Lecture 7 - Stereotyping and prejudice: the target's perspective Flashcards
What is the self-fulfilling prophecy?
Other people’s expectations of us can constrain our behaviour.
One’s perceptions of oneself and how u behave is a result of others projecting those beliefs onto u.
What did Snyder and Swann (1978) do?
Self-fulfilling prophecy - Interview
Led interviewers to believe that the person who they were interviewing (over telephone) was an extrovert or an introvert. In fact there was random allocation. They were then required to select from a set list of interview questions.
Those who thought the person was an extrovert mostly asked questions that would be likely to reveal these tendencies (e.g., “what would you do if you wanted to liven things up in a party?”).
Those who thought the person was an introvert primarily asked questions that would be likely to reveal these tendencies (e.g., “what factors make it hard for you to really open up to people?”)
What happened in the follow up study to Snyder and Swann (1978)?
The responses of the target were taped and a fresh set of participants were asked to rate the INTERVIEWEE (person being being interviewed).
Interviewees who had been placed in the extrovert condition were rated as more extroverted than were those who had been placed in the introvert condition.
In other words the expectancies of the interviewer had created a reality (it changes you) – if you talk to somebody expecting them to be introverted they become introverted
What are the stages of the self-fulfilling prophecy?
A) Observer “believes” actor is an extrovert
B) Actor’s behaviour is interpreted through the lens of
this expectation
C) Actor is treated as an extrovert
D) Actor’s behaviour is constrained so that it becomes
difficult to behave in ways other than being
extroverted
E) Actor’s behaviour becomes more extroverted
F) Actor perceives self as extroverted
What did Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) do?
Self-fulfilling prophecy - IQ test
They administered an IQ test to school children and told their teachers that a particular group of 20 students had been identified as “bloomers” … people who were particularly likely to show development in the future.
In fact, the 20 students were chosen randomly. Teachers were led to believe that these kids had potential.
They found that the 20 kids that the teacher believed in were OBJECTIVELY SMARTER after the first year. And this persisted into their second year.
Teachers teach them differently; challenge them differently and create this reality of potential.
What did Word, Zanna, & Cooper (1974) do?
Self-fulfilling prophecy
They had had White Ps act as job interviewers interviewing White and Black applicants. They interviewed differently depending on skin color.
When interviewing Black applicants, the White interviewers
(a) made more speech errors
(b) had shorter interviews, and
(c) engaged less with the interviewee non-verbally than
when the interviewee was White.
In a subsequent experiment the researchers trained interviewers to use either the Black or the White interview style to interview a White applicant (only white applicants).
They found that when White people were interviewed through the Black technique (i.e. as though they were Black) the White applicant was rated as having performed worse and as having been more nervous than when they were interviewed as though they were White.
Describe stereotype threat?
When stigmatized groups are conscious that other people might treat them through negative stereotypes, they feel anxiety about their performance. This can impede performance. Stigmatization made people stupider.
What did Steele and Aronson (1995) do?
Exam anxiety
They had Black and White students anticipate taking a “very difficult” test that was defined as being “diagnostic of intellectual ability” or “just a laboratory exercise”.
They then had to complete ambiguous word fragments such as “______ CE” or “____ERIOR”.
This had no effect on White Ps
When Black students were anticipating a test of “intellectual ability” (as compared to “a lab exercise”), they
(a)were more likely to reveal race-related anxieties on the word completion task (e.g., “RACE” “INFERIOR”) &
(b) Objectivelydid worse on the test
Being made aware of being judged on something that ur stereotypically not supposed to be good at REINFORCED THE STEREOTYPE THROUGH ANXIETY
What did Spencer et al., (1999) do?
Math test and stereotype threat
Got women and men to do a maths test … consistent with the stereotype, men did better than women on the test.
In a follow-up experiment, participants did two tests:
(a) one in which they were told that men and women
typically performed differently on the test, and
(b) one in which participants were told that the test
typically did not reveal sex differences.
They found that people’s expectations walking into the math test created their reality. Those who were told about gender diffs - men did better than women. Those who were told that there was no diff - men and women did about the same.
What did Yeung and von Hippel (2008) do?
Stereotype threat and Driving performance
First year psychology students went in to do a driving simulation test. Half of them were told that men tend to be better drivers than women. Or half the Ps were told nothing (looking at cognitive skills).
They were measuring how many times Ps hit this pedestrian whom appears later in the simulation.
They found that women drove objectively worse when their stereotype was threatened.
When asked before they did the task ‘how keen r u that women are just as good as men at driving’ they rated highly so it wasn’t like they weren’t trying
What did Stone et al., (1999) do?
Mini-golf task
Had White and Black participants perform a sports task (golf).
In some conditions the test was framed as a test of “natural athletic ability”, (which adhered to the Black stereotype)
in others it was framed as a test of “sports intelligence” (stereotypically Black people are do not have)
White people did better (scored lower in golf) when they were told it was a test of sports intelligence than when they were told about natural ability. And the reverse was true for Black Ps.
What is the presumed reason for the stereotype threat?
Anxiety
However, little evidence supporting this (measured from self-reports)
What did Bosson et al. (2004) do?
Gay or Straight - Subtle Anxiety
They had gay or straight men playing with children.
In half the conditions the participants’ sexuality was primed (before the study u had to say what ur gender orientation was; This potentially invoked stereotype threat because back then there was a lot of fear of gay men around children) and in the other half sexuality was not primed.
During the play session, neutral observers rated the participants on signs of nervousness and childcare performance.
They found that for straight people, their performance (playtime with children) didn’t really matter whether they were primed or not. If anything, when they were primed they were a little better.
But for gays, when they weren’t primed they were relatively good hanging out with the kids, but bad hanging out with the kids when the sexuality was made salient.
Moreover, this occurred despite the fact that gay and straight participants did not differ in the extent to which they said they felt anxious in a questionnaire. We could find signs of anxiety even when people didn’t say they felt anxious.
What did Blascovich et al., 2001) find?
When u prime stereotype threat, blood pressure goes up.
What are measurable explanations of stereotype threat?
Trying too hard
Withdrawing effort
Dejection
Straining working memory capacity
- thinking about stigma puts pressure and impedes
performance (cognitive load)
Evaluation apprehension
- Supported by Steele and Aronson (1995)
Diminished expectations for performance
Self-doubt / negative thinking
Self-handicapping
- anticipate ur gonna fail in this situation so to reinforce
ur self-esteem u don’t try. U stuff up ur own
performance so that u protect ur self-esteem.
Domain dis-identification (e.g., dis-identification as a “maths person”)
