Prejudice & Discrimination�Module 77

Prejudice

• A Prejudgment - an unjustifiable, usually negative attitude toward a group and its members
• Based on the exaggerated notion that members of other social groups are very different from members of our own social group
• Usually involves…
• stereotyped beliefs
• negative feelings
• predisposition to discriminatory action

Keep in Mind…

• Racial and ethnic groups are far more alike than they are different
• Any differences that may exist between members of different racial and ethnic groups are far smaller than differences among various members of the same group.

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Terms of Prejudice

• Ethnocentrism – assuming the superiority of one’s ethnic group

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Discrimination

• In social relations, taking action against a group of people because of stereotyped beliefs and feelings of prejudice

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Prejudice and Discrimination

• Play “Attitudes and Prejudicial Behavior” (6:06) Segment #31 from Psychology: The Human Experience.
• Play “Ethnocentrism and Prejudice” (5:06) Segment #32 from Psychology: The Human Experience.

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Categorization

• The tendency to group similar objects
• Our selective attention is drawn to the less-familiar characteristics of minority groups/outgroups
• May be a means to explain stereotypes

Stereotype

• Because stereotypes sometimes have a kernel of truth, they are easy to confirm, especially when you see only what you expect to see. (confirmation bias & availability heuristic)
• Vivid cases feed stereotypes (9/11 easily remembered so we attach Muslims to terrorism)
• When stereotypic beliefs become expectations that are applied to all members of a given group, they can be both misleading and damaging
• Creating special cases, or exceptions, allows people to maintain stereotypes in the face of contradictory evidence

• A generalized belief about a group of people
• Stereotypes are sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized.

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Studying stereotypes

• 3 levels of stereotypes in today’s research
1. Public
• what we say to others about a group
2. Private
• what we consciously think about a group, but don’t say to others
3. Implicit/Subtle
• unconscious mental associations guiding our judgments and actions without our conscious awareness
1. See The Hidden Prejudice video clip (Scientific American Frontiers (7 minutes)

Implicit Stereotypes

• Uses priming: subject doesn’t know stereotype is being activated, can’t work to suppress it
• Bargh “Age” study
• have subjects read word lists, some lists include words like “gray,” “Bingo,” and “Florida”
• subjects with “old” word lists walked to elevators significantly more slowly
• “Face” study
• flash pictures of Black vs. White faces subliminally
• give incomplete words like “hos_____,” subjects seeing Black make “hostile,” seeing White make “hospital”

Implicit Stereotypes

• Devine’s automaticity theory
• stereotypes about African-Americans are so prevalent in our culture that we all hold them
• these stereotypes are automatically activated whenever we come into contact with an African-American
• we have to actively push them back down if we don’t wish to act in a prejudiced way.
• Overcoming prejudice is possible, but takes work

Stereotype Threat

• The knowledge of the stereotype about your group adds pressure on you to prove it false that causes you to not perform at your highest level.
• How we study Stereotype Threat (3 min)
• NPR on stereotype threat:�http://www.npr.org/2012/07/12/156664337/stereotype-threat-why-women-quit-science-jobs�

Social Roots of Prejudice

Why does prejudice arise?

Ingroup “Us” vs. Outgroup “Them”

• Ingroup - People with whom one shares a common identity
• Outgroup - Those perceived as different or apart form “us” (the ingroup)

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Out-Group Homogeneity Effect �

• Typically, we describe the members of our in-group as being quite varied, despite having enough features in common to belong to the same group
• Causes other-race effect – tendency for us to recall the faces of our own race more accurately than faces from other races
• We tend to see members of the out-group as much more similar to one another, even in areas that have little to do with the criteria for group membership.

Ingroup Bias

• The tendency to favor one’s own group usually at the expense of the outgroup
• We make favorable, positive attributions for behaviors by members of our in-group
• We make unfavorable, negative attributions for behaviors by members of out-groups.
• Can lead to Ethnocentrism - belief that one’s own culture or ethnic group is superior to others

Grand Haven

Vs.

Rockford

Good

Vs.

Evil

Enemy Perceptions

• When in conflict, we tend to view the other side negatively this can lead to…
• Mirror-image perceptions – As we see “them”- evil jerks – “They” see us.

Attitudes as Ways to “Justify” Injustice

• Just-world phenomenon
• a tendency to believe that life is fair, people get what they deserve and deserve what they get
• it would seem horrible to think that you can be a really good person and bad things could happen to you anyway
• Those who succeed must be good & those who suffer must be bad.

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• Just-world bias leads to “blaming the victim”
• we explain others’ misfortunes as being their fault,
• e.g., she deserved to be raped, what was she doing in that neighborhood anyway?
• A form of Hindsight Bias

Scapegoat Theory

• When things go wrong prejudice provides an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame
• When things go wrong, we cling to our ingroup
• Example: Nazi Germany blaming the Jews for the troubles in Germany after WWI.

Accounting for Prejudice: �Two Theories

1. Prejudice and intergroup hostility increase when different groups are competing for scarce resources
2. People are prejudiced against groups that are perceived as threatening important in-group norms and values
1. Social psychologists have increasingly come to believe # 2 is more correct.

Patricia Devine’s 3-step process to Individual Prejudice Reduction

1. Individuals must decide that prejudiced responses are wrong and consciously reject prejudice and stereotyped thinking
2. They must internalize their nonprejudiced beliefs so that they become an integral part of their personal self-concept
3. Individuals must learn to inhibit automatic prejudicial reactions and deliberately replace them with nonprejudiced responses that are based on their personal standards

Promoting Peace�&�Overcoming Prejudice�Module 80

Reducing Prejudice

• Initially, researchers thought simple contact between conflicting groups would reduce prejudice (contact theory)
• They now think that prejudice can be overcome when rival groups cooperate to achieve a common goal

Social Identity and Cooperation

Social identity theory:

• States that when you’re assigned to a group, you automatically think of that group as an in-group for you
• Sherif’s Robbers Cave study
• 11–12 year old boys at camp
• Boys were divided into 2 groups and kept separate from one another
• Each group took on characteristics of distinct social group, with leaders, rules, norms of behavior, and names

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Robbers Cave (Sherif)

• Leaders proposed series of competitive interactions which led to 3 changes between groups and within groups
• within-group solidarity
• negative stereotyping of other group
• hostile between-group interactions
• A fierce rivalry quickly developed
• To restore harmony, Sherif created a series of situations in which the two groups would need to cooperate to achieve a common goal
• After a series of joint efforts, the rivalry diminished and the groups became friends.

Cooperation Through Superordinate Goals

• Overcoming the strong we/they effect
• Create superordinate goals – a goal that benefits everyone but requires everyone’s cooperation
• e.g., breakdown in camp water supply
• This idea used in the classroom – The Jigsaw Method of cooperative learning