Chapter 5 Terms

ambivalent sexism: A form of sexism characterized by attitudes about women that reflect both negative, resentful beliefs and feelings and affectionate and chivalrous but potentially patronizing beliefs and feelings.

aversive racism: Racism that concerns the ambivalence between fair-minded attitudes and beliefs on the one hand and unconscious and unrecognized prejudicial feelings and beliefs on the other.

contact hypothesis: The theory that direct contact between hostile groups will reduce intergroup prejudice under certain conditions.

discrimination: Behavior directed against persons because of their membership in a particular group.

illusory correlation: An overestimate of the association between variables that are only slightly or not at all correlated.

implicit racism: Racism that operates unconsciously and unintentionally.

ingroup favoritism: The tendency to discriminate in favor of ingroups over outgroups.

ingroups: Groups with which an individual feels a sense of membership, belonging, and identity.

jigsaw classroom: A cooperative learning method used to reduce racial prejudice through interaction in group efforts.

modern racism: A form of prejudice that surfaces in subtle ways when it is safe, socially acceptable, and easy to rationalize.

outgroup homogeneity effect: The tendency to assume that there is greater similarity among members of outgroups than among members of ingroups.

outgroups: Groups with which an individual does not feel a sense of membership, belonging, or identity.

prejudice: Negative feelings toward persons based on their membership in certain groups.

racism: Prejudice and discrimination based on a person’s racial background, or institutional and cultural practices that promote the domination of one racial group over another.

realistic conflict theory: The theory that hostility between groups is caused by direct competition for limited resources.

relative deprivation: Feelings of discontent aroused by the belief that one fares poorly compared with others.

sexism: Prejudice and discrimination based on a person’s gender, or institutional and cultural practices that promote the domination of one gender over another.

social categorization: The classification of persons into groups on the basis of common attributes.

social dominance orientation: A desire to see one’s ingroup as dominant over other groups and a willingness to adopt cultural values that facilitate oppression over other groups.

social identity theory: The theory that people favor ingroups over outgroups in order to enhance their self-esteem.

social role theory: The theory that small gender differences are magnified in perception by the contrasting social roles occupied by men and women.

stereotype content model: A model proposing that the relative status and competition between groups influence group stereotypes along the dimensions of competence and warmth.

stereotypes: A belief or association that links a whole group of people with certain traits or characteristics.

stereotype threat: The experience of concern about being evaluated based on negative stereotypes about one’s group.

stigmatized: Being persistently stereotyped, perceived as deviant, and devalued in society because of membership in a particular social group or because of a particular characteristic.

subliminal presentations: A method of presenting stimuli so faintly or rapidly that people do not have any conscious awareness of having been exposed to them.

superordinate goals: A shared goal that can be achieved only through cooperation among individuals or groups.

system justification theory: A theory that proposes that people are motivated (at least in part) to defend and justify the existing social, political, and economic conditions.