Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination

Related but distinct concepts:
- Stereotypes: Cognitive (beliefs)
- Prejudice: Affective (feelings)
- Discrimination: Behavioral (actions)

Expectations, impressions, and opinions about group characteristics.
Necessary for everyday life: help make sense of a complex world by categorizing information to better identify items, predict behavior, and react.
Useful in defining categories.
Become negative when used to develop prejudices and discriminate.
Sociological context: attitudes and impressions based on limited, superficial information.
Content: Attributes people believe define a group.

Classifies stereotypes based on warmth and competence.
- Warmth: not competing for resources with the in-group.
- Competence: high status within society.
Four combinations, each linked to distinct emotions:
- Patternalistic: Low competence, high warmth. Group is looked down upon as inferior, dismissed, or ignored.
- Contemptuous: Low competence, low warmth. Group is viewed with resentment, annoyance, or anger.
- Envious: High competence, low warmth. Group is viewed with jealousy, bitterness, or distrust.
- Admiration: High competence, high warmth. Group is viewed with pride and positive feelings.

Expectations of certain groups can create conditions that cause the expectations to become reality.
Example: Medical students stereotyped as bad at suturing become nervous, struggle, and validate the stereotype.

Concern about confirming a negative stereotype about one's social group.
Often results in a self-fulfilling prophecy.
People experiencing stereotype threat exhibit:
- stress
- arousal
- preoccupation with monitoring performance
These distractions lead to reduced performance.
Example: Women in math perform worse on exams when men are present due to stereotype threat.
May contribute to racial and gender gaps in careers and academics.

Irrational positive or negative attitude toward a person, group, or thing prior to actual experience.
Socialization results in attitudes regarding our own groups and a sense of identity.
Can form in response to dissimilarities among groups, races, ethnicities, or environments.
Exists against objects and places (e.g., regions, car manufacturers, foods, animals).
Attitudes range from hate to love, contempt to admiration, indifference to loyalty.
May be kept internal or shared.
Propaganda used by organizations to create prejudices, often exaggerating negative depictions.

Power: Ability to achieve goals and control resources.
Prestige: Level of respect shown by others.
Class: Socioeconomic status.
Social inequality (unequal distribution of power, resources, money, prestige) can result in "haves" and "have-nots."
- Have-nots may develop negative attitudes toward haves based on envy.
- Haves may develop negative attitudes toward have-nots to justify their advantage.

Judging other cultures based on the values and beliefs of one's own culture (language, customs, religion).
Ranges from ethnic pride to violent supremacy.
Tied to in-group versus out-group biases and in-group conflict.

Avoids ethnocentrism by studying cultures on their own terms.
Recognizes that values, mores, and rules make sense within a culture and should not be judged against others.
E.g., Dietary rules like kashrut or halal should not be seen as superior or inferior, just different.

When prejudicial attitudes cause individuals of a group to be treated differently.
Prejudice is an attitude, discrimination is a behavior.
Prejudice doesn't always result in discrimination.
Unequal distribution of power influences discrimination.

Individual Discrimination: One person discriminating against another.
Institutional Discrimination: Discrimination built into the structure of society.
- More covert and harder to extricate.
- Perpetrated by maintaining the status quo.
History of institutional discrimination in the U.S. (e.g., racial segregation).
Still concerns about institutional discrimination against women, minorities, sexual minorities, and certain religions.

Focuses on social behavior, attitudes, perceptions, and influences of others.
Topics:
- Attraction, aggression, attachment, social support.
- Biological explanations of social behaviors.
- Social perception and impression biases.
- Attribution of behavior.
Stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination: a negative side of classification.
Classification can create hierarchies, inequities, and suppress communities.
Classification also serves positive purposes (e.g., studying interactions between groups in demographics).