Prejudice and Social Psychology

Flashcards focused on key vocabulary terms related to prejudice and social psychology concepts.

Prejudice

A preconceived opinion not based on reason or actual experience.

Cognitive Misers

A term that describes people who prefer to think in simple, effortless ways to minimize mental effort.

Social Categorization

The process of sorting people into groups based on characteristics such as race, gender, age, religion, and sexual orientation.

Ingroup

A social group with which a person identifies.

Outgroup

A social group with which a person does not identify.

Outgroup Homogeneity Effect

The perception that members of an outgroup are more similar to each other than members of the ingroup.

Own-Race Bias

The tendency for people to more accurately recognize and differentiate faces of their own race.

Distinctiveness

The principle that individuals who stand out can disproportionately influence group stereotypes.

Illusory Correlation

The overestimation of the frequency of a relationship between two distinctive events, often leading to stereotypes.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

A prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true due to positive or negative expectations.

Stereotype Threat

A disruptive concern about confirming a negative stereotype about one’s group.