lesson 6 - social categorisation, stereotypes, and prejudice Flashcards
personal identity
Personality characteristics
E.g., ‘I am introverted/honest/caring’.
social identity
Groups you are a member of.
E.g., ‘I am a woman/business executive/stamp collector’.
Social identity leads to stereotyping. E.g., she’s a woman so she’s probably emotional.
“Widely shared and simplified evaluative image of a social group and its members” - Hogg & Vaughan (2014, p.47)
category
collections of instances that have a family resemblance organised around a prototype
these are not rigid but fuzzy (Rosch, 1978) can move depending if it is more or less typical of the category, depending on the prototype. categorisation of less typical members are more difficult
prototypes (theory)
cognitive representation of typical defining features of a category
these are standards against which family resemblance is assessed & category membership decided. E.g., chair example – chairs tend to have 4 legs, however see one with 3 legs. Can be difficult as it doesn’t meet the category straight away, however, still looks like a chair.
why do we categorise?
saves cognitive energy:
- saves time and cognitive processing
- simplifies how individuals think about the world.
clarifies and refines perception of the world:
- once category is activated, tend to see members as possessing all traits of the stereotype
- reduces uncertainty, allows us to predict the social world.
maintaining a positive self esteem:
- motivational function for social identity and self concept
common group distinctions:
- Sexual orientation
- Profession
- Race
- Age
- Class
- Employment status
- Nationality
- Immigration status
stereotypes: illusory correlation
Negative stereotypes may occur when people inaccurately pair minority groups with negative events/behaviours because they are both distinct (different to me):
Hamilton and Sherman (1996) arrest
–Asked White American participants to estimate the arrest rate of various types of American.
–African Americans were estimated to have a higher arrest rate than they did
–Finding correlations that don’t exist.
African Americans = a relative minority, being arrested = negative and therefore unusual, illusion that they are correlated.
effects of stereotyping:
Behavioural assimilation: stereotypes influence our perceptions of others and our own behaviour.
Stereotype threat: the threat of negative evaluations can lead to poor performance e.g., sinking to the level expected of you when expectations are low (self fulfilling prophecy)
Prejudice and discrimination
experiment on behavioural assimilation - elderly
‘scrambled sentence’ task.
making sentences out of randomly ordered words.
IV: word types (2 different conditions)
- elderly task used words associated with elderly stereotypes e.g., grey, lonely, wise, old.
- neutral words unrelated to age e.g., thirsty, clean.
DV: participants directed to the exit and a hidden confederate timed how long it took them to reach it
findings from the experiment on behavioural assimilation (elderly)
*Participants primed with elderly words behaved in a way related to an ‘elderly’ stereotype:
*i.e., moved more slowly to leave the room (even though ‘slow’ wasn’t primed specifically – it was part of the stereotype activated).
However,…
*The studies that prime stereotypes (e.g., the Bargh study) often don’t replicate.
*It might be because the effects are not universal; people might already need to care about what’s being primed.
*Papies (2015) found that people who want to become thinner are likelier to make healthy food choices if they are primed, say, with words on a menu such as ‘diet’, ‘thin’ and ‘trim figure’.
*But it works only in people for whom a healthy diet is a central goal; it doesn’t make everyone avoid fattening foods.
stereotype threat & examples of this
*When negative stereotypes define our own groups, and we behave in line with them:
*“Feeling that we will be judged and treated in terms of negative stereotypes of our group & that we will inadvertently confirm these stereotypes through our behaviour” (Hogg & Vaughan, 2014, p.383).
Examples:
*Women and maths (Spencer, Steele, & Quinn, 1999). Women reminded of the stereotype that women are bad at maths performed more poorly.
*Men and social sensitivity (Koenig & Eagly, 2005)
*Elderly people and memory (Levy, 1996)
This negative impact is not inevitable; reframing low expectations as a challenge instead of a threat can eliminate the effect (Alter & al., 2010).
prejudice and discrimination
how are these demonstrated
*Prejudice - Strong, highly accessible negative attitude
*dominated by cognitive bias and negative stereotypes.
*Discrimination - Behaviour based on unjust treatment of certain groups:
*Reluctance to help
*Tokenism
*Reverse discrimination
Intergroups bias –> (favouritism) –> discrimination, more subtle forms of prejudice, held at a disadvantage because people are different to you
prejudice and reluctance to help
Gaetner and Dovidio (1977) found participants were more reluctant to help a minority member (than their own group) when faced with an emergency, but only when others were present.
prejudice and reverse discrimination
Opening displaying pro-minority behaviour but as a way to deflect accusations of prejudice; e.g., giving more money to a minority member when feeling threatened.
