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Chapter 13
Prejudice:
Causes, Consequences,
and Cures
Slides prepared by JoNell Strough, Ph.D. & Philip Lemaster, M.A.
West Virginia University
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
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Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Multimedia Directory
Slide 44
Stereotype Threats Video
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Prejudice—The Ubiquitous
Social Phenomenon
• Prejudice is ubiquitous.
– It affects us all.
• Prejudice often flows from the minority
group to the majority group.
– Can also flow in the other direction
• Any group can be a target of prejudice.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Prejudice—The Ubiquitous
Social Phenomenon
• Many aspects of your identity can cause
you to be labeled and discriminated
against:
–
–
–
–
Nationality
Racial and ethnic identity
Gender
Sexual orientation
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
What is this woman’s occupation? Most Western non-Muslims hold the stereotype that
Muslim women who wear the full-length black niqab must be repressed sexually as well
as politically. But Wedad Lootah, a Muslim living in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is a
marriage counselor and sexual activist, author of a best-selling Arabic sex manual.
Source: Bryan Denton/The New York Times/Redux Pictures
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Prejudice—The Ubiquitous
Social Phenomenon
• Many aspects of your identity can cause
you to be labeled and discriminated
against:
–
–
–
–
Religion
Appearance
Physical state
Weight
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Prejudice—The Ubiquitous
Social Phenomenon
• Many aspects of your identity can cause
you to be labeled and discriminated
against:
–
–
–
–
–
Disabilities
Diseases
Hair color
Professions
Hobbies
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Prejudice—The Ubiquitous
Social Phenomenon
• Prejudice is dangerous.
– It can escalate to extreme hatred, torture,
murder, and even genocide.
– Even when murder or genocide is not the
result, the targets of prejudice will suffer in
less dramatic ways.
– One frequent consequence is diminution of
one’s self-esteem.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Prejudice Defined
• Prejudice is an attitude with three
components:
– Affective (emotional) component
• Type of emotion linked with the attitude
(e.g., anger, warmth)
• Extremity of the attitude (e.g., mild
uneasiness, outright hostility)
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Prejudice Defined
• Prejudice is an attitude with three
components:
– Behavioral component
• How people act on emotions and cognitions
– Cognitive component
• Beliefs or thoughts that make up the
attitude
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Prejudice Defined
• Prejudice
– General attitude structure and its affective
(emotional) component
• Social psychologists use the word
prejudice primarily when referring to
negative attitudes about others.
– But we have have positive attitudes too.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Prejudice Defined
• A hostile or negative attitude toward
people in a distinguishable group,
based solely on their membership in
that group
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Stereotypes—The Cognitive
Component
• Stereotype
– A generalization about a group of people in
which identical characteristics are assigned
to virtually all members of the group,
regardless of actual variation among the
members.
• Once formed, stereotypes are resistant
to change on the basis of new
information!
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Stereotypes—The Cognitive
Component
• Stereotyping is a cognitive process, not
an emotional one.
– Stereotyping does not necessarily lead to
intentional acts of abuse.
– Stereotyping is a technique we use to
simplify how we look at the world.
• We all do it to some extent.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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The Illusory Correlation
• Minority groups are distinctive so we
remember their behavior.
– Creates an illusory correlation between the
group and behavior we encounter.
– Example—thinking Muslims are terrorists
after 9/11
Illusory Correlation
When we expect two things to be related, we fool
ourselves into believing that they are actually
unrelated.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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What’s Wrong with Positive
Stereotypes?
• Potential abuse of stereotyping can be
more subtle—and might involve a
stereotype about a positive attribute.
– Example—race and sports ability
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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What’s Wrong with Positive
Stereotypes?
• Example
– Sports, Race, and Attribution
• What’s wrong with the implication that
black men can jump?
– “Mark Flick” study (Stone et al., 1997)
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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What’s Wrong with Positive
Stereotypes?
• Denies individuality of person
– Ignore the fact that plenty of African
American kids are not adept at basketball
and a plenty of white kids are
• If we meet a young African American
man and feel astonished at his
ineptitude on the basketball court, we
are denying him his individuality.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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Stereotypes of Gender
• Traditional Stereotypes
– Women
• More socially sensitive, friendlier, and more
concerned with the welfare of others
– Men
• More dominant, controlling, and
independent
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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Stereotypes of Gender
• Hostile sexism
– Stereotypical views of women that suggest
that women are inferior to men
• E.g., that they are less intelligent, less
competent, and so on
• Benevolent sexism
– Stereotypical, positive views of women
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Emotions—The Affective
Component
• Negative emotions about groups are
often ingrained.
• This makes such attitudes difficult to
dispel.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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Discrimination—
The Behavioral Component
• Discrimination
– An unjustified negative or harmful action
toward the members of a group simply
because of their membership in that group.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Discrimination—
The Behavioral Component
• Microaggressions
– Slights, indignities and “putdowns” directed
at minorities and people with disabilities
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
One unobtrusive measure of social distance and “microaggressions” is to notice how
people respond, nonverbally, to people with disabilities.
Source: Sally Greenhill/Sally and Richard Greenhill/Alamy
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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“Modern” Racism and Other
Implicit Prejudices
• People hide prejudice.
– When situation becomes “safe,” their
prejudice will be revealed.
• Example
– Questioning President Obama’s Americanism,
not his race per se
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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Measuring Implicit Prejudices
• Most people don’t want to admit their
prejudices, so unobtrusive measures
are necessary.
– Bogus pipeline
• Participants believed a “lie detector” could
detect true attitudes.
• More likely to express racist attitudes
– Implicit Attitudes Test (IAT)
• Measures speed of positive and negative
reactions to target groups
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Typical stimuli used in the IAT to measure implicit racism.
Source: William A. Cunningham, University of Toronto
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Activating Implicit Prejudices
• To best understand implicit prejudices,
observe actual behavior
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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Figure 13.1
Errors Made in “Shooting” People in a Video Game
Participants played a video game in which they were supposed to “shoot” a man if he
was holding a gun and withhold fire if he was holding a harmless object such as a cell
phone. As the data graph shows, players were equally likely to “shoot” an armed white
man, but much more likely to “shoot” black men who were unarmed, like the man in the
photo. (Adapted from Correll, Park, Judd, & Wittenbrink, 2002)
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Figure 13.1 (continued)
Errors Made in “Shooting” People in a Video Game
Participants played a video game in which they were supposed to “shoot” a man if he
was holding a gun and withhold fire if he was holding a harmless object such as a cell
phone. As the data graph shows, players were equally likely to “shoot” an armed white
man, but much more likely to “shoot” black men who were unarmed, like the man in the
photo. (Adapted from Correll, Park, Judd, & Wittenbrink, 2002)
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Figure 13.2
The Unleashing of Prejudice Against African Americans
(Adapted from Rogers & Prentice-Dunn, 1981)
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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Automatic and Controlled
Processing of Stereotypes
• Automatic processing of information
– Do not have control over
• Stereotypes may be automatically triggered
under certain conditions.
• Controlled processing of information
– Have control over
• Ignore or refute stereotype that was
automatically activated
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Figure 13.3
A Two-Step Model of the Cognitive Processing of Stereotypes
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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Effects of Prejudice on the
Victim—Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
• Example
– If a society believes that a particular group
is stupid, uneducable, it will act in
accordance with beliefs.
• Educational resources will not be provided
to that group.
• The Consequence—The group will not attain
adequate education.
• The Result—The society’s original belief will
be confirmed.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Figure 13.4
An Experiment Demonstrating Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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Stereotype Threat
• Victim of prejudice may internalize
stereotypes
• Experience anxiety about confirming
stereotype
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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Stereotype Threat
• The apprehension experienced by
members of a group that their behavior
might confirm a cultural stereotype
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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Stereotype Threat
(Stone et al., 1999)
• Participants played a game of miniature
golf.
– One half were told the game measured
“sport strategic intelligence.”
• Black athletes performed worse than white
athletes.
– One half were told the game measured
“natural athletic ability.”
• Black athletes better than white athletes.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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Stereotype Threat and Gender
• Stereotype—Men are better at math
than women.
– IV = Information given to women about a
math test
– DV = women’s performance on the test
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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Stereotype Threat and Gender
• When told the math test was designed
to show gender differences in math
abilities
– Women did not perform as well as men
• When told the math test did not detect
male-female differences
– Women and men performed equally well
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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Stereotype Threat and Gender
• Other research shows white men’s
performance can be similarly affected
by task instructions
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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Stereotype Threat
• How can the effects of stereotype
threat be reversed?
– Simply understanding stereotype threat
can improve performance.
– Reminding participants they were “selective
northeastern liberal arts college” students
eliminated the gender gap on a spatial
ability test.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Stereotype Threats Video
Click on the screenshot to hear Dr. Aronson discuss how stereotype threat can
affect performance as well as ways to counteract stereotype threat.
Back to Directory
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
What Causes Prejudice?
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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Children often learn prejudice from parents and grandparents.
Source: AP Photo/The Herald, Ross Taylor
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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Pressures to Conform:
Normative Rules
• Institutional discrimination
– Practices that discriminate, legally or
illegally, against a minority group by virtue
of its ethnicity, gender, culture, age, sexual
orientation, or other target of societal or
company prejudice.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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Institutionalized Racism and
Sexism
• Institutionalized racism
– Racist attitudes that are held by the vast
majority of people living in a society where
stereotypes and discrimination are the
norm
• Institutionalized sexism
– Sexist attitudes that are held by the vast
majority of people living in a society where
stereotypes and discrimination are the
norm
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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When Prejudice Is
Institutionalized
• Normative conformity
– The strong tendency to go along with the
group in order to fulfill the group’s
expectations and gain acceptance
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
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©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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Social Categorization—
Us Versus Them
• The first step in prejudice
– Creation of groups
• Putting some people into one group based
on certain characteristics
• This kind of categorization—an underlying
theme of human social cognition
– Useful and necessary
– But can have profound implications
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
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©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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In-Group Bias
• Positive feelings and special treatment
for people we have defined as being
part of our in-group and negative
feelings and unfair treatment for others
simply because we have defined them
as being in the out-group
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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Dressing alike is a way of demonstrating membership in an in-group.
Source: Cultura Creative/Alamy
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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In-Group Bias
• The major underlying motive is selfesteem
– Individuals enhance self-esteem by
identifying with specific social groups.
– Self-esteem is enhanced only if the
individual sees these groups as superior to
other groups.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
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In-Group Bias
• Researchers have created entities that
they refer to as minimal groups.
– Strangers are formed into groups using the
most trivial criteria imaginable.
– In one experiment, participants watched a
coin toss that randomly assigned them to
either group X or group W.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
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©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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In-Group Bias
• Despite being strangers before the
experiment, group members behaved
as if those in the same group were
friends or family.
– They liked members of their own group
better.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
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©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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In-Group Bias
• Despite being strangers before the
experiment, group members behaved
as if those in the same group were
friends or family.
– They rated members of their in-group as
more likely to have pleasant personalities
and to have done better work than outgroup members.
– They allocated more rewards to those who
shared their label.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
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©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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Out-Group Homogeneity
• In-group members tend to perceive
out-group members as being more
similar (homogeneous) than they really
are.
• If you know something about one outgroup member, you are more likely to
feel you know something about all of
them.
Out-Group Homogeneity
The belief that “they” are all alike.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
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©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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Figure 13.5
Judgments About In-Group and Out-Group Members
After watching the target person make a choice between two alternatives, participants
were asked to estimate what percentage of students at their school (in-group) and their
rival school (out-group) would make the same choice. An out-group homogeneity bias
was found: Students thought that outgroup members were more alike, whereas they
noticed variation within their own in-group. (Adapted from Quattrone & Jones, 1980)
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
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How We Assign Meaning
Attributional Biases
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
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Dispositional Versus
Situational Explanations
• One reason stereotypes are so insidious
and persistent is the human tendency
to make dispositional attributions.
• Relying too heavily on dispositional
attributions often leads us to make
attributional mistakes.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
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©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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Dispositional Versus
Situational Explanations
• Ultimate attribution error
– Our tendency to make dispositional
attributions about an individual’s negative
behavior to an entire group of people.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
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Dispositional Versus
Situational Explanations
• Researchers had college students read
fictionalized files on prisoners to make
a parole decision.
• Sometimes the crime matched the
common stereotype of the offender.
– Hispanic male—assault and battery
– Upper-class Anglo-American—
embezzlement
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
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Dispositional Versus
Situational Explanations
• When crimes were consistent with
stereotypes, students’
recommendations for parole were
harsher.
• Most students ignored additional
information that was relevant to a
parole decision but inconsistent with
the stereotype (such as evidence of
good behavior in prison).
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
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©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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Blaming the Victim
• When empathy is absent, it can be hard
to avoid blaming the victim.
Blaming the Victim
The tendency to blame individuals (make
dispositional attributions) for their victimization, is
typically motivated by a desire to see the world as a
fair place.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
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Blaming the Victim
• Example—rape victims
– Must have “deserved it”
• Behaved inappropriately
• Dressed provocatively
• Blaming the victim serves a selfprotective function
– Can’t happen to me, wouldn’t behave that
way
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
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The Justification-Suppression
Model of Prejudice
• Crandall and Eschleman’s (2003) model
– Struggle between urge to express prejudice
and the need to maintain positive selfconcept (as a non-bigot)
– Requires energy to suppress prejudiced
impulses
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
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The Bible has been used to promote tolerance and compassion—as well as to justify and
inflame many prejudices.
Source: Jim West/ Alamy
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
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The Justification-Suppression
Model of Prejudice
• To conserve energy, seek valid
justification for holding a negative
attitude toward a particular out-group
• Can then act against that group and
still feel like a non-bigot
– Avoids cognitive dissonance
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
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Prejudice and Economic
Competition
• Realistic conflict theory
– Limited resources  conflict among groups
 prejudice and discrimination
– The idea that limited resources lead to
conflict between groups and result in
increased prejudice and discrimination
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
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Economic and Political
Competition
• When times are tough and resources
are scarce:
1. In-group members will feel more
threatened by the out-group.
2. Incidents of prejudice, discrimination, and
violence toward out-group members will
increase.
3. Sherif’s classic study—Eagles versus
Rattlers
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
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Realistic Group Conflict Theory
• Prejudice increases when times are
tense and conflict exists over mutually
exclusive goals.
– Example
• Economic recession and violence against
Latinos
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
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The Role of the Scapegoat
• Scapegoating
– When frustrated or unhappy, people tend
to displace aggression onto groups that are
disliked, visible, and relatively powerless
• Form of aggression dependent on what
in-group approves of or allows
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
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After the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on 9/11, scapegoating of
Muslims increased.
Source: David Taylor Photography/Alamy
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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How Can Prejudice Be
Reduced?
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
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How Can Prejudice Be
Reduced?
• Researchers have found that when
people are presented with an example
that seems to refute their existing
stereotype, most do not change their
general belief.
– One experiment—some people presented
with disconfirming evidence actually
strengthened stereotypical belief.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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How Can Prejudice Be
Reduced?
• Researchers have found that when
people are presented with an example
that seems to refute their existing
stereotype, most do not change their
general belief.
– Disconfirming evidence challenged them to
come up with additional reasons for holding
on to that belief.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Figure 13.6
The Impact of Cross-Ethnic Friendships on Minority Students’ Well-Being
In a longitudinal study of minority black students at a predominantly white university,
many black students at first felt dissatisfied and excluded from school life. But the more
white friends they made, the higher their sense of belonging (purple bar) and satisfaction
with the university (green bar). This finding was particularly significant for minority
students who had been the most sensitive to rejection and who had felt the most anxious
and insecure about being in a largely white school. The study was later replicated with
minority Latino students. (Mendoza-Denton & Page-Gould, 2008)
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
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The Contact Hypothesis
• Mere contact between groups not
sufficient to reduce prejudice
– Can create opportunities for conflict that
may increase it
• Prejudice will decrease when two
conditions are met:
– Both groups are of equal status.
– Both share a common goal.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
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©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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When Contact Reduces
Prejudice—Six Conditions
• Sherif and colleagues (1961) found:
– Once hostility and distrust were
established, simply removing a conflict and
the competition did not restore harmony.
– In fact, bringing two competing groups
together in neutral situations actually
increased their hostility and distrust.
Mutual Interdependence
The need to depend on each other to accomplish a
goal that is important to each group.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Figure 13.7
How Cooperation Fosters Intergroup Relations
When the Eagles and the Rattlers were in competition, very few of the boys in each
group had friends from the other side. Intergroup tensions were eased only after the
boys had to cooperate to get shared privileges and the boys began to make friends
across “enemy lines.” (Based on data in Sherif, Harvey, White, Hood, & Sherif, 1961)
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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When Contact Reduces
Prejudice—Six Conditions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Mutual interdependence
Common goal
Equal status
Friendly, informal setting
Knowing multiple out-group members
Social norms of equality
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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When women first began to work as peers with male police officers, they were often seen
as the exception to the existing stereotype of women. Under what conditions will contact
in the workplace reduce prejudice?
Source: Jonathan Nourok/PhotoEdit
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Jigsaw Classroom
• Classroom setting designed to reduce
prejudice and raise the self-esteem of
children
– Placing children in small, desegregated
groups
– Make each child dependent on the other
children in the group to learn the course
material and do well in the class
• Reduces prejudice and promotes
integration
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Jigsaw Classroom
• Why does the jigsaw work?
– Breaks down perception of in-group and
out-group, creates feeling of “one-ness”
– People must do each other “favors” by
sharing information
– Develop empathy for others
• One of the most effective ways of
improving race relations, improving
empathy, and improving instruction
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Summary and Review
•
•
•
•
Components of Prejudice
Modern Racism and Implicit Prejudices
Causes of Prejudice
Reducing Prejudice
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Social Categorization—
Us Versus Them
• For example, in Jane Elliot’s third-grade
classroom, children grouped according
to eye color began to act differently
based on that social categorization.
• Blue-eyed children, the superior group,
stuck together and actively promoted
and used their higher status and power
in the classroom.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Social Categorization—
Us Versus Them
• They formed an in-group, defined as
the group with which an individual
identifies.
• The blue-eyed kids saw the brown-eyed
ones as outsiders—different and
inferior.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Social Categorization—
Us Versus Them
• To the blue-eyed children, the browneyed kids were the out-group, the
group with which the individual does
not identify.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Implicit Prejudice
• Often aren’t aware of our prejudices.
• How can it be prejudice if we aren’t
even aware of it?
– Can manifest in dangerous consequences.
– Example
• Studies have shown people more likely to
accidentally shoot an unarmed African
American than a White person
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
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Expectations and Distortions
• When a member of an out-group
behaves as we expect, it confirms and
even strengthens our stereotype. And
when an out-group member behaves in
an unexpected, nonstereotypical
fashion?
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Expectations and Distortions
• Attribution theory: can simply engage
in some attributional fancy footwork
and emerge with our dispositional
stereotype intact
• Can make situational attributions about
the exception.
– Example, that the person really is as we
believe, but it just isn’t apparent in this
situation.
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition
Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert
©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.