Lecture 15: Other Forms of Stigma ll

Question 1

perception of age over time

Answer 1

• People over 25 tend to feel younger than they are
• People under 25 tend to feel older than they are

Question 2

what differentiates ageism from other forms of discrimination?

Answer 2

• Age is differentiated by biology & experience
• Social roles are strongly differentiated by age
• Age is complicated by familial relations
• Age is malleable
• Age is continuous but can be perceived categorically
• Older people tend to be more powerful (to a point)
• There is a difference between age identity and generational identity

Question 3

benevolent ageism

Answer 3

Subjectively positive attitudes & beliefs about people on the basis of age that justify paternalistic care & the status quo

Question 4

what kind of beliefs characterize benevolent ageism towards older people

Answer 4

• Older people are physically weak
• Older people are mentally impaired
• Older people are lonely

Question 5

what kinds of beliefs characterize benevolent ageism towards younger people?

Answer 5

• Young people are outgoing and fun
• Young people succumb to peer pressure
• Young people lack mental faculties & knowledge
• Young people are emotionally underdeveloped

Question 6

ageism and discrimination field study

Answer 6

• in a field study, researchers sent out fictitious resumes to companies that were hiring in either the restaurant or sales industries. The applicants were listed as being either 31 or 46 years old
• For the sales assistant job, the younger applicant was 4x as likely to receive an interview
• For the restaurant job, the younger applicant was 3x as likely to receive an interview
• Pattern held for whether the job was full-time vs. part-time or permanent vs. temporary

Question 7

implicit attitudes about age

Answer 7

• implicitly, people prefer young people over old people
• There is some ingroup component; people in their 40s & 50s get less positive towards young adults and more positive towards older adults

Question 8

ok boomer

Answer 8

an example of dismissing older generations’ voices & ideas

Question 9

egalitarianism and ageism study method

Answer 9

Participants completed measures of
- Egalitarianism advocacy
- Anti-social dominance orientation
- Hostile racism
- Hostile sexism
- Hostile ageism

Question 10

egalitarianism advocacy

Answer 10

motivation to advocate for equality across groups

Question 11

Anti-social dominance orientation

Answer 11

motivation to flatten hierarchies

Question 12

egalitarianism and ageism experiment findings

Answer 12

• Egalitarianism advocacy is negatively correlated with hostile sexism & racism but isn’t correlated with ageism
• Anti-SDO is negatively correlated with hostile sexism & racism but isn’t correlated with ageism

Question 13

why isn’t egalitarianism correlated with ageism

Answer 13

older adults are seen as “opportunity blockers” that work to prevent other underrepresented groups from getting ahead

Question 14

the experiences of people with disabilities varies according to:

Answer 14

• visibility
• controllability
• disruptiveness
• aesthetic qualities
• peril

Question 15

visibility

Answer 15

Can you see it?

Question 16

controllability

Answer 16

Was it your fault?

Question 17

disruptiveness

Answer 17

Does it disrupt normal social living?

Question 18

aesthetic qualities

Answer 18

Does it impact perceptions of attractiveness?

Question 19

peril

Answer 19

Are you seen as dangerous because of it?

Question 20

general attitudes towards people with disabilities

Answer 20

People report positive general attitudes toward people with disabilities (PWDs)

Question 21

prejudice towards PWDs

Answer 21

• People are less willing to date or marry PWDs
• Strong implicit preferences for abled over disabled people
• PWDs commonly report experiences of discrimination

Question 22

what makes mental illness discrimination unique?

Answer 22

• Mental illnesses are often seen as controllable
• Some forms of mental illnesses are highly linked to peril
• Stigma reduces the likelihood that people will seek treatment for mental illness

Question 23

seeking mental health treatment

Answer 23

• <40% of people with mental illness have sought treatment
• Seeking mental illness treatment is stigmatized in itself

Question 24

halo effect

Answer 24

attractive people are thought to have more positive qualities

Question 25

self-fulfilling prophecy

Answer 25

the beautiful receive more social attention, which helps them develop good social skills

Question 26

do highly attractive people really have better social skills?

Answer 26

• they do develop good social interaction skills
• they report having more satisfying interactions with others

Question 27

attractiveness prejudice is a form of ___

Answer 27

benevolent prejudice

Question 28

attractiveness and discrimination study method

Answer 28

manipulated a job application with either a more or less physically attractive photo

Question 29

attractiveness and discrimination study findings

Answer 29

• More attractive men: 35% callback rate
• Less attractive men: 29% callback rate
• More attractive women: 40% callback rate
• Less attractive women: 32% receive a callback

Question 30

Lighter-skinned Black people are:

Answer 30

• Perceived to be more competent & sociable
• Less likely to be stereotyped
• Have higher income, SES, and occupational outcomes

Question 31

historical preferences for skin tone

Answer 31

Historically, darker skin tone was linked to working in the sun all day as a farmer or labourer. Light skin tone meant you had a privileged position

Question 32

current preferences for skin tone

Answer 32

White people today want to have darker skin tones on average. Being tanned means you have the privilege of going on vacation

Question 33

skin tone and sentencing study

Answer 33

coded the skin tones of Black and white features for 1100 felony defendants from the Minneapolis area. Found that skin tone and Afro-centric features resulted in harsher sentences

Question 34

skin lightening industry

Answer 34

The global skin-lightening industry is worth $4.8 billion dollars and is projected to grow to $8.9 billion by 2027

Question 35

what is special about weight stigma?

Answer 35

• Overweight people are assumed to be personally responsible for their weight
• Weight discrimination is common and not seen as personally problematic as in other domains (religion, race, etc)

Question 36

stereotypes about people who are overweight

Answer 36

Lazy, lacking willpower, unintelligent, sloppy, and dishonest

Question 37

who is more vulnerable to weight stigma

Answer 37

Women; greater pay discrimination, greater connection to gender roles, judged to be overweight at lower weight levels

Question 38

what is weight stigma associated with?

Answer 38

Low self-esteem, depression, and suicide

Question 39

acceptance of weight-based prejudice vs. other forms of prejudice

Answer 39

• Most people are highly motivated to not be prejudiced based on race and disability
• However, for weight, this is less true. Most people are motivated to not be prejudiced based on race and disability but less so

Question 40

Jeff Hunger’s Weight Stigma Study procedure

Answer 40

• Looked at the psychological and physiological consequences of interacting with an explicitly anti-fat person
• Participants completed a “get to know you” questionnaire and then looked over the questionnaire of the person they believed they would soon be interacting with. They then had a brief interaction with the person
• In the weight bias condition, the person indicated agreement with some anti-fat attitudes
• In the control condition, the person disagreed with these items

Question 41

Jeff Hunger’s Weight Stigma Study findings

Answer 41

Women exposed to the anti-fat peer showed both psychological and physiological changes:
- Greater feelings of anticipated rejection from the interaction partner, particularly for women higher in BMI
- Greater feelings of anger
- Greater heart-rate reactivity
- Worse cognitive performance

Question 42

persistence of biases over the last 15 years

Answer 42

• Race and sexuality implicit attitudes have changed over the last 15 years
• Weight, disability, and age attitudes haven’t changed much over the last 15 years

Question 43

Androgyny studies

Answer 43

a novel IAT showed stronger implicit biases in favour of gender-conforming over gender-non-conforming people

Question 44

singlehood studies

Answer 44

single people reported greater discrimination both towards themselves and single people more generally compared to people in a relationship

Question 45

Consensual non-monogamy studies

Answer 45

participants reported monogamous relationships as more respectful, romantic, comforting, and morally superior than consensual non-monogamous relationships

Question 46

Voluntary childlessness studies

Answer 46

a couple described as choosing not to have children was viewed as less caring than a couple with children or who wanted to but couldn’t have children