Exam 3 Flashcards
Prejudice
evaluative reaction (typically negative) to a social group
- affective component
- Attitudes, emotions
Stereotypes
Generalized beliefs about the characteristics of social groups
-cognitive component
-Beliefs, expectations, experiences
• Criminality, violence, emotionality, intelligence
Discrimination
Differential treatment based on group membership
-behavioral component
-Nonverbal behaviors, deliberate behaviors
• Aggression
• Avoidant behavior
• Hiring/Firing
• Mortgage rejection
Stereotypes as a heuristic
-Allows for fast judgments
-Frees cognitive resources for other tasks
-Because stereotyped thinking is fast and efficient, it is often used.
-Causes people to ignore information that does not fit the stereotype
Negatives: racial profiling
Socio-Cultural Perspective
- parental transmission , peer groups
- border cultural context (mass media)
Parental transmission & Peer groups
We tend to hold the same attitudes and beliefs as our parents + peers
Border cultural context (mass media)
Subtle Transmission (Weisbuch et al., 2009) -White actors showed nonverbal avoidance of black actors -Even WATCHING the interracial interactions created bias in viewers
Early development: modeling
Children learn prejudices from cultural models.
-Clark & Clark (1939;1940)
• Children’s books - gender roles
The _______ is in distress.
The _______ is in shining armor.
Realistic Group Conflict Theory (RCT)
structure of relations between groups
-(perceived) competition for limited resources
-an evolutionary adaptation?
-Sherif’s Robbers Cave Study (1966)
a case study in the toxic potential of intergroup competition
determines intergroup attitudes
Sherif’s Robbers Cave Study (1966)
5th grade boys summer camp, Split into 2 groups (didn’t know about each other at first)
Phase 1 – team building
Phase 2 – team competitions between Eagles and Rattlers
Phase 3 – common crisis
What helps to prevent and reduce prejudice and increase liking of other groups.
Sherif’s Robbers Cave Study (1966)
- Mutual interdependence and cooperation
-Common goals - Equal status with friendly, informal interactions
-Social norms and agents that value equality
-Opportunities to learn that stereotypes are incorrect
Social Identity Theory Two Core Ideas:
1.)Preference for positive self-definitions
2.)Social Categorization is a byproduct of cognition
we split the world up into “us” and “them”
Social Identity Theory: Two consequences
- ingroup bias
- outgroup homogeneity
- research example: Miami vs Ohio state- results: People will even forego benefits to create advantage over outgroup
Social Identity Theory:
The Minimal Group Paradigm
Even division into groups based on a completely arbitrary dimension elicits ingroup bias
Individual approach in reducing SPD
Approach/ Avoidance training (Kawakami et al.)
“Joy stick training” used a stick to push forward for white and good pulled back for black and bad.
Results : lowered racism by approaching minority races rather then avoiding them
Group
two or more individuals who influence each other
Entitativity
seeing a group as a meaningful social entity
more entitativity = more perceived group-ness
Common fate
Similarity
Permeability
Shared values
Social Cognition Perspective
-Biases in info processing plays a role in ST formation and maintenance
-ST represent “quick,” relatively automatic ways of dealing with a complex social environment
Stereotypes as a heuristic for JUDGEMENT
When motivation or capacity are low, people may prefer to rely on general ST rather than think carefully about an individual (aka individuate)
Stereotypes as Heuristics for Judgment continued
It’s easier to think of someone as a member of a category rather than as an individual
• Merely categorizing things exaggerates group differences
– Overperceive between group variability (“We’re so different than them”)
– Underperceive within group variability (“They’re all the same”)
Categorization distorts memory
• Own race bias in face memory
Implicit Prejudice
negative attitudes that may not be consciously acknowledged
Implicitly, negative associations linger below the surface of awareness
Explicit prejudice
we assert our egalitarian values
The Implicit Association Test
a dual-categorization task:
Face categorization (Black vs. White) Word categorization (good vs. bad)
ST Congruent trials:
use left hand for “good” and “White”
Use right hand for “bad” and “Black”
ST Incongruent trials:
Use left hand for “good” and “Black”
use right hand for “bad” and “White”
The Implicit Association Test results
The IAT is relative, not absolute measure of prejudice
-Must interpret in terms of two groups (e.g., Black vs. White)
-IAT = “incongruent ST” trials – “congruent ST” trials
-Score is reduced by making RTs for “incongruent ST” trials and “congruent ST” trials similar
