Psy 102 stereotypes + prejudice

stereotype

the belief that certain attributes are characteristic of members of a particular group

“belief”

prejudice

an emotion-based (negative or positive) attitude toward a group and its members

“attitude”

discrimination

unfair treatment of individuals based on their membership in a particular group

“behavior”

theory of “modern racism”

prejudice directed at racial groups that exists at the same time that society rejects explicitly racist beliefs

refers to how people think and make judgements about the social world

modern racism is expressed in subtle ways example

participants were in a position to aid a White or Black person in need of medical assistance

if alone, participants helped both Black and White confederates

if other people were present, participants helped the White confederate but few helped the Black confederate

• this indicates that the participants were more likely to avoid responsibility for helping when the confederate was of a different race

“benevolent” prejudice

not all stereotypes are necessarily negative, some stereotypes include favorable assessments of abilities or positive attitudes toward group members (such as smarter, nicer, or more athletic)

“benevolent” racism (or sexism)

race and gender stereotypes often contain a mix of positive and negative sentiments (ex. women are kinder but are less analytic than men)

positive stereotypes are problematic

can be used to justify holding other negative stereotypes, may disparage members that don’t fit the positive stereotype

measuring attitudes about groups: directly asking

providing a list of trait adjectives and asking participants to indicate which traits characterize members of different groups

having participants complete a self-report questionnaire that asks about attitudes and beliefs about members of different groups

however, people want to appear non-prejudiced and sometimes are unaware of their own prejudices so this may be inaccurate

measuring unconscious attitudes about groups

IAT (implicit association test)

people will be faster to press one key for group and stereotypes match than contradiction

measuring attitudes about groups: priming

use priming to measure prejudices that people may not know they have (or may not want to admit)

priming is the presentation of information designed to activate a concept (such as a stereotype) and hence make it accessible; a prime is the stimulus presented to activate the concept in question

“butter” as a prime, you’ll be faster at recognizing “bread” compared to jumbled letters than “car”

economic perspective of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination

identifies the roots of much intergroup hostility in competing interests that can set groups apart from one another

argues that prejudice results from different social groups competing over scarce resources

fits many familiar and historic examples of conflict between groups: conflicts over racial and ethnic integration, anti-immigrant prejudice

prejudice will be reduced when working cooperatively can benefit both groups, working together to achieve a collective goal

• this may be why racial integration may be more successful in the military than in other domains

realistic group conflict theory

a theory that group conflict, prejudice, and discrimination are likely to arise over competition between groups for limited resources

prejudice and discrimination increase during conditions of economic difficulty (recessions, high unemployment) and are strongest among groups that have the most to lose from another group’s economic advance

resources may be physical, economic, or ideological/conceptual

ethnocentrism

glorifying one’s own group while vilifying other groups

hostile conflict increases ethnocentrism

the strongest feelings of prejudice will come from the group that feels it has the most to lose

motivational perspective of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination

emphasizes the psychological needs that lead to intergroup conflict

argues that prejudice results from motivations to view one’s ingroup more favorably than outgroups

results from motivations to feel good about oneself

individuals are motivated to be biased and more faborable toward one’s ingroup (“us”) than “them'“

social identity theory

the idea that a person’s self-concept and self-esteem derive not only from the status and accomplishments of the various groups to which the person belongs

supporting by: boosting the status of the ingroup, basking in reflected glory, denigrating (unfairly criticizing) outgroups to bolster self-esteem

boosting the status of the ingroup

our self-esteem is based partly on the status of the various groups to which we belong, we may be tempted to boost the status and fortunes of those groups and their members → ingroup members are evaluated more favorably

individuals desire to give advantages to the ingroup

people who strongly identify with their ingroup may react to criticism of the group as personal criticism

people appear to be particularly motivated to identify with groups and to derive self-esteem from those groups when they feel uncertain about their own attitudes, values, feelings and place in the world

basking in reflected glory

taking pride in the accomplishment of other people in one’s ingroup, such as when sports fans identify with a winning team

“we” won but “they” lost

triumphs and failures of the groups we affiliate with affect our self esteem, thus we tend to identify with groups when they do well but distance ourselves when they lose

denigrating outgroups to bolster self-esteem

self-esteem can be bolstered by negative evaluation of outgroups

after receiving negative feedback about themself, participants are more likely to endorse negative stereotypes and rate someone in the outgroup more poorly

treating members of outgroup poorly predicted boosts in self-esteem

cognitive perspective of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination

traces the origin of stereotyping to the same cognitive processes that enable people to categorize (e.g., items of furniture into distinct classes of chairs, couches, and tables)

argues that prejudice results from biases in social cognition due to schemas about differences between ingroup and outgroup members

stereotyping is part of the brain’s need to categorize nearly everything, because categorization simplifies the task of taking in and processing the vast amount of information we are confronted with (stereotypes are mental shortcuts/schemas)

stereotypes may be inaccurate, we assume members of the ingroup to be more similar to us and members of outgroups to be more dissimilar to us than they may actually be

cognitive perspectives highlight how stereotypes can alter perception of and behavior toward different social groups

stereotypes and conservation of cognitive resources

we’re more likely to use stereotypes when we are mentally taxed

• people used more stereotypes during the times of day when they were low in energy due to circadian rhythms

stereotypes can conserve mental energy

• participants who used a stereotype to remember information about a person then performed better on a cognitive task

paired distinctiveness

the pairing of two distinctive events that stand out even more because they concur together

e.g., unusual actions performed by people we rarely encounter, or negative behaviors from members of minoritized groups

• for someone from the US, they would ask themselves, are Vitanemese children fond of this type of activity? and form a link, but when the same activity is performed by people they encounter frequently, no conclusions are drawn

self-fulfilling prophecies

stereotypes also can endure because they “benefit” from self-fulfilling prophecies

people act toward members of certain groups in ways that encourage the very behavior they expect

e.g., a teacher who believes members of a specific group lack intellectual ability may give them less attention in class, thereby increasing the chances that they’ll fall behind their classmates

e.g., someone who believes a particular group is hostile might be guarded around members of that group, thus eliciting cold responses which are taken as proof of the group’s hostility

outgroup homogeneity effect

the tendency for people to assume that within-group similarity is much stronger for outgroups than for ingroups

impaired ability to view outgroup members as distinct individuals

“they are all alike”

own-race identification bias

the tendency for people to be better able to recognize and distinguish faces from their own race than from other races

contact hypothesis

the idea that prejudice can be reduced by putting members of different groups in frequent contact with one another

research indicates that contact alone is not enough, several other conditions need to be met for contact to result in positive and productive group interactions:

• groups need to feel equal in status

• groups need to have a shared goal

• a community’s broader social norms must support intergroup contact

• interactions need to be based at an individual level: one to one

diversity ideologies

multiculturalism and color-blindness

meant to target prejudice

multiculturalism

encourages the acknowledgement and appreciation of people’s unique cultural and ethnic identities

beneficial in reducing prejudice: preferred by marginalized group members, increases perspective taking, enhances support for pro-diversity policies, encourages positive evaluations of outgroup members, reduces anxiety about interracial interactions

color-blindness

encourages treating others as unique individuals and downplaying or ignoring cultural and ethnic group differences

can lead to more prejudice and discrimination: is associated with increases in ethnocentrism and ingroup favoritism