Lecture 3: Chapter 5: Perceiving Groups

Question 1

What is discrimination? What is the difference between positive and negative discrimination?

Answer 1

Positive or negative behavior towards a social group and its members

Negative = Group is disadvantaged
Positive = Group is advantaged

Question 2

What are the 2 types of prejudice?

Answer 2

Hot = emotional hatred for other groups
Cold = based on calm assumptions that other groups are inferior to ours

Question 3

What are prejudices?

Answer 3

Positive or negative evaluations of a social groups and its members

It’s the underlying process leading to discrimination

Question 4

What are stereotypes?

Answer 4

Mental representation or impressions that people of certain groups have by association groups to specific characteristics

Can be positive/negative or accurate/inaccurate

Question 5

What is a social group?

Answer 5

Two or more people that have an agreement that is socially meaningful for them or others

They are the target of prejudice

Question 6

What is the difference between prejudice and discrimination?

Answer 6

Discrimination concerns behavior, prejudice evaluation/thoughts

Question 7

What is social categorization? What are benefits and what are downsides?

Answer 7

If people are seen as members of social groups instead of individuals

Benefit: better understanding of interactions

Downside: see individuals not for who they are, but only as members of one group

Question 8

What do we mean with social roles?

Answer 8

Ascribing specific properties based on group membership

e.g. city worker is more assertive and a child-care worker is more nurturant and considerate

Question 9

What is the negative impact of positive stereotypes? Give 3 aspects

Answer 9

• Assume everyone is the same and ignore individuality
• Set impossibly high standards
• Be a part of overall paternalistic attitudes toward a social group that reinforce the group’s weakness and interdependence

Question 10

What is benevolent sexism? What kind of stereotype is this?

Answer 10

Women are pure, moral and in need of men’s protection

This reinforces the group’s weakness and dependence

This is a positive stereotype

Question 11

In what cases are stereotypes accurate?

Answer 11

When they reflect small differences between groups that all members agree to be true for them

Question 12

How do stereotypes and prejudice develop? Give 2 ways

Answer 12

1. Through learning: conditioning, media, socialization
2. Cognitive processes

Question 13

How are stereotypes conditioned?

Answer 13

Repeated emotions associated with group encounters are conditioned and then they form stereotypes

Question 14

What are category accentuations?

Answer 14

When for example there is a continuous spectrum of 6 things. The top 3 are a group and the bottom 3 are a group. You perceive the 2 groups as totally different, whilst actually between thing 3 and 4 there isn’t much of a difference

Question 15

What is illusory correlation?

Answer 15

Perceived association between two variables that are unrelated in reality

If something is more salient, groups form stereotypes through forming illusory correlations

Question 16

What is outgroup homogenization? What is a potential mechanism for this?

Answer 16

Outgroup members are perceived to be more similar to one another than ingroup members

Familiarity is a potential mechanism. People know ingroup members better than outgroup members

Question 17

Which 4 factors would make people more likely to act based on stereotypes?

Answer 17

1. Time pressure –> reduce cognitive capacity
2. Complex information
3. Ambiguity –> strong top-down effects of stereotypes on perception
4. Emotion –> exaggerate effects of stereotypes on perception

Question 18

What is ambiguity?

Answer 18

When something has more than 1 possible meaning

Question 19

How can stereotypes and prejudice be measured while overcoming self-report biases?

Answer 19

Implicit association test: automatic activation of stereotypes

Question 20

What are 3 motives behind stereotyping?

Answer 20

1. Understanding/controlling the world (mastery)
2. Connectedness with others
3. Justification of inequality

Question 21

What is the impact of distinctive members in a group on stereotypes?

Answer 21

Distinctive members stand out more and therefor have a disproportionate impact on creation of group stereotypes

Question 22

What is the role of correspondence bias in stereotyping?

Answer 22

Correspondence bias leads people to see behavior as reflecting one’s inner characteristics, whilst actually social roles may be the cause

Question 23

How is connectedness with others important in stereotyping?

Answer 23

If stereotypes are ingrained in social norms of a culture, people learn them naturally as they grow up

Stereotypes can become stronger through communication. Stereotyping can bring people together

Question 24

How do stereotypes become active?

Answer 24

When categorization of a group takes place. The more salient the cues of the category are, the faster stereotypes are activated

Question 25

What was the evidence from an experiment with priming and stereotypes? Describe the experiment

Answer 25

People were shown words, so fast they couldn't be consciously perceived (priming) Afterwards participants had to indicate as fast as possible if a word that had been shown was real or not Participants reacted faster on negative stereotypical words if they had been primed with 'black' and faster on positive stereotypical words if primed with 'white'

Question 26

What is the difference between explicit and implicit measuring of prejudice?

Answer 26

Explicit = questionnaires Implicit = implicit association task (IAT) + affective priming paradigm

Question 27

What is the affective priming paradigm?

Answer 27

1 A black or white face is shown 2 A positive or negative evaluation is shown unrelated to a stereotype 3 Participants have to categorize words as fast as possible as positive or negative 4 Differences in reaction speed are indication of person's relative evaluation of dark vs. white skinned people

Question 28

Why do researchers often use implicit and explicit measures of stereotyping in their studies?

Answer 28

To produce the fullest possible picture of people's impressions and reactions to other groups

Question 29

What are the benefits of measuring stereotypes implicitly?

Answer 29

We can avoid social desirability because reaction times are hard to manipulate

Question 30

What are disadvantages of implicit methods for measuring stereotypes?

Answer 30

1 measuring associations, not true prejudice 2 relativity of evaluations that are measured

Question 31

Which processing principle is most important for the formation of groups and stereotypes?

Answer 31

Conservatism

Question 32

Why do stereotypes don't change easily?

Answer 32

People are searching for stereotype-conforming and consistent information

Question 33

What is the impact of time-pressure on the influence of stereotypes in decision making?

Answer 33

Time pressure reduces cognitive capacity, which leads to more influence of stereotypes on decisions

Question 34

What is the influence of strong emotions on stereotypes?

Answer 34

Strong emotions cause us to trust more in stereotypes

Question 35

What are 2 main impacts of stereotypes?

Answer 35

1 Influence interpretation of behavior of groups and their members 2 Influence the way we behave towards members of the group, which can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies

Question 36

What are 3 ways to avoid stereotypes?

Answer 36

1. Repressing stereotypes and prejudice 2. Correcting stereotypes 3. Activating counter-stereotypical information by opposing a mental image to the stereotype

Question 37

What is the risk of correcting stereotypes?

Answer 37

Overcorrection E.g. make overly positive judgements of stereotyped group members

Question 38

What is the risk of repressing stereotypes?

Answer 38

Rebound effect = suppressed thoughts come back even stronger

Question 39

Give an example of counterstereotypic information

Answer 39

Stereotype: women are weaker Counterstereotypic: picture of a body builder woman

Question 40

What are barriers to change and which 3 types are there?

Answer 40

These protect stereotypes 1 Explaining away inconsistent information 2 Creating new categories: compartmentalizing in subtypes 3 Considering behavior of unusual group members as irrelevant --> contrast effects

Question 41

Give 3 ways to overcome barriers to change

Answer 41

1. Continuity of repeated exposure to stereotype inconsistent info 2. Frequency: stronger effect if more members display a specific behavior 3. Reminders of group membership

Question 42

What is the contact hypothesis of Allport?

Answer 42

Under certain circumstances, direct contact between members of different groups can decrease intergroup stereotyping Contact itself is not enough, because people have certain mechanisms that protect the stereotypes

Question 43

What are 4 important conditions for contact between groups to work to reduce stereotypes?

Answer 43

- Equality of status - Common goals - Intergroup cooperation - Support from authorities, social norms See slide 60!

Question 44

Give an example of eliciting stereotypic behavior

Answer 44

Someone is absent-minded So I'm not going to tell this person about this event, because he'd forget anyway

Question 45

What is a subtype?

Answer 45

A narrower and more specific social group, such as housewife or feminist that is included within a broad social group, like women

Question 46

What is a contrast effect?

Answer 46

When stereotypic expectations serve as a background against which individual group members are judged, people who don't behave as expected seem even more different, which creates a contrast effect

Question 47

To have effective contact one has to provide stereotype-inconsistent information that is repeated. Why?

Answer 47

So it can't be explained away

Question 48

Effective contact has to involve many group members. Why?

Answer 48

So that subtyping is prevented

Question 49

Effective contact has to come from typical group members. Why?

Answer 49

To avoid contrasting effect

Question 50

What is most effective in reducing prejudice?

Answer 50

Formation of friendships across group lines. This contact doesn't have to alter stereotypes

Question 51

What were the conclusions of the research on Orinthians and Ackmians by Hoffman?

Answer 51

Information about individuals in a group is less important in forming an impression of a group member if this info doesn't correspond to the typical social role of members of that group