Lecture 3 Flashcards
Self-fulfilling prophecies and the role of the underrepresented/stigmatized group in shaping or reinforcing stereotypes in our society.
What is a stereotype?
Stereotype is the association between trait and group and this association is not necessarily real but is often illusionary. There are always individual differences within groups
Do stereotypes always lead to discrimination? And why?
Stereotypes do not always lead to discrimination, because discrimination is often on the level of behaviour while stereotyping is more about the thinking process/cognitive processes that play a role in discrimination at a subsequent time.
Is there an increase or decrease in research on stereotypes, discrimination and minority groups?
An increase
The gender-equality paradox in chess participation
The proportion of female chess players is smaller in countries with greater gender equality.
This happens because of a generational shift. In countries with lower gender equality, the younger generation, particularly young women, seem to embrace chess more than in countries where gender equality is more fully embraced. This leads to women from the lower gender equality countries to be more likely to enter in competitions. Even though chess is seen as a male dominated game.
Gender stereotypes in natural language: word embeddings show robust consistency across child and adult language corpora of more than 65 million words
In corpora, a group of written text, gender stereotype is still alive. They could find connections between gender and certain occupations, which indicates that there is still a strong association between a certain gender category and a certain occupation.
Subtle linguistic cues increase girls’ engagement in science
The persistent underrepresentation of women in science limits women’s intellectual and economic opportunities and impedes scientific progress by constraining the available talent pool.
They tested two ways to get girls to participate in science, the message would either be “Let’s be scientists!”, which focusses on identity, or “Let’s do science!”, which focusses on behaviour. They found that girls were more likely to engage and participate in science when presented with a behaviour focused message, so “Let’s do science!”, as opposed to the identity message “Let’s be scientists!”. So, when the focus is on a behavioural outcome the message becomes more effective.
Walking in her shoes: pretending to be a female role model increases young girls’ persistence in science
They tried to see which conditions would encourage girls to persist in science.
Conditions:
1. The girls listened to stories about women becoming scientists
2. The girls are asked to play the role of scientist
3. The girls are not presented with any information
The most effective condition was condition 2, role playing.
When you combine this study with the study on linguistic cues increasing girls’ engagement in science you can conclude that if you want minority groups to be more involved in certain fields or departments that are not stereotypical of their group, the focus or the message should be behavioural instead of identity based. Role playing or a behavioural message makes the idea of being in a certain work field more concrete because there is a behavioural involvement.
Children show a gender gap in negotation
Males tend to negotiate more and ask for bigger bonusses than females. It’s all about expectations and social norms that play a role in shaping the attitudes and behaviours on a daily basis for men and women.
Generic outcomes of pay gap
They found that there is a gender gap between men and women with pay but when you control for the effect of function, the gender gap decreases, and when you control for the effect of age the gender gap becomes very small. When they also control for other factors they found that the difference between men and women does not really play a role between salary of income of the workers.
It means that women and men are not paid unequally based on gender, but on the basis of functions and age. The fact that functions and age seem to play a bigger role than gender differences indicates that it is important that any gender group is able to have access to higher functions and are able to stay in a company longer. The gap shows that there is a structural difference between men and women in terms of getting to higher positions and the length of staying in a company. Because of social expectations of gender on raising children, women might be more likely to leave a company or to not pursue their career. Men don’t have to face these expectations and this barrier, which makes them able to stay with a company for longer, which means they will get older in the company, which will lead to a higher salary and it increases their changes of getting in a higher position.
So, the gender pay gap is not perse because of gender itself, but because of the differences in terms of function and age. Even though men and women can have the same skills, women face a structural barrier that makes them unable to compete on these two bases with men, which causes the gender pay gap.
What are the processes that maintain the low status members of stigmatized groups?
- Self-fulfilling prophecies
- The role of the stigmatized group
Self-fulfilling prophecy
A self-fulfilling prophecy is when expectancies/behaviour leads to fulfilment of the expectancy
Expectancies
- Expectancy effects
- Also in non-verbal behaviour
- Can be negative or positive (both cases can lead to expectancy confirmation)
- Expectancies do not need to have a base in reality (false)
Expectancy effect versus self-fulfilling prophecy
Self-fulfilling prophecy is more about the outcome of the behaviour and the expectancy effect is related to what you expect from a certain task.
Expectancy effect and self-fulfilling prophecy are from different theories.
Good minority model
An example of how expectancies can be negative or positive.
E.g., there is an expectation of the Asian community that they are very smart and will always work hard, because of this expectation they will always perform very well
Three step process of a self-fulfilling prophecy
Perceiver’s expectations lead to perceiver’s behaviour towards the target, the behaviour of the perceiver is then perceived by the target which leads to the target’s behaviour toward the perceiver confirming the perceiver’s expectations.
Racial profiling as a self-fulfilling prophecy
Example:
The police officers see a black man, they will always scrutinize a black man more than other races. The officers therefore think that there is a higher chance that this man is a criminal, which makes him suspicious.
Because of the expectation that the black man has done something wrong, they scrutinize him more and start to chase him.
The black man knows of stories that police officers hate black people and discriminate against black people more than people from other groups. Therefore, when he perceives the police officers, he starts to run.
Because he runs, this confirms the expectation of the police officers that he is a criminal, why else would he run?
Since the expectation is confirmed, they feel justified to behave and treat this man as though he is a criminal. Even though whether or not he is a criminal should be based on a criminal record or be judged in court, this is not taken into account because of the implicit expectations.
Experiment 1 on the role of non-verbal behaviour in self-fulfilling prophecy
All participants were white and acted as interviewers.
The white participants had to evaluate either a black applicant or a white applicant (these were not participants).
Results: interviewers treat black applicants differently than white applicants:
- They show more speech errors
- They sit further away
- They lean forward less
- The interview is shorter
- They make less eye contact
The interviewers show lower “immediacy” with black applicants, they have less attention and a lower willingness to get the applicant involved in the interview
- This indicates that they might already have certain expectations of black applicants, which is reflected or manifested in their nonverbal behaviour.
Experiment 2 on the role of non-verbal behaviour in self-fulfilling prophecy
Participants treated with more or less ‘immediacy’
The participants become the applicants. They used the behaviour shown in experiment 1 for black applicants and applied it to experiment 2. This means that the participants could really feel if there was ‘immediacy’ in their behaviour or not. The participants were not selected on skin colour or race.
Results: applicants treated with less ‘immediacy’:
- Felt they were treated more coldly; perceived the interviewer as less friendly and less adequate
- Evaluation of participant’s performance: more negative and more nervous
This shows that even though you are not part of a minority group, you respond negatively to behaviour with less ‘immediacy’.
True or false: the non-verbal behaviour in a self-fulfilling prophecy needs negative intention
False. The non-verbal behaviour does not require negative intention
How can a target play a role in a self-fulfilling prophecy?
Maybe the target
- Has had negative experiences in the past
- Has negative arousal
- Has discomfort
- Takes over negative expectancies
E.g., when you have had a negative experience where you were discriminated, what happens is that when you have to be in the same situation, for example a job interview with a white interviewer, that past experience can influence your behaviour. It might make you more nervous or feel discomfort which could affect your job interview negatively which results in a bad performance. This bad performance confirms the expectations of the interviewer. So the target can pay a role in reinforcing the stereotype or self-fulfilling prophecy.
Role of target: research on intergroup interactions
Interaction ethnic minority with roommate
A member of ethnic minority with higher expectations to be treated based on stereotypes and prejudice, experiences more negative interactions with White roommate/friend.
- They could have this expectation because of an experience in the past.
But White interaction partner feels better!
- Because the member of the ethnic minority is nervous and anxious for a negative reaction, they try to minimize the possibility of this negative interaction.
- In order to reduce this possibility they disclose themselves more and make it nicer, they are very interactive and chatty.
- More effort (self-disclosure on the ethnic minorities’ part)
Summary: the member of the ethnic minority is scared for negative interaction, and to prevent this negative interaction they will do their very best to avoid such an interaction, which in turn will make the White interaction partner feel very positive about the experience.
They also measured the racial biases of the White partner and those who score high on that task, are seen as more positive by the minority groups during short interactions
- This happens because those who have high prejudices tend to want to control their biases (to not appear racist) and therefore they tend to be very nice to make sure that a member of a minority group becomes very comfortable
- More biased = more effort to control bias
Role of target: research on intergroup interactions.
Interaction ethnic minority with evaluator
Interethnic interaction
African American and White females interacted with either a same or different race partner in one of three role conditions: as interviewer (high status), applicant (low status) or peer (equal status).
Telephone conversation with Black or White confederate.
When the status of the situational role was consistent with the societal status there were more positive interactions and less discomfort.
Effect disappears in same-ethnicity context.
- E.g., Black participant = evaluator and White confederate = applicant => participants felt worse than if the roles were reversed
What can you conclude from the interaction between an ethnic minority and an evaluator?
African American participants as interviewers have a lower self-evaluation only when the applicant is White American.
White American participants as an applicant have a lower self-evaluation, only when the interviewer is African American.
Only strong when the dyads are racially mixed.
Lower self-evaluation happens when there is inconsistency between societal status role (e.g., higher for white) and situational status role (e.g., higher for evaluator).
How can a stigmatized group play a role in shaping or reinforcing stereotypes in our society?
- Ambivalence
- Stereotype threat
- Importance of group identity
- Resilience of stigmatized groups
When doing research on stigmatized groups, who do researchers focus on?
Early years of research on stigmatized groups focused on the role of the majority (non-stigmatized group member)
- E.g., “why does the majority stigmatize the minority?”
Recent: include role of ‘target’ (stigmatized group member)
- How the target plays a role in the reinforcement of the stigma
Both the majority and the target play a role in intergroup processes
Stigma as a source of stress (‘stressor’), even in the absence of treatment by others
Possibility of prejudice/ discrimination => increases sense of vigilance.
More conscious of stereotypes.
More conscious of low value.
- The value social status society attaches to your group
- You might internalize that perception and you are very conscious of this low value
Causal ambiguity.
- Because of all the stigmas and stereotypes, you always feel the need to interpret the situation in a more complex way.
- E.g., “Is it because I am discriminated against or am I really bad or did they pick me because they want me to be a token or is it because I perform really well”
- This happens even when you manage to succeed
What is ambivalence?
Ambivalence = reluctance to accept higher-level positions or training
Ambivalence is about selecting yourself out of an opportunity because of the stress associated with stigma.
What is relevant for motivation?
Reluctance
- E.g., to accept higher-level position, training
Voluntary refusal
This is why targeted invitations and programs can be very important
- E.g., “women and minorities are encouraged to apply”
