lecture 13- stereotyping and prejudice

institutional discrimination

laws and policies that unfairly disadvantage certain groups

implicit prejudice

negative attitudes towards a group of people below the level of conscious awareness, which operates in an automatic way

• prejudice → automatic

ingroup bias

tendency to favor one’s own group

ingroup

“us”; a group who shares a sense of belonging and a feeling of common identity

outgroup

“them”; a group perceived as distinctly different from or apart from the ingroup

intergroup bias

• 3 components

  1. cognitive component

  2. affective component

  3. behavioral component

stereotype

a belief that a particular attribute is characteristic of the group as a whole, regardless of actual variation among the group members

• come from…

  • cognitively efficient heuristics

  • natural categorization → outgroup homogeneity effect & own-race bias

  • illusory correlations

  • socialization

natural categorization

adaptive categorization to notice “us” vs “them”

• outgroup homogeneity effect

• own-race bias

outgroup homogeneity effect

individuals perceive members of other groups (outgroups) as more similar to each other than they really are and more similar than they perceive members of their own groups (ingroups)

own-race bias

difficulty distinguishing faces of other races

illusory correlations

perceiving a relationship where one does not exist

• ex: between group membership and behavior

prejudice

a negative attitude toward members of a distinguishable group, based solely on their membership in the group

discrimination

unfair treatment of a group or member of a group, based on their group membership

consequences of intergroup bias

modern racism, benevolent sexism, hostile sexism

modern racism

prejudice directed at racial groups that exist alongside the rejection of explicitly racist beliefs

• more subtle

  • ex: would never join KKK but might be more cautious around a black individual

benevolent sexism

chivalrous ideology; attitudes toward women that seem positive on surface but ultimately have gender stereotypes and reinforce inequality

• ex: affection/protectiveness towards women who embrace conventional roles (housewife, mother, etc)

hostile sexism

dislike of a group; characterized by overt hostility and negative attitudes towards women

• ex: dislike of nontraditional women

economic perspective

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

• tension happens when you have limited resources

• competition over limited resources → prejudice

realistic group conflict theory (economic perspective)

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

ethnocentrism (economic perspective)

tendency to view one’s own culture as superior to others and judge other cultures based on one’s own standards

• people in outgroup → more likely to be stereotyped

• loyalty to ingroup increases

motivational perspective

emphasizes psychological needs that lead to intergroup conflict

minimal group paradigm

create groups that have no social reality (i.e., randomly place people in groups)

• Klee & Kandinsky → even when groups aren’t rooted in reality, we still are prejudiced

social identity theory (motivational perspective)

people’s self-esteem derives not only from their personal identity and accomplishments, but also from the status and accomplishments of the various groups to which they belong

• temptation to boost status of groups we belong to

  • helping ingroup = helping us

basking in reflected glory (motivational perspective)

individuals associate themselves w/ successful/prestigious groups or individuals to boost their own image/esteem, even if they don’t have direct connection to success

cognitive perspective

people categorize everything; it simplifies task of processing crazy amount of stimuli we encounter day to day

• we use more stereotypes when tired

• biased information processing

representativeness heuristic (cognitive perspective)

when we try to categorize something by judging how similar it is to our conception of the typical member of the category

• is it representative of the category

minimal groups (cognitive perspective)

just by dividing people into groups leads people to see less variability within their own groups

• w/ outgroup homogeneity effect

• study → Princeton vs Rutgers = participants assumed more similarity among outgroup members than ingroup members

paired distinctiveness (cognitive perspective)

the pairing of two distinctive events that stand out even more b/c they occur together

• distinctiveness stands out; minority groups are distinctive to most members of majority

subtyping

create a subgroup of stereotyped group to explain away exceptions

• ex: “i guess that’s the way they are” vs “every group has some jerks”

consequences of stereotypes

attributional ambiguity, stereotype threat

attributional ambiguity

can’t tell if the experience has the same causes as those of everyone else, or whether it’s result of prejudice

• benefits of attributing outcomes to discrimination

  • Crocker and Major (1989) - 3 ways self-esteem is protected in stigmatized groups

    • attributing negative feedback to prejudice, limiting social comparison to ingroup members, selectively devaluing dimensions on which group is negatively stereotyped

stereotype threat

concern a/b doing something to confirm a negative stereotype of their group

• Spencer & Steele (1995)

  • women and math tests (women underperform on difficult math tests- when problems labeled as math problems- due to stereotype threat)

contact hypothesis

contact between members of groups can lead to positive intergroup attitudes

• w/ equal status

• w/ cooperation

  • superordinate goals (shared goals that require cooperation)

superordinate goals (contact hypothesis)

common, shared goal and can potentially reduce intergroup conflict

• Sherif’s Robbers Cave Study (1961)

  • camp counselors creating superordinate goals

    • groups stopped seeing themselves as separate groups