prejudice: culture affecting prejudice

Question 1

how can culture affect prejudice?

Answer 1

it can be an influence if that culture has existing social norms that legitimise prejudice practice, has strict religious regimes or laws that endorse prejudice towards targets or events occur that trigger prejudice towards another group.

Question 2

what can cultures be classified as?

Answer 2

they can often be classified as individualistic or collectivistic

Question 3

what is the difference between individualistic and collectivistic? what does the difference suggest?

Answer 3

individualistic cultures tend to emphasise individuals within the group as important, while collectivistic cultures emphasise the importance of the whole group. the distinction would suggest that individualistic cultures would encourage more interpersonal prejudice (between individuals) and collectivistic cultures more intergroup prejudice (between groups)

Question 4

evidence of culture affecting prejudice

Answer 4

Al-Zahrani + Kaplowitz 1993 in a cultural comparison of Saudi (collectivist) and American (individualistic) people found Saudi’s to self-report more in-group favouritism and negative out-group bias. however, Kleugal 1990 found that collectivism is associated with greater tolerance and lower racism