Prejudice & Stereotyping

Prejudice

an attitude directed toward people because they are members of a specific social group

Discrimination

when people are treated differently based on their group membership

Stereotyping

beliefs about the characteristics, attributes, and behaviors of members of a social group

Descriptive stereotyping

what is a group member believed to be like

Prescriptive stereotyping

beliefs about how a group member should be

Levels of discrimination

interpersonal, institutional, cultural, and structural

Realistic threats

perceived threat to material resources, physical health

Symbolic threats

perceived threat to one’s values, ideology, cultural worldview

Explicit attitudes

evaluations or feelings that people are aware of and can easily control (limited by social desirability and demand characteristics)

Implicit attitudes

evaluations that are automatically activated upon presentation of an object, stimulus, or person (your gut reaction, regardless of whether you agree with it)

Hoffman et al. (2016)

there is racial bias in pain assessment, white people with higher false beliefs had more racial bias in pain assessment, and med students with higher false beliefs had less accurate treatment recommendations

Viel et al. (2025)

there is a large gender gap in agency (on TV), men are more commonly agents than women

Salter et al. (2018)

cultural-psychological approach to racism, “race is akin to the water in which fish swim”

Riddle & Sinclair (2019)

higher racial bias is associated with racial disciplinary disparities, Black students more likely to receive more severe punishments

The Marley Hypothesis

“…that group differences in perception of racism reflect dominant-group denial of and ignorance about the extent of past racism”

Masculine Defaults- Cheryan & Markus (2020)

“Aspects of a culture value, reward, or regard as standard, normal, neutral, or necessary characteristics or behaviors associated with the male gender role”

Interpersonal discrimination

one person treats another unfairly due to group membership

Structural discrimination

institutional or societal practices that have discriminatory outcomes

Disparate treatment claims

requires showing discriminatory intent (often interpersonal), these claims made more

Disparate impact claims

show statistically disproportionate effect on protected group (often structural)

Social Learning Theory

learn either directly or vicariously by seeing what behaviors are rewarded vs. punished

Fiske (2018)

Stereotype Content Model (SCM), warmth and competence dimensions

Morehouse et al. (2025)

white ethnic groups more commonly associated with American identity than Asian Americans (using IAT), high explicit association for american=white

Skinner et al. (2020)

Black/White and Asian/White biracial people are more likely to be recognized as the minority than white, biracial people stereotyped as attractive and not fitting in

Racial Position Model

1. perceived status

2. perceived “Americanness”

Prototypicality

how well a person fits an observer’s concept of the essential features of a category

Phenotypicality Bias

the more one fits a physical prototype, the faster and easier that person is categorized

Gladstone & O’Connor (2014)

people prefer negotiating with famine faced people, negotiators anticipated famine faces to be more cooperative

Petsko et al. (2022)

Lens model: Singular and simplistic vs. intersectional and complex

Factors that increase likelihood of using a particular lens (Petsko et al. 2022)

Lens accessibility (ease to retrieve lens)

Lens fit (extent to which lens explains)

Perceiver goals (desired end states)

Distinctiveness (extent to which lens associated identity is rare and attention grabbing

Nicolas et al. (2019)

people prefer single race categorization for a mixed race person, even choosing a different mono racial identity not related to the mixed race identity, proximity to biracial people helps with correct categorization

Social Identity Approach

motivation to achieve and maintain a positive and distinct social identity (self as individual --> self as human being)

Optimal Distinctiveness (Marilynn Brewer)

Need for distinct social identity and need for affiliation, optimal social groups satisfy both needs (belonging and distinction)

In-group over-exclusion

prejudiced people are careful to not include outsiders in the in-group

Osborne et al. (2023)

right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) vs. social dominance orientation (SDO), world is dangerous vs. world is competitive, conformity but open to exploitation vs. stable social system but decreasing cooperation

Dittman et al. (2024)

cultural mismatch when people of working class backgrounds with interdependent norms are at companies that enact but don’t value interdependent norms

Yantis et al. (2025)

Black people feel more racial shared reality, similarity, and identity safety when people endorse multiculturalism instead of colorblindness

What things are high in RWA

• rigid thinking

• disinterest in new things

• perception of dangerous world

• sensitivity towards threats

What things are high in SDO

• world is competitive

• group advantage is zero-sum

• low-empathy

• tough-minded

Hierarchy-enhancing

factors that favor hierarchy and produce greater inequality

Hierarchy-attenuating

factors that attenuate hierarchy and produce less inequality

Plaut et al. (2018)

white people more likely to endorse colorblindness, multiculturalism goes wrong when whites feel under threat, cannot focus solely on diversity initiatives (adverse effects)

Gaither et al. (2019)

people viewed biracial faces as less colorblind but only when people were specifically labeled as biracial, effect moderated by past exposure to biracial people

Kroeber et al. (2022)

aspirational diversity is more sincere than counterfeit diversity and authentic diversity is best, lack of sincerity endangers identity threat

Identity threat

set of psychological concerns pertaining to the value of one’s identity in a setting

Social Tuning Hypothesis

people change their attitudes to be more in line with the ostensible attitudes of people around them

How to judge “enough” diversity

• white people have lower threshold than Black people (Danbold & Unzueta 2020)

• asian Americans incorporated faculty diversity as cue to overall diversity and white people did not (Binning & Uzueta 2012)

• when representatives to diversify match participants’ own race, they see team as more diverse (Baumen et al. 2014)

When might multiculturalism foster discrimination and racism

when it sparks threat in whites and encourages stereotypes

Hideg & Wilson (2020)

men reminded of past injustices against women more likely to deny existence of current discrimination, and then have lower support for equitable employment policies, threat to men’s identity lowered their support for equity

Social Identity Theory

people derive a sense of identity and self-worth from their membership in different social groups

Anicich et al. (2021)

used a fake neighborhood to place people near white participants, white people structure environments to reduce incidental intergroup contact

Craig et al. (2018)

white people may see demographic changes as a threat, when more threat is perceived people endorse more conservative beliefs, have less support for diversity, and more racial resentment, group status threat mediates conservative policy support

Allport’s optimal conditions

• equal group status within the situation

• common goals

• intergroup cooperation

• authority support

Contact Caveat

negative contact predicts increased prejudice more than positive contact predicts reduced prejudice

Ways to alleviate collective guilt (without reparative action)

• victim blaming

• minimizing what happened

• distancing, this happened a long time ago

Allen et al. (under review)

when asked about who’s responsible for racism (generally), people think about responsibility for starting it, not fixing it

Phelan et al. (2008)

stigma and prejudice are one animal, both use exploitation/discrimination, enforcement of social norms, and avoidance of disease

Payne and Hannay (2021)

implicit attitudes predict individuals’ discriminatory behavior (individual attitude perspective), Bias of crowds model: implicit bias is more useful for predictions about context than for predictions about individuals

Vlasceanu & Amodio (2022)

algorithmic bias: systematic errors in computer programs that produce discriminatory outcomes

Biased recall

people tend to recall more stereotype-confirming than disconfirming events

Stigma

social identity that is devalued in a particular social context, as the adjective (prejudice as a verb)