PSYC1030 Week 5: Prejudice & Stereotyping

The $100\,ms$ Rule: Willis & Todorov ( $2006$ ) demonstrate that first impressions of competence, trustworthiness, and likability are formed in under $100\,ms$ . Successive time only increases confidence rather than changing the judgment.
Prejudice Defined: A negative attitude toward group members based solely on their group membership (e.g., race, gender, religion, etc.).
The Three Components of Prejudice:
- Cognition (Beliefs): Often automatic and unconscious; forms the basis for other components.
- Affect (Feelings): Strong negative emotional responses.
- Behaviour: Intentions to act negatively toward the group members (Discrimination).

Generalization: Stereotypes are generalizations about group characteristics. They function as schemas to simplify the world but become dysfunctional when they are negative, inaccurate, or resistant to new information.
Sexism: Stereotypes often frame men as competent/independent and women as warm/expressive. Fiske ( $1998$ ) notes women are often seen as "nice but incompetent."

Kernel of Truth: Levine & Campbell ( $1972$ ) suggest stereotypes are exaggerations of small underlying differences. Swim ( $1994$ ) notes that people's estimates of gender differences often match research findings on aggression and helpfulness.
Filtering and Interpretation: Stereotypes act as filters. For example, if one views lecturers as arrogant, they will interpret neutral behavior as arrogant.
Cognitive Distortions:
- Recall Bias: Cohen ( $1981$ ) showed people remember information more accurately when it is consistent with an occupational label (e.g., Librarian vs. Waitress).
- Subtyping: Maintaining a stereotype by creating specific subcategories for violations (e.g., "female soldier").
- Attribution Bias: Deaux & Emswiller ( $1974$ ) found people attribute success on masculine tasks to skill for men but luck for women.

Face-ism: Archer et al. ( $1983$ ) identify the tendency to emphasize the face for men (implying identity/intellect) and the body for women (implying physical salience). Konrath, Au, & Ramsey ( $2012$ ) confirmed this across $25$ cultures.
Legitimizing Myths: Stereotypes are often used to justify existing power structures and make gender or racial inequality appear normal.

Aversive Racism: Gaertner & Dovidio ( $1986$ ) describe a conflict where individuals maintain a non-prejudiced self-image while harboring subconscious negative feelings.
Employment Bias: Dovidio & Gaertner ( $2000$ ) found that Black candidates were recommended significantly less than White candidates specifically when qualifications were ambiguous.
Perception of Violence: Duncan ( $1967$ ) showed a behavior (a light shove) was interpreted as violent much more often when performed by a Black man than a White man.
The Police Officers Dilemma: Correll et al. ( $2002$ ) found participants were faster and more likely to "shoot" unarmed Black targets compared to White targets.

Fear of Reporting: Reporting discrimination often leads to social retaliation. Kaiser & Miller ( $2001$ ) found those who attribute failure to discrimination are rated as less likable.
Confrontation Discrepancy: Swim & Hyers ( $1999$ ) found women significantly overestimate their willingness to confront sexism compared to their actual behavior in real scenarios.
Stereotype Threat: Steele and Aronson ( $1995$ ) showed that Black students performed worse on tasks when they feared they would confirm negative intellectual stereotypes.
Self-fulfilling Prophecies: Rosenthal & Jacobson ( $1966$ ) demonstrated that labeling randomly selected students as "bloomers" led to significant real-world IQ gains due to changed teacher expectations.