Lecture 11: Social Categorization & Stereotypes l Flashcards
social category
a mental representation of a group of people based on features that characterize that class of people
how are social categories created?
effortlessly and automatically
can people have many social categories
yes, but they’re not all active in any given moment
social categorization leads to
Social categorization -> stereotype activation -> stereotype application
social categorization
classifying a person based on features you can infer
stereotype activation
the extent to which a stereotype becomes accessible in one’s mind
stereotype application
the extent to which a stereotype is used in judging/acting toward members of a target group
what are the main social categories in North America?
gender, race, age
Ito & Urland, 2003
white participants passively viewed images of male and female Black and white people/ Some categorized the images based on gender, others categorized based on race
ERPs (event-related potentials) were also tracked during the judgment process
ERPs revealed differences in processing of race within 100 ms and based on gender within 200 ms
how quickly can we encode race & gender
within 300 ms
do we encode race or gender first?
race
how do we socially categorize people?
by deciding whether a new stimulus resembles known exemplars from a category
what do people who are difficult to categorize cause
- A motivation to socially categorize
- Discomfort for the perceiver
what two groups do we divide people into?
ingroups & outgroups
ingroups
groups we identify with and belong to
outgroups
groups we don’t identify with and don’t belong to
prototypicality
The extent to which a person fits the observer’s concept of the essential characteristics of a social category
higher prototypicality leads to
easier, faster, more frequent social categorization, and increased stereotyping
Prototypicality & Death Penalty
archival analysis of cases involving white victims & Black defendants and whether they received the death penalty or life in prison. Found that people who were more prototypical got the death penalty 56% of the time vs. 24%, controlling for murder severity, attractiveness, etc. because they were more likely to experience prejudice & discriminatory behaviour
Prototypicality & Shooter Bias
targets who are higher in racial prototypicality were more likely to receive racial bias in the treatment of whether they were holding a gun or a harmless object
what identities are we more likely to be categorized based on?
Identities that are more visible
why are people more likely to categorize based on visible identities?
they’re more likely to be accurate at determining these identities by looking at someone
visible identities
identities based on cues in the situation & based on our senses
situation and social categorization
The situation determines what social categories are more salient
