Factors affecting prejudice: Situation and Culture Flashcards
What is the definition of culture?
Culture incorporates the values, ideas, customs, and behavioural norms of a particular group of people or a society
What is an individualistic culture?
A culture that emphasises independence, autonomy and individuality.
Typically Western Countries
What is a collectivist culture?
A culture that emphasises group membership.
Typically Eastern Countries
Who did research with Saudi’s (collectivist culture) and what did they find?
Al-Zahrani & Kaplowitz (1993) - found Saudi’s tended to self-report more negative out-group bias than Americans (individualistic culture).
Guimond (2013) researched cultural norms and government policy within multicultural societies, what did they find?
Anti-muslim attitudes were reduced when the pro-diversity policy was high, therefore prejudice can be reduced when diversity and multiculturalism is promoted.
What is intergroup prejudice?
Negative attitudes about different cultural groups.
What is intragroup prejudice?
Beliefs within a culture about the different subcultural groups.
What are two factors in relation to situation that can affect prejudice?
Social Norms
Competition and resource stress
What are two factors in relation to culture that can affect prejudice?
The norm of intolerance
The norm of fairness
How can social norms (situation) affect prejudice?
Social identity theory - people follow ingroup norms because violations may lead to rejection and then lowered self-esteem due to loss of identity.
Cantril (1941) argued that group identity is central to prejudice. People are more prejudiced as they identify with a group.
How can competition and resource stress (situation) affect prejudice?
Realistic Conflict Theory - when groups are in competition for limited resources, the result is prejudice.
Esses et al (2001) claim ‘resource stress’ occurs when people believe commodities (e.g. jobs, money etc) are limited.
How does the norm of intolerance promote prejudice?
Ingroups behave positively towards outgroups but justify this as a kindly attempt to support people with lower status.
E.g. They will give money to a homeless person but are still prejudiced with regards to having a homeless shelter on their street.
How can the norm of fairness reduce prejudice?
Some cultures are more concerned with fairness than competition.
Wetherell (1982) replicated Tajfel’s minimal group experiment in a New Zealand school and found that immigrant Polynesian children were more generous (fairer) in allocating points to outgroup members than their Caucasian (white) classmates.
Who provided a strength of using situational factors to explain prejudice?
Akrami et al (2009) - some participants heard a confederate say ‘Discrimination of women is no longer a problem in Sweden’. Mean sexism levels were lower for the group who heard this compared to a control group who didn’t.
This shows prejudice can be affected by situational factors such as perceived social norms and social threat.
