psc 157 lec 13

What is the contact hypothesis?

social contact between members of majority and minority groups reduces prejudice, especially under certain optimal conditions.

What are the 5 conditions that make intergroup contact most effective?

• Interdependence/common goal

• Equal status among individuals

• Informal, interpersonal contact (friendships)

• Multiple/repeated contacts

• Support from authorities/institutions

What is a de-provincialized perspective?

The understanding that different groups live differently, and one's own group is not the only norm.

What did Pettigrew & Tropp find about intergroup contact?

A meta-analysis of 200+ studies showed that intergroup contact reliably reduces prejudice.

there is Less prejudice in

desegregated than segregated public housing

More outgroup friends is

associated with less prejudice

When the four helpful conditions are met,

the effect size is r = .27

What does r = .27 mean?

it says this effect is about the same size as the psychotherapy–recovery correlation, meaning it is a meaningful effect, not a tiny one.

What kinds of changes does contact produce?

• Increases knowledge about outgroups

• Reduces stereotyping

• Reduces expectations that intergroup interaction will go badly

• Reduces ingroup favoritism

• Reduces intergroup anxiety

• Increases empathy for the outgroup

• Promotes a de-provincialized perspective

• Lowers SDO

SDO means

• social dominance orientation, or a preference for group-based hierarchy/inequality.

• Leads to better problem solving with less reliance on mental shortcuts

• Can increase creativity

Limiting factors: why contact does not always work

effects can be limited by:

• Preexisting intergroup attitudes

• Intergroup anxiety

• Normative climate outside the contact situation

what are Preexisting intergroup attitudes

If someone is already low in prejudice, contact may not reduce prejudice much further because there is less room for improvement

what are Normative climate outside the contact situation

Even if one interaction is positive, the broader social environment still matters. If the outside culture supports prejudice, that can weaken the impact of contact.

what is Intergroup anxiety

the discomfort people feel when interacting with, or expecting to interact with, members of another group.

negative expectations usually come from one of two sources:

• Little contact with the outgroup

• Negative past experiences with the outgroup

Research strongly supports a relationship between intergroup anxiety and prejudice. The relationship is self-reinforcing:

1. A person feels anxious about the outgroup.

2. They avoid outgroup interactions.

3. Because they avoid contact, they miss positive experiences.

4. Their stereotypes and negative expectations remain in place.

So anxiety and prejudice can feed each other

intergroup anxiety affects:

• Minority group members’ attitudes toward majority groups

• Majority group members’ attitudes toward minority groups

Minority group members

face similar issues, but they seem to have better coping mechanisms

approach positive > avoid negative meaning

trying to build positive contact is more helpful than just trying not to seem biased. It ties this to internal vs. external motivation

Internal motivation

I personally value being unbiased

Internal motivation tends to support better interactions.

External motivation

I do not want others to think I am biased

Extended contact effect

Even knowing that someone from your ingroup is friends with someone from an outgroup can reduce prejudice

knowledge of an ingroup–outgroup friendship is associated with

less prejudice

The more such friendships a person knows about

the lower the prejudice

Effects of imagined contact

• Less prejudice

• Less stereotyping

• Reduced intergroup anxiety

Models of the contact process

1. De-categorization

2. Salient categorization

3. Common ingroup identity

4. Personalization

De-categorization Core idea

Reduce the importance of group labels. People should interact more as individuals than as category members.

how does De-categorization work

• Avoid relying on identity/category information

• Make group categories less useful as a source of information

• Structure contact to emphasize similarities between people from different groups

The lecture connects de-categorization to a color-blind perspective:

People should ignore racial/ethnic membership and act as if those distinctions do not exist.

The lecture says one downside is that increased liking for one person may not generalize to the whole outgroup. Also:

• Important identities may go unacknowledged

• Targets may not appreciate this approach

• It can reduce well-being

• It can reduce belonging for members of marginalized groups

So color-blindness may sound fair, but it can ignore meaningful identity experiences.

Salient categorization Core idea

For positive attitudes toward one outgroup individual to spread to the whole outgroup, the person has to be seen as a typical member of that group. In other words, the group category must stay visible or “salient.

Salient categorization Key requirements

• The outgroup person must be seen as typical of the group

• But they must also disconfirm parts of the stereotype

• Group categories must remain noticeable for generalization to happen

The lecture ties this model to a multiculturalist perspective:

Ethnic identities are important to self-concept, so people should retain their cultural identities while also sharing a broader higher-order identity.

Pros of multiculturalism

• Richeson found it reduced prejudice more than color-blindness on an IAT

• It increased well-being for underrepresented group members

cons of multiculturalism

• It may increase stereotyping

• It may lead people to like stereotypic people more

• Apfelbaum found it can increase race essentialism, the belief that racial categories reflect deep natural differences

Common ingroup identity Core idea

Instead of thinking “us” and “them,” people recategorize themselves into one larger shared group.

Instead of “Black students” and “White students,” people may think “we are all UCSB students.”

PersonalizationCore idea

Personalization says prejudice is reduced when people see outgroup members as individuals, but this can include both:

• individuating features, and

• category/identity information

how do stereotypes themselves change cognitively after contact.

• Bookkeeping

• Conversion

• Subtyping

Bookkeeping

Stereotypes change gradually after exposure to many mildly disconfirming examples

Conversion Definition

Stereotypes change rapidly when a person encounters a few extreme disconfirming cases.

SubtypingDefinition

Subtyping happens when people preserve the overall stereotype by creating a special subgroup for exceptions.

Weber & Crocker study

Participants got information about a group of lawyers, and the information was either:

• Dispersed across many group members, or

• Concentrated in a few members.

Main result

• When disconfirming information was dispersed, stereotypes were more likely to change

• Otherwise, people were more likely to subtype

Why might extreme deviants not change stereotypes

extreme counterstereotypic individuals are actually easier to subtype. That means they may be less likely than moderately counterstereotypic individuals to change the group stereotype.

• people can dismiss them as exceptions.

Extremely counterstereotypic person =

easier to label as an exception

Rothbart & Lewis example

the lecture gives a frat member example:

• The target is described as either typical or atypical

• He votes for Mondale

• Then people are asked to think about whether that says something about other frat members too.

Rothbart & Lewis example main point

• If the target is seen as typical, people generalize more to the group

• If the target is atypical, people explain away the behavior and do not generalize it much

Is subtyping stereotype maintenance or stereotype change?

both