Week 9: Prejudice Reduction

Reasons to reduce prejudice

• supports health and wellbeing

• prejudice impedes ability to work

Prejudice reduction strategies

• Confrontation
• Categorisation
◦ Decategorisation
◦ Common ingroup identity
◦ Dual identity
• Perspective Taking
• Intergroup Contact Theory
◦ Direct contact
◦ Indirect contact

Negative effects of Confrontation

• Confrontation elicits negative emotions in person being confronted
◦ Anger, irritation, annoyance
• Confrontation elicits negative self-directed emotions
◦ Guilt, shame, self-criticism
• Confronters tend to be evaluated more negatively and avoided
◦ By person being confronted ◦ By third-party majority bystanders
• Especially in the case of:
◦ Ambiguity over whether confrontation was warranted
◦ Harsh & aggressive confrontation

Prejudice blindspot

Cognitive bias where people see themselves as less biased than other people

Peer training strategies

Intergroup contact

meaningful face-to-face interaction between members of different social groups can effectively reduce prejudice and stereotyping

Secondary Transfer Effects

group to group generalizations - When changing attitudes towards one outgroup influences attitudes towards secondary outgroup

Tertiary Transfer Effects

Attitude-to-Cognitive Function generalisations - Shifts in attitudes results in
cognitive liberalization. Greater creativity, problem solving ability, openness to experiences, climate change beliefs, productivity.

Confrontation is less threatening when it is

• Delivered by a trusted party or friend
• Calm & measured rather than aggressive
• Behaviour-centred rather than person-centred
◦ Explains why the behaviour in question is inappropriate and reflects
prejudice rather than simply accusing the person of being prejudiced
• A “call-in” rather than a “call-out”
◦ “Call-in”: Private, accommodating, aim to promote understanding/growth
in the person expressing prejudice
◦ “Call-out”: Public, non-accommodating, aim to self-promote and
communicate moral superiority

Several approaches to prejudice reduction subvert categorisation processes

◦ Decategorisation
◦ Common ingroup identity
◦ Dual identity

Perspective reduction as a prejudice reduction strategy

• Elicits empathy for outgroup
◦ Feel how outgroup members feel, emotionally
◦ Perceive overlap between self & outgroup member
◦ Identification with outgroup
• Elicits perceived injustice
◦ When advantaged/majority group members take on marginalised
perspectives
• Can affect both explicit & implicit prejudice

Indirect contact

• Extended contact : Knowing that a member of one’s own group has a close
relationship with a member of an outgroup
• Vicarious contact : Observing a member of one’s own group positively
interact with a member of an outgroup
• Imagined contact : Imagining positive contact with an outgroup member
◦ More detailed the imagination exercise → stronger effect
• Parasocial contact : Having “contact” with an outgroup member via media
(e.g., film, TV)
• Virtual reality (VR) contact : Having “contact” with an outgroup member via
virtual realit