Prejudice and Discrimination - PSY2001

Prejudice

A negative evaluation of a group or individual based on their group membership.

Prejudice - single component view

Single-component view (Crandall & Eshelman, 2003): A negative attitude.

Prejudice - three component view

Cognitive: Stereotypes or beliefs about the group

Affective: Emotions (usually negative)

Conative: Behavioural intentions

Discrimination

Inappropriate and unfair treatment based on group membership (Dovidio et al., 2010).

Can include both negative behaviour or less positive behaviour toward outgroups.

Types of discrimination

Individual: Intentional harm by individuals

Institutional: Biased rules and practices

Structural: Policies that appear neutral but have unequal impacts

Intergroup bias

Tendency to favour one's ingroup over an outgroup (Hewstone, Rubin & Willis, 2002).

Involves stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination as cognitive, affective, and behavioural components respectively (Mackie & Smith, 1998).

Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis (Dollard et al., 1939)

Goal frustration leads to psychological imbalance → redirected aggression toward scapegoats.

Critique: Doesn't explain why certain groups are targeted more than others; ignores social context.

Authoritarian Personality (Adorno et al., 1950)

Strict/punitive parenting leads to ethnocentrism and minority hostility.

Critiques: F-scale suffered from acquiescence bias; relies on Freudian constructs; ignores situational factors.

Realistic Conflict Theory (Sherif, 1966)

Prejudice arises from competition for resources.

Robbers Cave Study

Boys showed hostility when competing, which was reduced through cooperative goals.

Critique: Conflict isn't necessary for bias to occur; ethical issues with study design.

Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1986)

People derive part of their self-concept from group memberships.

Ingroup favouritism helps maintain self-esteem.

Minimal Group Paradigm (Tajfel et al)

Even arbitrary groupings lead to biased resource allocation.

Explains bias in the absence of competition

Social Identity theory - real world

Explains partisan politics, nationalism, and even online fandoms.

E.g., Brexit debates or "hotdog is/isn't a sandwich" scenario in class discussion — people favour their group regardless of logic.

Frustration Aggression hypothesis - real world

Explains xenophobia during economic hardship, e.g., blame placed on immigrants during recessions.

Microaggressions - real world

Modern discrimination like microaggressions (Sue et al., 2007) explains the subtle forms of racism experienced by East Asians during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Tokenism - real world

Tokenism (Wright & Taylor, 1998): Explains why minority individuals are often appointed to precarious roles ("glass cliff" - Ryan & Haslam, 2005) to shield organisations from claims of bias.

Traditional - Expression

Overt, blatant

Modern - Expression

covert, subtle

Traditional - examples

Racial slurs, segregation, sexism

Modern - examples

denial of discrimination, resentment at quotas

Traditional - Measures

Blatant Prejudice Scales

Modern - Measures

Modern Racism/Sexism scales

Traditional - Mechanism

Hostility and open devaluation

Modern - Mechanism

Defensiveness, rationalisation of inequality

Traditional - behavioural manifestation

Ethnophaulisms, explicit exclusions

Modern - Behavioural manifestation

Microaggressions, Tokenism

Microaggressions (Sue et al., 2007)

Microinvalidations: "I don't see colour"

Microinsults: "How did you get this job?"

Microassaults: Deliberate, explicit racial insults

Tokenism

Superficial diversity efforts that maintain systemic exclusion

Explicit Measures of Prejudice and intergroup bias

Require conscious reflection; may be biased by social desirability

Semantic Differentials:

Likert Scales:

Semantic Differentials

Rate target groups on bipolar adjective scales (e.g., "pleasant-unpleasant")

Explicit Measure

Blatant Prejudice Scale

Measures overt prejudice

Explicit Measure

Subtle Prejudice Scale

Captures denial and minimisation of inequality

Explicit Measure

Modern Sexism scale

Taps into contemporary, covert sexist beliefs

Explicit measure

Implicit Measures of Prejudice and intergroup bias

Behavioural Observation:

Affective Measures: (IAT)

Behavioural Observation

Seating distance, eye contact, body language

Implicit measure

Implicit Association Test (IAT)

Quicker associations between ingroup and positive concepts vs. outgroup and negative concepts suggest bias

Implicit measure

Explicit vs implicit measures

Require conscious reflection; may be biased by social desirability

vs

Reveal automatic biases not accessible through introspection