Formation of stereotypes - SAQ

Question 1

Definition of a stereotype

Answer 1

A fixed, often simplistic generalisation about a particular group or class of people.

Question 2

What are people?

Answer 2

Cognitive misers

Question 3

Why do individuals make stereotypes?

Answer 3

Form stereotypes about others so that there is a greater predictability in the behaviour of those around us.

Question 4

What are these stereotypes usually?

Answer 4

These stereotypes are often negative and unflattering, and may underlie prejudice and discrimination.

Question 5

‘Grain of truth’ hypothesis

Answer 5

Stereotypes may not necessarily be false assumptions about the target group, as they often contain a ‘grain of truth’.

Question 6

Why should a stereotype be widely shared?

Answer 6

Further reinforcing the fact that some degree of accuracy is often evident.

Question 7

Stereotypes can change over time…

Answer 7

but those who hold them are often reluctant to abandon them.

Question 8

Definition of illusory correlation

Answer 8

Cognitive mechanism that leads a person to perceive a relationship between two events when in reality they are not related. This is a type of cognitive bias that takes place when two statistically infrequent event co-occur.

Question 9

What is the frequency of the co-occurence?

Answer 9

The frequency of this co-occcurrence is overestimated.

Question 10

Why is it overestimated?

Answer 10

It so happens that encountering a person from a minority group is statistically less frequent, and negative behaviour (such as crime) are also statistically less frequent than acceptable behaviour. So the two events (belonging to minority group and negative behaviour) co-occur, the frequency of this co-occurrence is exaggerated, which gives rise to a negative stereotype about the minority group.

Question 11

Social categorisation

Answer 11

Has been shown to interact with illusory correlation in the formation of stereotypes. The cognitive process of categorising people into in-groups and out-groups.

Question 12

Study for formation of stereotypes

Answer 12

Hamilton and Gifford

Question 13

When was Hamilton and Gifford?

Answer 13

1976

Question 14

What is the aim of Hamilton and Gifford (1976)?

Answer 14

To investigate illusory correlations based on the co occurrence of infrequent events.

Question 15

What was the sample?

Answer 15

70 American undergraduates

Question 16

What did the participants do?

Answer 16

Participants read a series of sentences describing desirable and undesirable behaviours performed by members of groups A and B.

Question 17

What was the difference between group A and B?

Answer 17

Group B was the minority (sentences featuring members of this group were half as likely).

Question 18

What behaviours were less likely?

Answer 18

Undesirable behaviours in the sentences, just as in real life, were less frequent.

Question 19

What was similar between group A and B?

Answer 19

The ratio of desirable to undesirable behaviours in group A and group B was exactly the same. So, there was not real correlation between behaviours and group membership.

Question 20

What did the participants have to do at the end of the procedure?

Answer 20

After reading all the sentences, participants were asked to estimate how may members of each group performed desirable and undesirable behaviours.

Question 21

What were the results of Hamilton and Gifford (1976)?

Answer 21

Participants overestimated the frequency with which members of the minority group performed negative behaviours.

Question 22

What are the conclusions of Hamilton and Gifford (1976)?

Answer 22

There was a perceived association (correlation) between undesirable behaviour and group membership.

The researchers argued that the illusory correlation was caused by event distinctiveness: encountering a member of the minority group is a distinct event, and so is encountering an instance of undesirable behaviour.

Co-occurrence of two distinct events, according to Hamilton and Gifford, is overestimated.

Question 23

Illusory correlations contributes to what?

Answer 23

To racial stereotypes.

Since we notice the negative behaviours by anyone who is a member of a minority group, we build our view of that group from the negative behaviours.

With people from the majority, their behaviours don’t reflect on the group as a whole.

A good example of this is the media: if a minority individual commits a shooting, the ethnicity of the criminal is mentioned; if it is a person from the ethnic majority group, then their ethnicity isn’t commented upon.

In this way, illusory correlations drive how we think about violence and terrorism, for example.