PSYC 2600 Chapter 13: Prejudice

Prejudice

a hostile or negative attitude toward people in a distinguishable group based solely on their membership in that group; it contains cognitive (stereotype), emotional, and behavioral components

Attitudes are made up of

1. cognitive component

2. affective component

3. behavioral component

cognitive component

stereotypes

involving the beliefs or thoughts that make up the attitude, schema

affective component

emotions

representing both the type of emotion linked with the attitude and the intensity of the emotion

-logical arguments are not effective in countering emotions

-if you are emotionally invested in a stereotype you're less likely to be open about information that disputes it

behavioral component

relating to one's actions

-discrimination

stereotype

a generalization about a group of people in which identical characteristics are assigned to virtually all members of the group, regardless of actual variation among the members

-cognitive component

schema

a mental structure that organizes one's knowledge about the world

discrimination

unjustified negative or harmful action toward a member of a group solely because of his or her membership in that group

-prejudice leads to this

-racial discrimination, gender discrimination

-behavioral component

The Hannah Study

Darley & Gross

Is testing stereotyoes

Will test a form for evaluating student fit for "special programs"

- Ps see a video of 4th grade girl & get 'fact sheets' about her

Hannah depicted as:

-Low SES, Urban (negative expectancy)

-High SES, Suburban (positive expectancy)

IV: See video (or not) of Hannah being tested

DVs: Area scores, Overall performance, Work habits, Motivation, Emotional maturity, Sociability, Cognitive skill

Outcome:

In the no performance (no video) people all believe that she is about a 4th grader in both the negative and positive expectancy

In the performance group (video) people split: - Negative expectancy (poor), slightly lower - Positive expectancy (wealthy), higher (advanced program)

Also if they thought that Hannah was wealthy they thought that she was taking a harder exam

expectancy confirmation

expectations from stereotypes are not necessarily valid in and of themselves; people will tend to seek out confirmatory evidence

two forms of sexism

1. hostile sexism

2. benevolent sexism

hostile sexism

Hold negative stereotypes of women: women are inferior to men because they are inherently less intelligent, less competent, etc.

benevolent sexism

Holds positive stereotypes of women: women are kinder than men, more empathic, more nurturing, etc.

Hidden prejudices

1. some suppress their true feelings out of sincere motivation to become less prejudiced

2. some suppress their true feelings to avoid being labeled as racist, sexist, or homophobic

3. some people hold implicit prejudices they may not even be aware of

bogus pipeline

-deceiving participants by telling them that any lies they tell will be detected

-fake lie detector

symbolic racism

-a coherent belief system that can be expressed in several beliefs: that Blacks no longer face much prejudice or discrimination, that Blacks' failure to progress results from their unwillingness to work hard enough, that they make excessive demands, and that they have gotten more than they deserve.

-It is based on the belief that blacks violate key American values, particularly the idea of individualism, the belief in working hard to get ahead in life.

Implicit Association Test

A technique for revealing non-conscious prejudices toward particular groups.

Symbolic Racism Scale 2000

-Henry & Sears, 2002

-a scale in order to measure racial resentment

Self-fulfilling prophecy experiment

Word, Zanna, & Cooper

-behavioral component: discrimination

-is testing self-fulfilling prophecy

First experiment:

interviewer sits far away and shows discomfort with the African American applicant while they sit closer and have longer interviews with a white applicant

Independent judges then rate the black applicants more poorly than white applicants

Second experiment:

interviewer sits far away and shows discomfort to a white applicant while they sit closer and have longer interviews with another white applicant

Independent judges then rate the white applicant as more poorly when they received the style previously used for blacks

Self-fulfilling prophecy

an expectation of one's own or another person's behavior that comes true because of the tendency of the person holding it to act in ways that bring it about

stereotype threat

-the apprehension experienced by members of a group that their behavior might confirm a cultural stereotype

-the burden of apprehension interferes with their ability to perform well and applies to both race and gender

institutional discrimination

practices that discriminate, legally or illegally, against a minority group by virtue of its ethnicity, gender, culture, age, sexual orientation, or other target of societal or company prejudice

normative conformity

The tendency to go along with the group in order to fulfill the group's expectations and gain acceptance

social identity

the part of a person's self-concept that is based on his or her identification with a nation, religious or political group, occupation, or other social affiliation

ethnocentrism

the belief that your own culture, nation, or religion is superior to all others

in-group bias

the positive feelings and special treatment we give to people we have defined as being part of our group

Tajfel's minimal group paradigm

-Meaningless assignation

◊ Over estimator vs. under estimator

-Don't meet group members

-No explicit competition

◊ Make you do a competition that you don't even compete against another group

-By random draw you are the person that decides how much money each participant will get

◊ Will still give more money to their own group, even though they have never met them before

out-group homogeneity

the perception that individuals in this group are more similar to each other (homogenous) than they really are, as well as more similar than members of the in-group are

blaming the victim

the tendency to blame individuals (make dispositional attributions) for their victimization, typically motivated by a desire to see the world as a fair place

-Just world theory

-defensive attribution

defensive attribution

-tendency to blame victims for their own misfortunes

realistic conflict theory

the idea that limited resources lead to conflict between groups and result in increased prejudice and discrimination

Realistic conflict theory experiment

Sherif et al. (1961)

-Robbers Cave study

-They got some kids (white) to go to a summer camp

-Broke people up into 2 groups (randomly) into 2 cabins

-Spent the first part of the camp being together with their cabin

-After building the groups cohesiveness the camper told them to have a competition with the other group with a prize

-The reward was one that only one could get and the other couldn't

-They're all kind of the same types of kid but it doesn't take time to hate each other's cabin

-There's negative beliefs, behaviors, it's prejudice that they created in only a couple of weeks

-They tried to fix this by:

Contact hypothesis

Got the kids to fix something together

The counselors treated both sides the same

contact hypothesis

the theory that direct contact between hostile groups will reduce prejudice under certain conditions

Contact hypothesis requirements

-Sides must depend on each other to accomplish goals

-Sides must have a common goal

-Equal Status

-Get to know others in friendly, informal setting

-Exposed to >1 member of other group

-Social norms must promote & support equality