Prejudice Reduction

Question 1

Intergroup contact

Answer 1

Allport 1954
Contact hypothesis the theory that intergroup contact between hostile groups will reduce intergroup prejudice under certain conditions 
Conditions are 
Equal status
Personal interaction between members 
Cooperative activities 
Social norms favour contact

Question 2

Jigsaw classroom

Answer 2

Elliot aranson 1978
Classroom activities. Racially diverse groups mixed up and given tasks where each person has the ‘puzzle piece’ to collectively solve a problem. The problem being solved relies upon everyone communicating their part of the solution to each other.
Racial prejudice proved to reduce
Similar to goal condition of allports contact hypothesis

Question 3

Shared identity

Answer 3

Groups can be recatagerised with similarities between them pointed out rather than differences. Social identity approach.
One way of making a particular group-based identity less salient is through decategorization. Decategorization involves teaching people from different social groups to focus on a person’s unique individual characteristics.[13] This is known as individuation, and helps to draw attention away from group differences and toward individual differences. Decategorization often causes ingroup members to perceive fewer similarities among themselves.[14]

Another way of making a particular group-based identity less salient is through recategorization. Here, individuals with different group-based identities are made aware of the fact that the groups to which they belong are part of an overarching group. The salience of their membership in the overarching group is emphasized over their exclusive group based identities. For example, membership in the group “student” would be emphasized over membership in humanities or maths

Question 4

Social cognitive factors to reduce prejudice

Answer 4

Being asked to think about people that don’t fit stereotypes
Learning about variability of individuals in groups
Understanding the perspective of being stigmatised
Education about race difference being socially constructed rather than genetic ( e.g. Blacks are more in prison because of racist system rather than criminal genes)

Question 5

Media effect

Answer 5

Showing things in the media such as gay marriage and more black actors reduces prejudice by socialisation and changing people’s norms and values etc

Question 6

When does identity increase or decrease prejudice

Answer 6

Identity can increase prejudice through social identity theory. Being a member of a group causes individuals to compare with the outgroup and accentuate differences, and accentuate shared characteristics of in group. This leads to competition between groups and intergroup conflict, and prejudice.
Identity can reduce prejudice if groups are recategerised to highlight similarities rather than difference, groups can be made aware that they are part of a bigger group and share those characteristics too, for example we are not just black and white we are American citizens and we share the characteristics of being kind and tolerant

Question 7

Legal hypothesis

Answer 7

Prejudice can reduced by changing laws, making hate speech and discrimination illegal. Has shown to have positive affect but at times can cause a backlash and increase prejudice. E.g. Bloody immigrants coming here bringing their religion and now we get prosecuted for criticising Islam attitude

Question 8

How does group membership facilitate better communication

Answer 8

Haslam 2004 says that group member rely on each other for norms values and beliefs… turner 1987 says that group member validate information and facilitate communication