Lecture 5: Prominent Theories in Intergroup Relations ll Flashcards
social identity
The aspect of our self-concept that is derived from our group memberships
social identity theory states that
People fundamentally want to:
1. Achieve and maintain a positive social identity
2. Distinguish their social groups from other social groups
tajfel on social identity theory
people’s context-specific attention to their personal and social identities is driven by their motivation to feel positively about themselves. To the extent that people are motivated to regard themselves positively, they will also be motivated to differentiate themselves from outsiders.
minimal groups paradigm
creating artificial and arbitrary ingroups/outgroups
Tajfel et al., 1971
divided people into meaningless groups (Klee and Kandinsky) and had people distribute money to other participants. Found that people favoured their own group
self-categorization
the flexibility that one has in how one perceives themself
self-categorization ->
social identity
self-categorization is
situational
what happens when an ingroup is threatened
identity becomes more salient
optimal distinctiveness theory (brewer, 1993)
people want to strike a balance between their group identities and their personal identities
what happens when an ingroup is too distinct
stigma, not included, undesirable, deviant
what happens when an ingroup isn’t distinct enough?
lack individuality, too constraining
self-esteem hypothesis (Hogg & Abrams, 1990)
Self-esteem is intrinsically linked to group identity
Basking in Reflected Glory (BIRGing)
celebrating the ingroup’s success as your own but derogation following a failure
example of BIRGing
Students are more likely to wear college apparel after a football win than a loss (Cialdini, 1976)
derogating outgroups and self-esteem
Derogating outgroups can increase self-esteem
effect of low self-esteem on ingroup/outgroup relationships
Lowered self-esteem increases the tendency to discriminate against outgroups
relative deprivation theory
The belief that one is getting less than one deserves relative to other people or some other standard
who do we compare ourselves to?
people who are similar, relevant, and proximal
when does relative deprivation arise
when one perceives an undeserved discrepancy between a desired outcome and an actual outcome
when do people believe there is a discrepancy
when there is a perceived lack of distributive and procedural justice
distributive justice
rewards and costs are justly allocated
procedural justice
fairness of procedures for distributing rewards and costs
Occupy Wall Street Movement and Distributive Justice
discrepancies in inflation-adjusted household incomes
Occupy Wall Street Movement and Procedural Justice
the rich avoid paying taxes
consequences of relative deprivation
discontent, frustration, resentment, and hostility toward the perceived source of deprivation
relative deprivation and anti-immigrant prejudice study
7000+ European survey respondents answered questions that measured personal and group relative deprivation when it comes to immigrants taking jobs. Found that group deprivation is most relevant for prejudice, personal deprivation is not
White vs. Black discrimination overtime study
Participants rated the extent to which they felt Black and white people experienced discrimination from the 1950s-2000s. People thought that lower anti-Black discrimination meant that there was more anti-white discrimination; they believed the gain of another group is a loss for their group
Derek Brown’s homebuyers study
Equality-enhancing condition: several banks propose increasing the total amount of mortgage loans to Latino homeowners by $7.3 billion and not changing the total amount of mortgage loan funding to white homebuyers
Status quo condition: several banks propose not changing mortgage loan funding over the next year
Equality-enhancing conditioning was rated as more harmful among white participants
Derek Brown’s Eagles vs. Rattlers study
Random assignment to one of two teams, where one group (Rattlers) received more bonuses than the Eagles.
Win-win condition: 50 more bonuses to Eagles, 5 more to Rattlers
Lose-Lose condition: 50 fewer bonuses to Eagles, 5 fewer to Rattlers
Among Rattler participants, the Win-Win policy was seen as more harmful than the Lose-Lose policy.
what factors were not predicative of prioritizing relative differences
Explicit racial preferences
Social Dominance Orientation
Political orientation
social dominance orientation
preference for hierarchy
realistic conflict theory
Intergroup prejudice and discrimination arise from conflicting goals and competition over limited resources
when is prejudice amplified, according to realistic conflict theory
The relationship between the groups is perceived as “zero-sum” (clear winner or loser)
There is objective resource scarcity
There is perceived resource scarcity
Amy Krosch, 2017
investigated the relationship between economic recessions and prejudice by having white participants classify racially ambiguous faces as Black or white
In times of recession, people had a more exclusive perception of their ingroup
zero-sum mindset
perceiving one person’s gain as another’s loss
