Lecture 3 - Prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination

Question 1

prejudice and discrimination

Answer 1

• prejudice = prejudgement or attitude towards a group of people consisting of:
  > cognitive component - stereotypes
  > affective component - feelings of a group
• measurement - feeling thermometer
• discrimination = engagement in harmful and hostile behaviours towards members of a group

Question 2

stereotypes

Answer 2

• widely shared generalisations about members of a social group (Allport 1979)
• simplified evaluative image of a social group
• may or may not be accurate
• develop early and hard to change

Question 3

stereotype content model

Answer 3

• Cuddy et al (2007)
• specific stereotypes change over time. 2 (later 3) universal dimentions underlie stereotypes
  1. warmth of people
  2. morality
  3. competence
• we can hold pos and neg stereotypes at the same time
• ambivalent (see a group with multiple stereotypes along a dimension - holding a positive evaluation on one dimension and neg on another) vs univalent stereotypes (either high or low on the dimensions)
• if we assume these stereotypes the model suggests we engage in more pos/neg behaviours in response e.g. high competence = may engage in strategic cooperation, low = neglect/ignorance

Question 4

examples of prejudice & discrimination: sexism

Answer 4

• sexism - based on gender identity. normally ambivalent.
  > ambivalent sexism inventory - hostile sexism = neg stereotypes & feelings. benevolent sexism = pos sterotypes and pos feelings that can elicit pro-social behaviour e.g. women should be protected (see women as weak)
  > Glick et al (2000) - found women and men endorse HS, men more in various cultures. difs in BS are smaller, women endorse BS slightly more than men. if men endorse HS more in one culture then women endorse BS more in that culture.
  > the more you endorse HS the more you engage in prej and enforce BS
• same attitudes can be seen in men:
• Glick et al (2004)
  > peopel who endorse sexist beliefs about women more likely to have sexism towards men. people who endorse HS towards men are also more likely to endorse BS towards men.
  > males who endorse HS against women also more likely to endorse HS against men

Question 5

examples of prejudice & discrimination: racism

Answer 5

• prejudice & discrim based on their ethnicity or race. often ambivalent
• stereotypes:
  > targeting black people: lazy/stupid, musical/sensitive (Gaeryner & McLaughlin 1983)
  > targeting asian people: competent & intelligent/cold associable (Lin et al 2005)
• universal declaration of human rights (1948), UK race relations act (1965)
• old fashioned racism (henry & sears 2002, Leach 2005) beliefs in bio inferiority & brain difs. often lead to segregation.
• new type: symbolic racism - people often deny racism in society and have beliefs of peoples contributions e.g. do not work hard enough, demand too much, undeserved advantage
• madon et al (2001) - neg sterotypes have dec over time (psych students not engaging in old fashioned racism as much)
• Leach (2005) - it is not that people no longer engage in old fashioned racism & old in symbolic - symbolic has always existed.
  > bio inferiority endorsed by 50% white americans 1942, 20% 1956
• denial of discrim - 1946 60% whites formally expressed blacks treated fairly (Pettigrew 1971)
• inferiority may result from environ (bad parenting, cultural influence, poor living conditions)
• relative inferiority
• Leach et al (2000) - old fashioned racism still exists but less expressed.

Question 6

examples of prejudice & discrimination: homophobia

Answer 6

• modern homophobia scale (Raja & Stokes 1998) - dif source of prejudice against gay men and lesbian women
  > HIV/AIDS associated with gay men
  > lesbians threaten traditional power structure
• key aspects:
  > personal discomfort with lesbians & gay men
  > changeability of sexuality
  > support for instiutionalised discrimination
• transphobia: societal discrim and stigma of indivs who do not conform to traditional societal norms or sex or gender (ELlis et al 2016)
  > understudied area
  > pp’s tend not to confirm to socially desirable norms. openly transphobic views easily expressed (Tebbe & Moradi 2012)

Question 7

forms of discrimination

Answer 7

• making public concessions to avoid accusations of prejudice & discrim
• reverse discrimination: discrim in favour of stigmatised group to deflect accusations
• extreme forms:
  > dehumanisation: perceiving and treating people as less human
  > genocide: extermination of social group

Question 8

consequences of prejudice and discrimination

Answer 8

• glass ceiling - lack of rep at leadership
• glass cliff: tendency to be appointe precarious leadership positions (high prob for failure)
  > companies with scandals more likely to recruit female executives on board (Brady et al 2011)
  > black m&f more likely to be promoted to CEO when performance declining (Cook & Glass 2014) & coach teams with history of losses (2013)
• why?
  > selection bias - men preferred when company doing well (Haslam & Ryan 2008)
  > stereotypes - communality is good in crisis
  > need change in crisis

Question 9

explanation: authoritarian personality

Answer 9

• adorno (1950) - personality that predisposes people to be prejudice
• traits: conventionalism, submission to authority, power & toughness, anti-intraception, cynicism, hostility, projectivity
• cause - autocratic punitive parents?
• but cannot explain sudden change in peoples attitudes & behaviours
• scale comprises of many different attitudes & traits

Question 10

explanation: political ideology

Answer 10

• formal system of political thought
• organused system of political attitudes, norms values & morals
• left/liberal - right/conservative

Question 11

explanation: RWA (political ideology)

Answer 11

• atlmeyer. 3 factors:
  1. conventionalism - traditional beliefs.
  2. authoritarian submission - obedient to authority.
  3. authoritarian aggression - country needs string determined leader.
• LWA also express prejudicial attitudes (conway et al 2019)

Question 12

explanation: social dominance theory

Answer 12

• multi surface account of prejudice and model how indivs engage in replicating ideologies that may create inequality
• personal vs group based hierarchy
• systemic and multi-level approach inc culturial ideologies, institutions, relations, psych predisposiitions
• 3 systems of group hierarchy:
  1. age system
  2. gender system
  3. arbitrary-set system (nationality, religion race etc)
  > more flexible
  > inc more violence in this system
  > focus dominant vs subordinate males
• legitimising mythes perpetualise discrim
• SDO = believe some groups should be on top naturally. beliefs often from genetics & socialisation. if endorsed you believe prejudice towards others and support policies promoting hierarchy
• Duckitt et al (2002) - tried to say both SDO and beliefs about authority are key predictors of prejudice and linked them to personality traits and conformity
  > worldviews as dangerous & personality dispositions also explain endorsed beliefs
  > belief world is dangerous linked to condirmity & hierarchy linked to competitive world beliefs
  > more prej attitudes to other groups & own when have group hierarchy & preference for strong leader beliefs
  > no specific personality trait but the extent of personality influence is linked to certain ideologies and may indirectly lead to prejudice