Lecture 6: Hierarchy and Power Flashcards
why are silver medal winners less happy than bronze medal winners?
because they are in tune with hierarchies and compare themselves more to the gold medal winner
Kahn et al., 2009
asked white, Asian, Latino, and Black people to rank how status by racial group on a 7-point scale. Regardless of their racial group, people reported the same hierarchies, demonstrating that hierarchies are largely recognized
who developed social dominance orientation?
Sidanius and Pratto
social dominance orientation states that
Both people and institutions exist along a continuum among those that are hierarchy-enforcing or hierarchy-attenuating & that hierarchies are a two-way street, requiring at least some coordination among both high-status and low-status people
the SDO scale
An individual difference measure meant to capture variation in the extent to which someone believes society should have group-based hierarchies
SDO distribution
is positively skewed (most people are low SDO)
SDO & political ideology
(conservatism) r= .43
SDO & explicit racial preference
(the degree to which white people are preferred over Black people) r= .27
SDO & gender
(men are higher in SDO than women) r= .19
SDO & police officers study
In a sample of 85 white police officers, greater SDO was associated with more actual uses of force while on patrol
SDO & working in a hierarchy-enforcing job
Higher SDO predicted a greater likelihood of working in a hierarchy-enforcing job
working in a hierarchy-enforcing job & SDO
Working in a hierarchy-enforcing job was associated with long-term increases in SDO
Nour Kteily study method
used a longitudinal design, which tracked the same individuals over time and repeatedly measured SDO and forms of intergroup prejudice like negativity towards racial/ethnic outgroups
Nour Kteily findings
SDO measured during freshman orientation was a stronger predictor of outgroup prejudice than outgroup prejudice was of SDO. Provides evidence that changes in SDO can cause stronger racial biases
positive empathy
feeling positive after seeing someone else experiences positivity
Schadenfreude
feeling positive after seeing someone else experiences negativity
Hudson, study 2b method
White participants completed the SDO scale and an intergroup empathy task. In the empathy task, participants read a story about a white, Asian, or Black person experiencing something mildly positive or negative. After each story (one for each race, one for positive vs. negative), participants reported both how good and bad they felt
Hudson study 2b findings
As SDO increased participants felt less positive empathy, particularly for racial outgroup members
As SDO increased, participants felt more schadenfreude, particularly for racial outgroup members
Hudson study 2b conclusion
SDO may help maintain intergroup social hierarchies by blunting or muting empathy towards outgroup members, thereby making it easier to keep them in positions of low social status
scarcity
having lower status and power
scarcity and cognitive load
The experience of a scarcity mindset is like being under a consistent cognitive load and reduces the bandwidth available to pay attention to other concerns in one’s life
effects of a scarcity mindset
People lower in resources must make sporadic decisions and trade-offs
Increases focus on immediate short-term problems
Reduces focus on the long-term global picture
Dilemmas related to poverty are distracting, use cognitive resources
Shah et al., 2012 Wheel of Fortune study method
Participants play Wheel of Fortune
Manipulation of resource scarcity: number of letter guesses received per round
Outcome: cognitive control (dot-probe task)
dot-probe task
participants indicate by pressing a key where a stimulus appears on a screen
Shah et al., 2012 Wheel of Fortune Study findings
Poor participants performed worse in the dot-probe task. enhanced focus on immediate issues results in attentional neglect of long-term costs
Shah et al., 2012 Wheel of Fortune Study criticism
lacks external validity
sugarcane farmers and scarcity
Indian sugarcane farmers are paid once annually, meaning there are times when they are comparatively rich (post-harvest) & comparatively poor (pre-harvest)
The same sugarcane farmers performed 10 points higher on an IQ test when taken right after the harvest than before
increases in income & reading & math scores
A $1,000 increase in income raises combined math and reading test scores by 6% of a standard deviation in the short run. These gains were largest for kids from disadvantaged families
SDO was associated with
- political ideology
- explicit racial preferences
- gender
