11- Social Categorization (1) Flashcards
1- Social Categorization
Social Category: A mental representation of a group of people based on
features that characterize that class of people
o Efficient, helpful for navigating social world
o People can be perceived by many social categories, but they’re not all active in any given moment
Some physical, some not directly visible
Stereotypes
Social Categorization:
Classifying a person based on features you can infer
Stereotype Activation:
The extent to which
a stereotype becomes accessible in one’s mind
Stereotype Application:
The extent to which
a stereotype is used
in judging/acting
toward members of
a target group
Gender, race, and age are among the most basic social
categories within North America
§ These groups have lots of social meaning and are easily observable
§ They’re inferred first, quickly, effortlessly, and spontaneously
§ Among adults, we encode race + gender within 300 ms
Efficiency of Social Categorization
White participants passively viewed images of male and female Black and White people. Some categorized the images based on
gender, others categorized based on race.
ERPs (event-related potentials) were also
tracked during the judgment process. ERPs revealed differences in processing of
race within 100 milliseconds and based on gender within 200 milliseconds.
We categorize by deciding whether a new stimulus resembles known exemplars from a category
People that are difficult to categorize cause:
¡ A motivation to socially categorize
¡ Discomfort for the perceiver
Social identity is important to our sense of self, and being mis-categorized can be painful
2- Factors that Determine Social Categorization
Ingroup vs. Outgroup Membership
* We often divide people into two groups:
o Ingroups – Groups we identify with and belong to
o Outgroups – Groups we don’t identify with and don’t belong to
Prototypicality: The extent to which a person fits the observer’s concept of the
essential characteristics of a social category
* Higher prototypicality à
o Easier, faster, and more frequent social categorization
o Increased stereotyping
Death penalty or life in prison?
Cases involving White victims & Black defendants in Philadelphia
Less prototypical= penalty 24%
More prototypical= penalty 56%
In lab:
prototypicality and shooter bias
More Versus Less Visible Identities
* Identities that are more visible are more likely to be socially categorized & stereotyped against
Ex:
Visible
* Black
* 20s or younger
* Woman
* Long-haired
* Brown-eyed
* Sweater-wearer
* Human
Invisible (probably)
* Lesbian
* Conservative
* Canadian
* Cat person
* Likes country music
Visible identities are not just about what we see with our eyes!
* Visibility is based on all our senses – vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell
* Visibility is based on cues in the situation
Example: Who Sounds Gay?
Visible identities are not just about what we see with our eyes!
* Visibility is based on all our senses – vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell
* Visibility is based on cues in the situation
Example: Who Sounds Gay?
* Football game
o Focus: What sports team a person supports
* Race + gender less easily categorized
* Looking for directions in a foreign city
o Focus: People who look like they know the directions (e.g., locals vs. tourists)
Exceptions: Subtypes
Subtype: Sub-categories within a social category
Old people = warm
Grandmothers = very warm
Old men = crotchety
Exceptions: “Re-Fencing”
When counter-stereotypical information is concentrated in a single outgroup member, the person may be perceived to be an isolated exception…
When a fact cannot fit into a mental field, the exception is acknowledged, but the field is fenced in again and not allowed to remain dangerously open.
Differing stereotypes for “Black people” vs. “Black politicians”
3- The Content of Stereotypes
What do people associate with different social groups?
Stereotype Content Model
* All stereotypes form along two dimensions: warmth and competence
* These dimensions are fundamental to person perception with
evolutionarily adaptive benefits
o Warmth: “Will they harm or help me?”
o Competence: “Can they act on their intentions?”
* Competence: “As viewed by society, how competent are members of this group?
* Warmth: “As viewed by society, how warm are members of this group?
Ex:
high warmth, low competence: kids= pity
high warmth, high competence: Tom Hanks = admiration
low warmth, low competence: homeless people= contempt
low warmth, high competence: rich people= envy
New Discovery Alert!
Used a more data-driven approach to see how people spontaneously stereotype
* One set of participants were given a “pile” of groups and instructed to organize
them in space however they wanted.
* Another set was instructed to describe what those clusters were.
“The Third Dimension”
Discovery of “third dimension”:
Ideology
Conservative / Progressive
Traditional / Non-Traditional
Relationships Between Ideology, Warmth, and
Competence:
* Competence is largely independent of ideology.
* Groups more similar to your ideology are perceived to be warmer
* Groups less similar to your ideology are perceived to be colder
ex: older= conservative, younger=liberal
4- Racial Position Model
Racial/ethnic minority groups within the U.S. are
perceived along two dimensions: inferiority & cultural foreignness
Ex:
superior + foreign= Asian
superior + american = white
inferior + foreign = latinx
inferior + american = black
These dimensions are important for understanding:
1. Perceived discrimination: Minority groups may be more likely to experience discrimination on one basis but not the other
“You are so articulate.” [Competence]
“You don’t share our values.” [Foreignness]
- Perceptions of Group Threats
* Latino immigrants being perceived as an invading cultural threat to Black communities (Waldinger, 1997)
* Asian Americans are perceived as competing for high-paying jobs - Strategic use of stereotypes
o Barack Obama was difficult to portray as inferior, but he was often portrayed as being foreign (i.e., born in Kenya)
