11. Prejudice
M Mar 24: Lecture
W Mar 26: Lecture and Podcast Discussion (see below)
M Mar 31 & W Apr 2: APA Research Report
Perceived negative judgement of a group along with the same negatigve perception towards its members.
can be positive → favour certain judgements
Prejudice is an attitude
Attitude is a combination of affect, behavioural tendencies, and cognitions
Stereotypes
cognitive component
Beliefs that often support the negative evaluations that come with prejudice
Stereotypes generalize:
simplify the world
generalizations may be true or false, and can be positive or negative
issues come from overusing the stereotypes or if they are just wrong
Discrimination
Behavioural component
Discriminatory behaviour often has its source in prejudicial attitudes, but not always the case
Discrimination can happen even with no prejudicial intent
Implicit and Explicit Prejudice
We can have different explicit (conscious) and implicit (automatic) attitudes or prejudices towards the same thing
Explicit prejudice is more likely to cause discriminatory behaviour, implicit prejudice can also have serious consequences
Implicit → more serious consequences
→ Affective a hard piece to change
Feeling disgusted toward a group, harder to change attitude
Explicit → say i do not like this group “american hockey players”
implicit → Associate the group to something negative, you may not be aware of why that happens
Implicit attitudes
Have been measured in the studies using the Implicit Association Test (IAT)
Speed associations
“white” with good “black” with good
Reflects more of societal and cultural norms
When do people reveal their biases?
Davidio
Participants were administering less shocks to the African American people
Then administer more shocks to African american learners when upset by derogatory term
Meaning bias shows when we are upset
This pattern of findings has been found in different groups, French canadians v english speaking canadians, men and women
2 main effects of being a victim of a prejudice
Self-fulfilling prophesy
People act in a certain way bc its what others expect them to do
Social identity threat
People feel evaluated as a group
and may be evaluated on the basis of a negative stereotype
Self-fulfilling (experiment)
Job interview
when white college students were interacting with these different candidates, they acted very different with white people vs black
2nd experiment the confederates came off as disinterested and the candidates replicated that as well
Social identity (or stereotype) threat
feeling evaluated because of the group you belong to
race, age, school, club
The experience of a stereotype threat depends on the category you are identifying with most at that time
Experiment
Difficult test to black and white students at Stanford
told they were interested in learning about their intellectual ability
and the other where they were interesting in the process of test taking
White students performed equal or poorly regardless of the condition
in process condition: black students performed better, in ability condition: white students performed better than black students
High stress situations: minorities performing worse
these stereotypes can be reversed
using a different mindset
with self-affirmation
learning about stereotype threat
Causes of prejudice
Pressures to conform
Social identity
Realistic conflict
Pressures to conform
Institutional Discrimination
Discrimination in large institutions against a minority group - ethnicity, gender, culture, age etc.
“faceism” in politics
e.g. male and female politicians photographed differently
people also go along with the groups → normative conformity
Social Identity
Our self concept of who we are:
Personal identity (funny, music lover)
Social identity - Canadian, culture
Place or position in the world
Creates an un vs them
ethnocentrism: superiority in what you belong to
Ingroup bias: favouring people that identify with us and give them special treatment
→ How is our social identity created?
We categorize ourselves and others
We identify with certain groups
We compare our groups with other groups
People try to justify their actions with mistreating others that pertainto different groups
they convince themselves that the person is unworthy
they harm someone that they dont see as equals to feel good about themselves
e.g.
Prejudice used to justify powerful wealthy people and the “less worthy” individuals below them
Realistic conflict
sources of conflict: competition, for resources, or want power
realistic conflict theory
limited resources being a factor in groups for increased prejudice and discrimination
conflict with common goals among groups
Robbers cave experiment, Sherif
2 equal groups, bonding, competition, reducing friction
The Contact hypothesis
ending segregation in schools
Once prejudiced children were exposed to black students, there should be a better understanding and reduce their prejudices (make friendships)
Desegregation of housing vs desegregation of schools
More positive attitudes with black neighbours with the integration of both black and white
Wast enough to eliminate prejudice in schools
Cooperation and interdependence
in the robbers cave study hostility remained when they removed conflict and competition
Need cooperation, and mutual goals
Jigsaw classroom
Students worked together and becomes expert on a task, children performed better and liked each other more
Cooperation reduces social categorization of ingroup vs. outgroup and instead creates “oneness”
Cooperation puts people into a favour-doing situation
Changes categories from “those people” to “us people” via empathy