Class 11 Flashcards
Aspects that go into creating stereotypes
1) What is the Outgroup Homogeneity Effect?
Tendency to perceive more similarity in outgroups than in ingroups
(ex. All women are alike)
What is the Outgroup Homogeneity Effect in universities?
Mcgill student thinking UOT and Concordia are more similar then Mcgill students
Outgroup Homogeneity Effect :The Danger of a Single Story (book by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)
African woman moves to the US
Her Roommate thinks:
- African people are not similar to her in any way
- Americans have a single prototype/exemplar of what Africans are (so when people deviate = confused)
Reason: Quantity of contact (people interact more with ingroup members
Consequences:
- People think more individually about people within their in group
Mechanisms Behind the Outgroup Homogeneity
What is: Quantity of Contact
People interact more with ingroup members
Consequence: People have more “individuating” information about ingroup members and their unique qualities
Mechanisms Behind the Outgroup Homogeneity
What is: Quality of Contact
Interactions with ingroup members are typically of higher-quality
Consequence: People have more “individuating” information about ingroup members and their unique qualities
Mechanisms Behind the Outgroup Homogeneity
What is: Motivation to be Distinct?
People are motivated to see themselves as at least somewhat distinct from the groups that they belong to
Consequence: People look for ways to distinguish themselves from their ingroup to maintain their individuality
Mechanisms Behind the Outgroup Homogeneity
What is: Motivation to Dehumanize?
In some cases, we want to dehumanize others to maintain sense that the ingroup is superior to others.
Consequence: Outgroup members are seen as homogenous and not separate individuals
Aspects that go into creating stereotypes
2) What is the cross race effect?
A memory effect
- People remember the faces of their own race better then other races
A consequence of outgroup homogeneity (see all in outgroups as alike)
One famous study on the Cross race effect compared the facial memory of:
1) White, French citizens (~ 28 years old)
2) Native Koreans who had been living in France for a number of years (~32 years old)
3) Children adopted from Korea living in France (arrived in France ~6 years old, age at testing ~30 years old)
What did they find?
Adoptees recognize French faces more accurately
So cross race effect happens because of the context we are in (not biological)
- U learn who to recognized based on which race is more relevant
What is the cross race effect related to?
Related both to one’s MOTIVATION and to one’s ABILITY to attend to outgroup faces
Why should we care about the cross race effect?
What about line ups (for police), eye witness accounts
- People can misconstrue who is who
Aspects that go into creating stereotypes
3) Ultimate Attribution Error
What is an Attribution
Attribution: The process of explaining the causes of behavior or events
Aspects that go into creating stereotypes
3) Ultimate Attribution Error
How does attribution happen?
The social world is ambiguous.
*And this is especially true when we are trying to figure out WHY something happened
What are Dispositional vs. Situational Attributions?
Dispositional:➢Jack won the prize because he’s smart
Situational: ➢Jack won the prize because the competition was easy
Dispositional: based on u
Situational: based on situation
What is the Fundamental Attribution Error?
The tendency to explain our own and other people’s behavior in terms of dispositional traits rather than situational characteristics
What is the fundamental attribution error with Oscar the Grouch?
A) Oscar the Grouch
B) Oscar who behaves grouchily due to his living situation
Ultimate Attribution Error: attributions depends on…
…- Ingroup vs. Outgroup
- Positive vs. Negative Behavior
What is the Ultimate Attribution Error? (example)
we form beliefs about groups’ negative traits
When viewing video of someone shoving another…
- White person → situational attribution
- Black person → “the person is violent”
(Stereotype beliefs about the whole group)
The Ultimate Attribution Error with white and minorities at work?
At an elite consulting firm, recruiters concluded that Black and women candidates who failed the math test were not “rock stars” in math, but that White men who failed were “having a bad day”
What is an Illusory Correlation?
When people see two distinctive events, they assume the events are correlated.
Illusory Correlation example study:
39 statements about positive or negative behaviors committed by members of Group A or Group B
Group B = Minority (13 statements of 39)
Group A had 18 positive and 8 negative behaviors.
Group B had 9 positive and 4 negative behaviors. Same ratio.
However, participants’ memory showed they overattributed negative behaviors to Group B
People assume group membership and behavior are associated when…
(2 things)
- A person’s group stands out
AND
- A person’s behavior stands out
What stands out about groups/behaviour?
- Smaller (minority) groups
- Negative behavior
What is an example of an Illusory Correlation with Muslim people?
- Some Arab-Muslim people commit a terrorist act
- Illusory correlation:
*Arab-Muslims are very likely to be terrorists - Actual base rate: # Terrorists / 350,000,000 Arab-Muslims
How are stereotypes transmitted?
- Social Learning
parents and peers transmit stereotypes directly and indirectly
How is social learning transmitted?
Directly: rewarded or punished for own behavior
Indirectly: seeing someone else’s behavior
Transmission of Stereotypes (indirect study)
Video with one person being rejected
What were the results?
children showed:
-Greater explicit preferences for the preferred actor.
-Indicated preferred actor should receive end of study reward.
-Adopted the label provided by the preferred actor.
-Imitated the object usage of the preferred actor
Transmission of Stereotypes
- Media Influence:
films, magazines, TV, and ads present and reinforce stereotypes
*Arab characters: heartless, brutal, & uncivilized
*Black men: poor and/or criminals
*Men: authorities and professionals
What is the Portrayal of African Americans in the Media?
*Dixon and Linz (2000) content analyzed 16 metropolitan news broadcasts
*Black people accounted for about 20% of the criminal activity but about 40% of the suspects pictured.
*Conversely, White people were underrepresented as perpetrators and overrepresented as victims
Transmission of Stereotypes
- Media Influence
Show how our media diet influences our attitudes:
Children: more TV = stronger gender/racial stereotypes
*Adults: watching the news = stronger stereotypes for Black people & Muslim people
Note: Just correlation
- Media Influence
*Explain the Gender & Advertising Experiment
- Commercials with traditional or non-traditional gender roles
- “Write an essay imagining your life 10 years from now”
- (Write about career ambitions vs. homemaking?)
FIND: Seeing gender stereotypes caused women to reduce expressed career ambition
Explain the results of this study:
adult participants watched brief clips from twelve television shows. These shows included both cartoons and live-action shows.
*Each show had four (silent) clips, depicting how other characters in the show interacted with conforming or gender non conforming characters
clips were modified to show only how other people behaved towards that character
Participants then reported how positively the characters on screen were behaving towards the (obscured) character,
as well as how much they thought the characters liked the obscured character
FOUND:
- Counter-stereotypical characters (both boys and girls) were viewed as being liked less and receiving less friendly behavior
(Follow-up analyses ruled out the explanation that the counter-stereotypical characters were themselves behaving less positively)
Explain this study:
showed kids clips of stereotypical or counter-stereotypical characters being treated positively or negatively on screen
Participants who watched clips of characters being treated in “traditional” ways
(stereotypical characters being treated positively, counter-stereotypical characters being treated negatively) showed greater awareness of gender norms and greater felt pressure to conform to the gender norms of others.
*The television manipulation did not consistently change participants’ own gender-related beliefs or prejudices (e.g., their own career aspirations
