Download Stereotype, Prejudice, etc.

THINK
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Chapter
10
Stereotypes, Prejudice,
and Discrimination:
Causes and
Consequences
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
What are Stereotypes, Prejudice,
and Discrimination?
• Prejudice – a negative learned attitude
toward a group of people
• Discrimination – negative behaviors
directed at a specific group of people
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
What are Stereotypes, Prejudice,
and Discrimination?
• Stereotype – a general belief about a
group of people
 Differs from prejudice in that it can have
positive or negative connotations
 Runs the risk of becoming prejudicial and
leading to discrimination
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
What are Stereotypes, Prejudice,
and Discrimination? (continued)
• Racism – discrimination directed at a
specific racial group
• Sexism – discrimination directed at a
specific gender
• Ageism – discrimination directed at
various age groups
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Until the 1950s, the United States maintained a
policy of racial segregation in schools and
public places.
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Racism
• Has a long and unpleasant history in the
United States
• Racial prejudice – holding a hostile
attitude toward a person due to their race
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Racism (continued)
• Though progress has been made, racism
remains a significant problem
• Many people still use racist humor and
"laugh it off" as a joke.
 Do you make such jokes? Do your friends
do? Is it okay with you?
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Hate Groups in America. There are 932 hate
groups currently operating in the
United States.
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Sexism
• Gender prejudice – treating people unequally
due to their gender
• Gender stereotypes – people’s ideas about how
men and women should behave
 Based on socially and culturally defined
beliefs
 Can be formed very early in life
 What messages do children get about "boy"
and "girl" activities?
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Studies suggest that children learn traditional
gender roles from a young age.
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Sexism (continued)
• How have attitudes changed in the past
70+ years?
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Sexism (continued)
• Sexism is not an "American" phenomenon
• Many cultures place very different values
and expectations on men and women
 Ambivalent sexism – the contradiction
between hostile and benevolent sexism
 Hostile sexism – feeling resentful and openly
derogatory toward the abilities of women
 Benevolent sexism – when men behave in
ways that appear chivalrous, but can also
communicate to negative female stereotypes
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
How do We Measure Stereotypes,
Prejudice, and Discrimination?
• Do we have to agree with a stereotype in
order to be affected by it?
 Stereotypes seem to be a function of
automatic processing
 Environment plays a role
 Even automatic processes can be overcome
with controlled processing
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
How do We Measure Stereotypes, Prejudice,
and Discrimination? (continued)
• Old-fashioned racism
 Overt prejudice and discrimination
 Involves oppressive acts and feelings
• Modern racism
 Covert, subtle feelings directed toward a
racial group
 Includes the belief that racism and
discrimination no longer exist
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
How do We Measure Stereotypes, Prejudice,
and Discrimination? (continued)
• Old-fashioned sexism
 Overt sexism based on the belief that women
are less competent
 Promoting traditional gender roles and
different treatment of men and women
• Modern sexism
 More covert and subtle, typified by resisting
policies that support women
 Denial that sexism still exists, and overt
antagonism toward women
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Covert Measures
• The Implicit Association Test (IAT)
 Students are shown pictures of different faces
 Positive or negative words are presented
 The time it takes to pair word with faces is
measured
 Findings – people tend to have implicit
negative stereotypes about those who are
different than themselves
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Is Prejudice on the Decline?
• Attitudes have clearly changed in recent
decades
• Many forms of prejudice still exist,
however, in more subtle forms
• Aversive racism
 Whites who show support for equality, but
who discriminate in subtle ways
 They may rationalize their subtle racism
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
What are the Sources of
Stereotyping and Prejudice?
• What do you think of the "Compton
Cookout?"
• Color-blindness – is this a desirable
attitude?
• Do we claim one belief in public and
another in private?
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Social Learning
• Many of our attitudes are formed in the
home
• Parents are an enormous source of
information and influence
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Social Learning (continued)
• Peers (classmates, friends) also shape our
attitudes
• Authoritarian personality – favors
obedience, eschews lower status people
 Is contributed to by our upbringing
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Cognitive Sources
• Social categorization
 Dividing people into categories based on
common attributes
- Race, gender, other common features
 Do you speak "loudly" to elderly person
without even thinking about it?
 Are we instinctively drawn to categorizing
based on differences?
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Cognitive Sources (continued)
• Social categorization
 Outgroup homogeneity
-
The belief that "all of them are the same."
Seeing outgroup as being very similar
Seeing ingroup members as very diverse
Studies show that this can occur very early in life,
even in infancy
- May be contributed to by a lack of familiarity of the
outgroup
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Ingroup Favoritism
• The "we/us versus they/them" mentality
• Can lead to discriminatory behavior
 Robber’s Cave – the groups started with
heavy ingroup favoritism
 Over time (with cooperation) this dissipated
• Social dominance orientation – group
should be ordered according to worth
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Attributional Biases
• Ultimate attribution error
 Explaining group behaviors in terms of
internal, dispositional factors
 Disregarding situation constraints
 A more global form of the fundamental
attribution error
 Negative outgroup behavior is used to
support prejudice toward the entire group
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Attributional Biases (continued)
• Just-world hypothesis
 The belief that victims of misfortune deserve
what they got
 Allows us to see the world as predictable and
fair
 “Blame the victim" mentality
 10-20% believe rape victims are at least
partially responsible for being attacked
 Do we do this to create the illusion that we
have control of our fate?
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Motivational Factors
• Realistic group conflict theory
 Groups compete for resources
 Ingroup favoritism and outgroup
discrimination increase
 Robber’s Cave
- The groups became possessive of common areas
(baseball diamond, campground)
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Motivational Factors (continued)
• Relative deprivation
 Feeling unhappy because we think those in
an outgroup will fare better than we will
 Could this be why affirmative action has so
many opponents?
 Minimum ingroup paradigm
- People who are put together randomly will still
form an "ingroup" mentality
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Motivational Factors (continued)
• Being part of a minority group
 Can lead to greater ingroup favoritism due to
a feeling of uniqueness
 Might explain why larger "groups" do not
have their own clubs on campus
- It is harder to distinguish them from everyone else
 Status within a group can affect how we treat
outgroup members
• Feeling a threat to the whole group can
lead to enjoying another group’s failure
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Moods and Emotions
• What kinds of emotions bring out
prejudice? You might be surprised!
 Both good and bad moods!
 Good moods – we think less carefully
 Bad moods – we may pay too much attention
to details around us
 Negative emotions can interfere with proper
cognitive processing
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Sources of Stereotyping and Prejudice.
Stereotyping and prejudice originate from
several different sources.
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
What are the Consequences of
Stereotyping?
• The dangers of stereotyping are many
 Influences our perception of others
 Affects our behaviors
 Affects the behaviors of the stereotyped
group
 Confirmation bias – remember this?
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
What are the Consequences of
Stereotyping? (continued)
• Self-fulfilling prophecy
 “A belief that causes itself to be true"
 Can lead to positive or negative behaviors
- How might a student perform who is told that she
is "excellent?"
- How might that same student perform if she is told
she is "average?"
 We may inadvertently promote such
outcomes based on how we interact with
people
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Stereotype Threat
• The risk of confirming a negative
stereotype about oneself
• Similar to the self-fulfilling prophecy
• When we are aware of stereotypes, we
might live down to them
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
How can We Combat
Stereotyping and Prejudice?
• Children with Williams syndrome do not
demonstrate racial bias
 This may be due to unusual activity in the
amygdala
• There are four techniques that can be
used to reduce stereotypes and prejudice
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
How can We Combat Stereotyping
and Prejudice? (continued)
• Contact Hypothesis
 Increased communication between groups
reduces prejudice/discrimination
 Equal contact between the groups is also
essential
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Group Interdependence
• Gordon Allport proposed 4 conditions to
decrease prejudice




Equal status between groups
Institutional support for both groups
Intergroup cooperation
Common goals for both groups
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Group Interdependence (continued)
• The Jigsaw Classroom (Aronson, et al.,
1978)
 Each student serves a necessary purpose
 A common goal can’t be completed without
each purpose being present
 Fosters cooperation
 Leads to a decrease in negativity
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Group Interdependence (continued)
• Education
 It is not enough to just talk about it
 People have to participate in order to reduce
prejudice and discrimination
• Motivation
 Motivation can reduce automatic processing
that leads to prejudice
 It is important to make people aware of their
own prejudices to create positive change
• Action learning: The jigsaw classroom
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
The Jigsaw Classroom. The jigsaw classroom
technique fosters cooperation and reduces
stereotyping and prejudice.
THINK Social Psychology
Kimberley Duff
Copyright ©2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.