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Prejudice
Prejudice
 An unjustifiable 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, and
a predisposition to discriminatory action
 Usually involves a negative attitude
Categorization
 The tendency to group similar objects
 May be a means to explain stereotypes
Stereotype
 A generalized belief about
a group of people
 Stereotypes are
sometimes accurate but
often overgeneralized.
 Because stereotypes
sometimes have a kernel
of truth, they are easy to
confirm, especially when
you see only what you
expect to see.
 Can be both misleading
and damaging
Studying stereotypes
 3 levels of stereotypes
in today’s research
 public
 what we say to
others about a
group
Studying stereotypes
 3 levels of stereotypes
in today’s research
 private
 what we
consciously think
about a group, but
don’t say to others
Studying stereotypes
 3 levels of stereotypes in
today’s research
 implicit
 unconscious mental
associations guiding our
judgments and actions
without our conscious
awareness
 See The Hidden Prejudice
video clip (Scientific American
Frontiers (6 minutes)
 Take the Test! On Weebly!
Studying Implicit Stereotypes
 Use of priming: subject doesn’t know stereotype
is being activated, can’t work to suppress it
 Bargh 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
 another 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
Ingroup “Us”
 People with
whom one
shares a
common
identity
Outgroup “Them”
 Those perceived as different or apart form
“us” (the ingroup)
Out-Group Homogeneity
Effect
1. 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
2. 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
 unfavorable, negative
attributions for behaviors
by members of outgroups
Ingroup Bias
 Ethnocentrism - belief that one’s own culture or ethnic group
is superior to others
The Basis for Prejudice
 In combination, stereotypes and in-group/out-group bias
form the cognitive basis for prejudicial attitudes.
 Prejudice also has a strong emotional component, which is
intensely negative and involves hatred, contempt, fear, and
loathing
 Behaviorally, prejudice can
be displayed in the form of
discrimination
Discrimination
 In social relations,
taking action
against a group of
people because of
stereotyped
beliefs and
feelings of
prejudice
Scapegoat Theory
 The theory that prejudice provides an outlet
for anger by providing someone to blame
 Example: Nazi
Germany
blaming the
Jews for the
troubles in
Germany after
WWI.
Just-World Phenomenon
 The tendency to believe that people get what they
deserve and deserve what they get
 Reflects attitude that good is rewarded and evil is punished
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.
Accounting for
Prejudice
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

Social psychologists have increasingly come to
believe # 2 is more correct.
Overcoming
Prejudice
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 (Video)
 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
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
Robbers Cave (Sherif)
 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.
Realistic Conflict Theory
 Overcoming the strong we/they effect
 establishment of superordinate goals – a goal that benefits
everyone but requires everyone’s cooperation
 e.g., breakdown in camp water supply
 overcoming intergroup strife - research
 stereotypes are diluted when people share
individuating information
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