve as treatment for racism?

1. Equal sttaus- the contact should occur in circumstances that give the two groups equal status

2. Personal interaction- the contact should involve one on one interactions among indivdiudla members of the two groups

3. Cooperative activities- members of the two groups should join together in an effort to achieve superordinate goals

4. Social norms- the social norms defined in part by relevant authorities, should favor integroroup contact

does intergroup contact/interaction reduce sexism

it does not

define ambivalent sexism

sexism characteraized by attitudes about women that refelect both negative, resentful beliefs and feelings and affectionate and chivalrous but potentially patronizing beliefs and feelings

what are the types of ambivalent sexism?

1. Hostile sexism- characteraized by negative, restenftul feelings about womens abilities, value, and challenge to mens power

2. Benevolent sexism- chaacterized by affectionate, chivalrous feelings founded on the potentially patronizing belief that women need and deserve protection

what are the consequences of ambivalent sexism?

harassment, aggression, lower self esteem, negative health outcomes, and self doubt, or lower grades in stem courses

what are the prejudice targeted at older adults?

pity or sympathy

how are older people viwed?

with a contradictory combination of condescension and compassion, in few subcultures older people receive respect

(In western and eastern cultures they tend to land in the pity area and are generally disrespected)

how do younger people react to older people?

with some concern over resources appropriate successions, shared consumption, and separate identities and prescriptive stereotyping results

when does the malleable boundary reset?

when people resist membership in the old person outgroup, older adults associate themselves with young stereotypic terms faster than with older stereotypic terms

how does sexual (homophobia) prejudice differ from other prejudices?

1. Sexual orientation is not vosibiluy communicated as race, gender, age so its targets ofteh control the extent to which they reveal their indeed

2. Of the prejudices described so far this is one of the most widespread

3. Whereas with race, gender, and age the belief that biology is destiny tends to correlate with prejudice in current American social construction belief that homosexuality is biologically determined tends to correlate with tolerance

what are the attitudes of antigay prejudices?

women are less prejudiced than men and lesbians are less targeted than gay men