Psych 391: Prejudice, Racism

ADL's "hate pyramid"

1. biased attitudes (Stereotyping, fear of differences, microaggressions, accepting negative or misinformation)

example: Halo effect-assuming someone is good in one area because of how they look for example that chinese people know how to make asian food

2. acts of bias (bullying, slur, de-humanization)

example: mocking accents or dialects

3. discrimination ( economic discrimination, segregation, criminal justice disparities)

example: hiring bias whether its a female or a male but in this case males

4. bias motivated violence ( murder, rape, assault, vandalism)

example: attacks on places of worship

5. genocide ( the act of intent to deliberately and systematically annihilate an entire people)

example: the holocaust where many jews were killed because they did not fit a certain look

Building blocks of bigotry

1. prejudice (ex: Affective, cognitive, behavioral

2. stereotypes (ex: assuming male are stronger than females

3. discrimination (ex: gender gap on wages on men and females

bigotry and "isms"

1. Sexism:

2. Ageism

3. heterosexism

4. Ableism

essentialist thinking

thinking that there is a characteristic that an entity must possess - this is a way of stereotyping

example: believing that men are naturally aggressive

fundamental attribution error

the tendency for observers, when analyzing another's behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition

example: a manager sees an employee running late and assumes they are lazy but doesn't see the outside factors that could have led up to it like an emergency

ultimate attribution error

assumption that behaviors among individual members of a group are due to their internal dispositions

in-group: "we won because.." (positive acts explained as dispositional)

outgroup: "they lost because..." (positive acts explained as situational or circumstantial)

outgroup homogeneity

the tendency to view members of outgroups as more similar to each other than we see members of ingroups

outgroup: "they lost because..." (positive acts explained as situational or circumstantial)

social identity theory

perspective that considers when and why individuals consider themselves members of groups

can lead to ingroup bias or favoritism

example: when a team wns , they attribute it to skill; when they lose, they blame the referes or luck

Minimal groups

trivial, unimportant groups

example: a teacher divided students into "blue eyed" and "brown eyed" groups treating one superior for a day.

prejudice

preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience

example: stereotyping black people

self-esteem

how much you value, respect, and feel confident about yourself

example: positive self esteem-confident in social situations

realistic conflict theory

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

example: housing segregation in socioeconomic groups

scapegoat theory

prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame

tend to have little power over society

example: jews were scapegoated by nazi and blamed them so all of the bad stuff happening and social instability

integrated threat theory

a theory proposing that prejudice results from four types of threats: realistic threats, symbolic threats, threats stemming from intergroup anxiety, and threats arising from negative stereotypes

example: threats like immigrants to national identity

Jane Elliot's classroom experiment

Gave examples of prejudice towards children with blue eyes and making brown eyes superior for them to understand the affect of racism and prejudice

example:

Theories of hate

An emotion of extreme dislike or

aggressive impulses toward a person or

group of persons (Allport, 1954)

Fromm (1973/1992): two forms

Rational hate - rational basis

Character-conditioned hate - associated with

prejudice and aggression

moral exclusion

the perception of certain individuals or groups as outside the boundary within which one applies moral values and rules of fairness

"moral exclusion": deserving fair treatment

example: jim crow laws

primitive categories (basic & primary)

race, age, gender

1. ethnic categories are used to distinguish people based on phyiscal appreance

2. gender identity using biological characteristics

3. age categories influence employment, healthcare and social internaction

race as construct (Biological vs social)

Race is a weak variable in genetic research.

example: people believed that abilites or potential were linked to their genetic heritage

Implicit Association Test (IAT)

A test thought to measure unconscious (implicit) prejudices according to the speed with which people can pair a target face (e.g., black or white, old or young, Asian or white) with a positive or negative association (e.g., the words honest or evil)

Definition of violence

the use of excessive physical force, which causes or has obvious potential to cause harm or destruction

example: harm that is intentional

hostile vs. instrumental aggression

-hostile: do it out of anger, worked up

-instrumental: do it for strong reason (protection, to get attention). here, aggression is a means to meet another end

hostile: bar fight or road rage

instrumental: robbery, gang violence

street vs domestic violence

street violence: gang violence, road rage

Domestic violence: physical abuse in a relationship or child abuse

Sources of Crime Statistics

include experiments, surveys, participant observation, case studies, and unobtrusive measures

pan-violence

describes violent individuals who are violent both in the home (with family members) and outside the home (violent in the streets)

example: violence against transgender individuals

Causes of Violence

personal traits, child abuse& neglect, human instinct, exposure to violence, substance abuse, firearm availability, cultural values, national values

myth of pure evil/eight stereoypes

1) evil is characterized by the intentional inflicting of harm

2) evildoers (wish to) inflict harm merely for pleasure of doing so (sadism)

3) the victim is always both innocent & good

4) evil resides in the other, enemy, outsider, out-group; "them" (not "us")

5) the dispositional (personality) character of evil perpetrators ("evil by nature"; "born bad")

6) evil is the antithesis of order, peace, stability; it produces & thrives on chaos

7) evildoers are egotistical (narcissistic)

8) evildoers have difficulty maintaining emotional control, especially over rage & anger/hate

four roots of evil

1. Instrumental violence: evil as a means to an end.

2. Egoistic violence : evil as payback.

3. Fanatical violence: evil in service of idealism.

4. The joy of hurting: evil as source of pleasure.

role of mutual aggression in evil

Dehuminzation- the psychological process of demoniing the enemy, making them seem less human and hence not worthy of human treatment

example: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

psychodynamic explanations of prejudice

5 prejudicial patterns of thought (cognition):

Conventionalism

Authoritarian submission

Authoritarian aggression

Stereotypy (especially sexual)

Projectivity

Right-wing authoritarianism

focuses on value conflicts but endorses respect for obedience and authority in the service of group conformity

example: MAGA or Donald trump and supporters

social dominance orientation

a motivation to have one's group dominate other social groups

group status/power

-higher status=higher Social dominance orientation

legitimizing myth

explanations used to justify why people in power deserve to be in power

example: socioeconomic inequality or American dream

cognitive needs

Knowledge and understanding, curiosity, exploration, need for meaning and predictability