Chapter 11: Intergroup relations Flashcards
What is a stereotype?
A simplified but widely shared belief about a characteristic of a group and its members.
What is a prejudice?
A negative, affective prejudgement about a group and its individual members.
What is discrimination?
Negative treatment of a group member simply because of their group membership.
What is one reason stereotypes arise?
Because human beings have limited cognitive resources. People draw on stereotypes to get rich, elaborate knowledge about people they barely know.
In what conditions do we use stereotypes the most?
When the relationship is not outcome-dependent.
What is the illusory correlation bias?
The perception that a behaviour is more frequently displayed by a minority than by a majority group, when the behaviour is displayed equally by both groups in proportional terms.
What is a well-known explanation for the illusory correlation effect?
The tendency for distinctive behaviours to capture our attention and receive the most elaborate processing.
How are minority behaviours more distinctive?
They seize the most attention, and they carry the most weight.
What is the category accentuation error?
The mere act of categorization can distort the way people think about members of groups and the groups themselves.
What is dogmatism?
The tendency for people to be able to tolerate mutually inconsistent beliefs by isolating them from each other in memory.
What is the personal need for structure (PNS)?
A person’s preference for structure and clarity in most situations, and level of annoyance experienced by ambiguity.
How do prejudiced people understand the world?
In simple, highly structured terms.
What variables are linked to prejudice?
Political conservatism and values of security, conformity and tradition.
What are Marx’s key ideas linked to ideology?
- Groups have unequal levels of status in society.
- Individuals within these groups tend to have interests in common.
- These groups tend to have conflicting interests.
- Members of these groups are not fully aware of their interests and hence fail to act on them.
- Awareness is hampered by ideologies that obscure status inequalities, justify them, or make them seem unchangeable.
What is authoritarianism?
A form of social organization characterized by preference for, and submission to, authority.
What is right-wing authoritarianism?
An individual differences variable characterized by authoritarian submission, authoritarian aggression and conventionalism.
What is social dominance orientation?
An individual differences variable that measures people’s preference for hierarchy within any social system.
What are the two components of social dominance orientation?
A general preference for hierarchical relations between groups; a desire for one’s own group to dominate or be superior to other groups.
What is realistic group conflict theory?
Theory of intergroup conflict that explains intergroup behaviour with respect to the need to secure scarce resources.
What is ethnocentrism?
Preference for one’s own group, and features of one’s own group, over others.
What is the main difference between realistic group conflict theory and social identity theory?
RGCT (realpolitik?) is about real resources and political power, and material security. SIT is about symbolic status, social categories, relative superiority and self-esteem.
What were the three phases of the Robber’s Cave experiment?
Group attachment, intergroup competition, intergroup reconciliation.
What is the contact hypothesis?
Theory of prejudice reduction, which proposes that prejudice and conflict between groups can be reduced by bringing them together.
What is a superordinate goal?
A goal that two or more groups can aspire to but that can only be achieved by working together in cooperation.
