Lecture 3: Methods in Intergroup Relations

Question 1

experimental control

Answer 1

the degree to which a researcher can determine the environment in which a research question is explored

Question 2

what studies have the most experimental control

Answer 2

lab studies

Question 3

psychological realism

Answer 3

the degree to which a study stimulates phenomena as experienced in everyday life

Question 4

what studies have the most psychological realism

Answer 4

immersive studies

Question 5

internal validity

Answer 5

the degree to which a study can rule out alternative hypotheses

Question 6

external validity

Answer 6

the degree to which the results of a study generalize to other contexts, samples, and time periods

Question 7

self-report measures

Answer 7

assessing attitudes, thoughts or beliefs by presenting a question, several possible responses, and having the participant select the response that they believe to be most of their own attitudes, thoughts, or beliefs

Question 8

weaknesses of self-report measures

Answer 8

social desirability bias (cultural standards about the extent to which it is acceptable to express prejudice), people might have subconscious preferences, differences between attitudes and action

Question 9

indirect measures

Answer 9

inferring attitudes, thoughts, or beliefs from some type of behaviour rather than from self-report

Question 10

evaluative priming

Answer 10

uses the reaction times of identifying positive vs. negative words to infer implicit racial attitudes

Question 11

weaknesses of implicit measures

Answer 11

lack consequential validity (might not actually corresponds to real-world behaviours)

Question 12

physiological measures

Answer 12

measuring heartbeat & other measures when in the presence of different stimuli

Question 13

weaknesses of physiological measures

Answer 13

physiological responses might be due to factors besides group membership, the body’s physiological response is very similar for different high-arousing emotions

Question 14

Black students association study

Answer 14

haddock et al 1994 hypothetical behaviour study: the degree to which students cut funding to the Black Students Association could be used as a measure of how much students dislike Black people

Question 15

Frank Kachanoff’s research

Answer 15

a multi-hour long study where participants join a group, complete computer missions together and develop a culture. Then, he uses maximal group paradigms to look at questions related to how experiencing lower or higher status impacts group identity and behaviour. found that belonging to a group that experienced lower power or status also resulted in feeling less individual control and autonomy

Question 16

weaknesses of intensive behavioural measures

Answer 16

doesn’t always correlate with real-world behaviour, hypothetical

Question 17

racial slur study

Answer 17

Kawakami et al., 2009 behavioural study: in one condition, non-Black participants were asked to imagine seeing a white person use a racial slur towards a Black person. They were then asked who they would choose to work with in a follow-up task and 20% chose the white person. In another condition, non-Black participants actually saw the interaction take place and 60% chose the White person.

Question 18

First-person shooter task (FPST), Correll et al., 2007

Answer 18

people were more likely to shoot an unarmed Black person and not shoot an armed white person

Question 19

First-person shooter task (FPST) with police officers

Answer 19

similar patterns were found, but with less error

Question 20

weaknesses of simulated behavioural studies

Answer 20

may not correlate to real-world behaviour

Question 21

waiting room study

Answer 21

Hendricks & Bootzin, 1976 simulated behaviour study: white participants found a note asking them to take a seat in the waiting area and on average, the participants sat closer to the white than the Black confederate

Question 22

weaknesses of subtler behavioural measures studies

Answer 22

experimenter biases, may not correlate to real-world behaviour

Question 23

archival analyses

Answer 23

using existing datasets to understand how social forces might influence real-world behaviour

Question 24

police officers’ vocabulary study

Answer 24

Voigt et al., 2017 archival study: coded how police officers spoke to Black vs. white drivers following a traffic stop. They found that officers were more polite and reassuring towards white drivers and more disrespectful to Black drivers

Question 25

cocaine study

Answer 25

Tuttle, 2019 archival study: invesigated how the increase in the minimum amount of cocaine needed for a felony impacted racial discrimination in polic reports & court sentencing. Found that 280 mg (new minimum for felony) showed up more frequently in the police reports of Black people

Question 26

traffic stops study

Answer 26

Pierson et al., 2020 archival study: analyzed over 100 million traffic stops and found that the % of stops that were of Black drivers decreased after dusk (when it is presumably harder for officers to identify the race of the driver)

Question 27

weaknesses of archival studies

Answer 27

limited by what kind of data exists, court battles to get the data, past data might not be reflective of modern data, low in experimental control and internal validity

Question 28

audit studies

Answer 28

Attempting to combine the experimental control and internal validity of a lab study while maintaining real-world behaviour

Question 29

elected officials and race study

Answer 29

Butler & Brockman, 2011 audit study: tested whether elected officials discriminate against their constituents based on race. The same email was more likely to receive a response if it came from a white vs. Black sounding name (61 vs 55%). This was only true when the email did not signal a political party affiliation

Question 30

whitening resumes study

Answer 30

Kang et al., 2016 audit study: investigated the phenomenon of whitening resumes. Found that, despite having the same qualifications, the unwhitened applicant only received a callback to 10% of jobs compared to 25% for the whitened applicant

Question 31

negociation audit study

Answer 31

Ayres, 1991 audit study: trained Black and white male and female actors to use the same negotiation strategy while trying to purchase a new car. On average, white negotiators received a final price that was $575 lower than Black negotiators. There was also gender discrimination, where white women received worse discounts than white men and Black women received worse discounts than Black men.

Question 32

weaknesses of audit studies

Answer 32

ethical issue (people aren’t consenting to the research), can’t explain why the effect exists, extremely resource-intensive