Stereotypes, Prejudice + Discrimination: Intro, contemporary form of prejudice, implicit bias

Stereotype def

A belief that certain attributes are characteristic of members of a group

Problems with stereotyping (2)

• Efficient (cognitive miser) but blunt + simplistic

• Not every individual conforms to the stereotype

Prejudice def

An attitude (positive or negative) toward a group and its individual members

More detailed info on stereotypes (3)

• Knowledge structures about categories of people (or things)

• Positive, neutral or negative

• Accurate or inaccurate

What prejudice involves (3)

• Prejudging other base don the category they belong to

• An attitudinal + affective response not based on actual experience

• Negative or positive

Discrimination def

Favourable or unfavourable treatment/actions based on group membership

Relationship between stereotypes, prejudice + discrimination, + important note

• Beliefs (stereotypes) → lead to attitudes (prejudice) → which in turn shape behaviour (discrimination)

• They don’t need to occur together: e.g. prejudice can exist without discrimination due to social/legal repurcussions)

Modern racism def (1), characteristics, start + end

• Prejudice towards racial groups that exists alongside denial of holding explicitly racist beliefs (due to holding strong egalitarian beliefs)

• Tends to be more subtle + context-specific, appearing when the racism can be ‘rationalised’

• Starts with stereotype + ends in discrimination

Ambivalent sexism description + names of two types

• Tendency for women to be viewed in more positive light compared to men (“women are wonderful” effect), yet women still face disadvantage

• Hostile or benevolent

Hostile sexism def

Endorsement of gender norms + punishment for contravention

Benevolent sexism def, example (1) + note on impact

Endorsement of gender norm + commendation for adherence

• E.g. celebrating ‘feminine traits’

• Can be just as damaging as hostile sexism by keeping women trapped in idealised standards

Example of benevolent + hostile sexism hand-in-hand

• Protectiveness + affection conveyed by men who scored high on ambivalent sexism can convey sense of warmth to women that masks hostile sexism

Automatic cognitive processes meet at least one of the four following criteria (1→3, 3):

1. Lack of awareness

   • of stimuli (subliminal perception)

   • of response (stereotyping)

   • of stimuli-response relationship (misattribution)

2. Lack of intentionality

3. Lack of cognitive cost

4. Lack of controllability

Why self-report measures of prejudice are unreliable

• Individuals may be unaware of their biases + unwilling to express true feelings

Implicit association test (IAT): what it measures, what is assesses, why it works

• Measure of relative strength of unconscious link between different concepts + categories

• Assesses automatic associations

• Individuals are faster to categorise stimuli that are stereotypically congruent (e.g. white face + positive words), because these are easier to process (compared to incongruent concepts, e.g. male nurse, female pilot etc.)

How to ‘fake’ the IAT

Slow down all responses

What other measures has IAT been correlated with? (1)

• IAT responses to Black faces significantly correlated w/ neural activity in the amygdala → associated with fear + emotional learning

What does the IAT aim to demonstrate? (2)

• That behaviour is influenced by social category cues

• The individual is unaware of the association between the social category cues + their behaviour

Priming def

The presentation of information designed to activate a concept and hence make it accessible

Affect misattribution procedure (AMP) why useful (1), how it works (2), examples (2), and what it’s attributed to

• Measure prejudices that people might not know they have or may wish to deny

• Subtly present stimuli (primes) related to a social category → then observe how quickly individuals respond to associated words or how they rate neutral images

• E.g. White participants faster to identify weapon when preceded by Black face, more likely to rate neutral images negatively after primed with Muslim face

• Attributed to automatic stereotyping rather than explicit prejudice

Important note on IAT and AMP

• Doesn’t show whether person endorses the stereotypes or not

Possible implication of automatic activation of stereotypes (1)

• May basis for modern forms of discrimination (e.g. modern racism, ambivalent sexism)