Intergroup Relations Flashcards
What are intergroup relations?
The way members of a group think about, feel, perceive and act towards other members
What are cognitive misers?
Not enough space in working memory to process everyone as an individual
Instead of incorporating all of the contradictory information, we take shortcuts (heuristics)
Heuristics can be stereotypes
What’s objectification?
The view of people (mainly women) being represented as their bodies
What is face-ism bias?
Ratio of face to total visible body
Portrayed in visual media
Men generally show more face than women
Women’s bodies are shown a lot more than men’s
What is self objectification?
Women experience self-objectification as the objectification they experience is more frequent. Their partner may watch pornography, they may watch pornography where other women are objectified and are the object of the prolonged male gaze
What’s ethnocentrism?
Preference for one’s own group, over others
What is social dominance orientation?
Hierarchal social order is maintained by individual and institutional discrimination
What are stereotypes?
simplified but widely shared beliefs about the characteristics of groups and their members
What is prejudice?
negative reaction to a group and its individual members
What is discrimination?
negative treatment of a group member because of their group membership
Why do people use stereotypes?
People draw on stereotypes to gain knowledge about people we barely know
Not all the time do people use stereotypes, sometimes being outcome dependent means people use stereotypes less and cognitive resources more
What is a study that provides evidence for outcome dependent people?
People were told they were working with an elderly person to earn a prize
Others were told they would be working independently
Outcome dependent people showed less stereotypical traits, only when they weren’t cognitively busy
What is the illusionary correlation bias?
Stereotypes assume a correlation between group membership and individual’s characteristics
We are sensitive to distinctive events so when 2 distinctive events occur together, it’s especially noticeable
Less contact with minorities and outgroups can mean cognitive errors occur
How does illusory correlation bias cause the trick of mind effect?
‘Trick of mind’ makes people believe that the behaviour is more common among the minority
Majority and minority group equally prone to desirable behaviour
How does memory cause the illusory correlation bias?
Memory is faulty so people don’t accurately encode the ratios, estimates then become biased
Mainly in favour of majority because memory for the minority is weaker to begin with
What is category accentuation?
Mere act of categorisation can distort perception of groups
Differences between categories are maximised, and differences between categorised are minimised
What is the outgroup homogeneity effect?
Tendency to see people within the same group as more ‘similar’ than what they really are
We love people who share characteristics with ourselves
This can result in outgroup bias
How does dogmatism link to prejudice??
Tolerate mutually inconsistent beliefs by isolating them in memory
How does the personal need for structure (PNS) link to stereotyping?
Preference for structure in most situations
Links to stereotyping
High PNS ps assigned more stereotypically female traits to women
How does the need for cognitive closure link to prejudice?
Desire to seek an answer over ambiguity
Desire for predictability
Preferences for order and structure
Discomfort with ambiguity
Decisiveness
Closedmindedness