1.1.5 - factors affecting prejudice and discrimination Flashcards
what are the ‘Big Five’ personality dimensions?
neutroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience and agreeableness
how can personality dimensions influence prejudice?
openness to experience and agreeableness show a negative correlation with prejudice
however, conscientiousness may link to prejudice (makes people prone to RWA because they have a tendency to conform to societal norms and authority)
what is it important to remember about the effect of personality dimensions on prejudice?
it may not be the case that the personality dimensions directly influence prejudice - instead they may make people more susceptible to certain ideological attitudes, which then cause them to show prejudice
how did Adorno et al. (1950) research prejudice?
they measured people’s responses to a ‘fascism scale’ questionnaire to find out about their tendency to fascism
they also interviewed respondents to found out about what contributes to prejudice
used multiple methods = strength of study
what did Adorno et al. (1950) in their research into prejudice?
they established the idea of an authoritarian personality
they concluded that individuals with this authoritarian outlook were more likely to show prejudice and discriminate
what are ideological attitudes and examples?
these attitudes focus on the social needs of a group or individual, they link to political ideas and refer to how someone believes society should function
eg. right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation
what is right-wing authoritarianism (RWA)?
a strand of authoritarianism with a political focus, where people with this attitude think rigidly and like society to have rules - they will obey these rules and those in authority, but they want to punish those who don’t (hostile towards groups perceived as a threat to established norms)
what is the relationship between right-wing authoritarianism and prejudice?
studies like Altemeyer (1996) have identified a correlation between right-wing authoritarianism and prejudice
what is social dominance orientation (SDO)?
an attitude where people see society as hierarchical in nature and view themselves as more dominant than those who are lower in status (so are prejudiced towards these people)
what is the relationship between social dominance orientation and prejudice?
individuals who believe in social dominance orientation are more likely to be prejudiced towards those who are lower in status eg. Pratto et al. (1994)
what did Cohrs et al. (2012) do in their study?
they examined the relationship between ideological attitudes (RWA and SDO), the Big Five personality dimensions and prejudice
they used self-report and peer-report measures
what did Cohrs et al. (2012) find in their study?
there was a positive correlation between right-wing authoritarianism and prejudice
there was a negative correlation between openness to experience and right-wing authoritarianism (and therefore prejudice)
the Big 5 personality dimensions link to prejudice through their relationship with the ideological attitudes, which in turn leads to prejudice
how might prejudice be influenced by different factors in different situations?
situational factors eg. existence of groups, intergroup conflict are likely to cause prejudice where it manifests in the whole population or where there are changing levels of prejudice in society
personality is likely to account for individual differences in prejudice (even in a whole population, personality may make some people less inclined towards prejudice)
what did Akrami et al. (2009) suggest?
personality characteristics are present in situations where there is prejudice, even if it seems they don’t totally account for this prejudice
what is multiculturalism?
where all cultures are accepted and co-exist - there is no one ‘correct’ culture
what is assimilation?
when one main culture is dominant over other cultures, and those new to that culture must accept its main norms
how may culture link to prejudice?
countries with policies which emphasise multiculturalism have lower levels of prejudice
countries with policies which emphasise assimilation have higher levels of prejudice
what did Guimond et al. (2013) do in relation to culture and prejudice?
they identified that current research linking culture with prejudice is only conducted in one country, so they compared countries with different diversity policies
they looked at the pro-diversity policy for 4 Western countries
where there were high pro-diversity policies, anti-Muslim attitudes were reduced
in countries with multiculturalism specifically within their policies, there was reduced prejudice between groups
