Racism and Outgroup Bias

Question 1

How can we define Stereotypes, Prejudice and Discrimination, and what elements do they have in common?

Answer 1

• Fiske: Common aspects between Stereotypes, Prejudice and Discrimination
  
  • have automatic aspects;
  • have socially pragmatic aspects;
  • are individually controllable making change possible;
  • their occurrence can be influenced by social structures.
• Sterotypes: beliefs that typical members of the outgroup possess certain characteristics or traits. Oversimplified evaluations.
• Prejudice: an attitude (usually negative) toward the members of some group, based solely on their membership in that group.
• Discrimination: negative behaviour directed toward an individual based on his/her membership in a group

Question 2

What is the automatic-controlled continuum and its moderators?

Answer 2

Question 3

What is Devines Disassociation model?

Answer 3

• Based on two main developmental stages
  
  • stage 1: early and continuous learning of cultural stereotypes (automatic)
  • stage 2: cognitive maturity leads to evaluation of stereotypes leading to beliefs (cognitive control)
• Differences between high/low prejudiced people
  
  • Both high / low prejudice people hold similar negative stereotypes
  • Low Prejudice: actively inhibit stereotypes that conflict with beliefs
  • High prejudice: do not inhibit since no conflict with self image
• Therefore prejudice cannot be predicted by stereotypes

Question 4

What is Leopold and Browns Association model and how does it differ from Devines dissociation model?

Answer 4

• Main contention: whether levels of prejudice are affected by levels of stereotypes
  
  • Problem: cannot really measure truly automatic stereotypes
• Leopold/brown: stereotypes matter
  
  • fewer stereotypes are held by low prejudice people (not just inhibited)
  • more held by high prejudice
• Empirically
  
  • strongest relationship prejudice and discrimination

Question 5

What is Blatent form racism?

Answer 5

• Blatant racists overtly express norm-breaking views against ethnic minority groups. Likely to be based on strong negative emotions
• Strongly Associated with the Authoritarian personality:
  
  • authoritarian people also: tend to be highly conservative, come from highly punitive parenting style, submissive to authority, enjoy tradition/statusquo

Question 6

What is the modern subtle form racism?

Answer 6

• Subtle racists have been found to covertly express socially acceptable anti-minority views. Likely to be based on an absence of positive feelings about minority racial groups
  
  • Characterised by lack of positivity: ie tone of voice, not smiling
• Evidence of continuing subtle racism
  
  • Dovidio and Gaertner: hiring racial minorities
    
    • compared 1988 and 1999 data
    • vast reduction in blatent racism, none in subtle (ambiguous) condition

Question 7

What are the modern and aversive racism theories?

Answer 7

• Modern Racism Theory
  
  • Result from change in society’s norms. Racists no longer comfortable in expressing racism directly.
  • Instead advocating laws and policy against racial minorities. Justify/code racism as interest in “equality”
• Adversive Racism theory
  
  • Modern racism is a way of rationalising unconscious negative believes and keeping them unconscious by not drawing attention.
  • Draws from conflict between conscious self image as liberal

Question 8

Why is it important to study both blatent and subtle forms of racism?

Answer 8

• Distinct yet correlated
  
  • Correlations between the two are low, suggesting sufficient unique variance to make each form of prejudice quite distinct
  • however correlations between the two across developmental periods show there is sufficient correlation to indicate a link
• The effect on psychological health
  
  • Gilbert (1998) and Harrell reported that both result in psycho-emotional stress, feelings of powerlessness and decreased motivation
  • Hightower reported equal correlations between health effects and each form
• Casual Racism: when a target calls out racism they are attacked for transforming the subtle racism to blatant racism

Question 9

What is the debate over implicit bias and implicit measures?

Answer 9

• Greenwald camp: Implicit/Unconsious bias
  
  • use the term implicit attitude/prejudice because they interpret association tests as indicative of people being unaware of negative attitudes
  • But there is no evidence people are unaware of their racial biases
• Fazio and Olson camp: implicit measures
  
  • People may be aware but no time frame for cognitive function in IAT - measure is implicit
  • However people can still fake the IAT
  • Participants are unaware that their attitudes are being assessed

Question 10

What are some explicit measures of racial prejudice and their benefits/limitations?

Answer 10

• Self report scale examples:
  
  • McConahay’s Old-Fashioned Racism Scale (OFRS):
    
    • Likert scale: eg Blacks are generally not as smart as whites
  • McConahay’s Modern Racism Scale (MRS):
    
    • Likert scale: eg Blacks are getting too demanding in their push for equal rights
• Limitations:
  
  • only measures conscious controlled racism (many fake)
  • confound between political conservativism and racism,
  • modern racism items still very blatent
  • must be continually updated to current environment

Question 11

What are some examples of implicit bias measures?

Answer 11

• Sentence completion and word fragment completion tasks
  
  • eg Mohammed got a A on his test because ……
  • Less clear, more easily masked than explicit tasks
• Decision-time/RT latency ( basis of IAT)
  
  • Asked to pair white/black with pos/neg categories
  • Gaertner and McLaughlin, no diff in negative pairings, but sig diff in positive pairings (reflects subtle not blatent racism)
• Eye-Blink response
• Benefits in reducing participant control over answers

Question 12

What is the shooter bias paradigm?

Answer 12

• Reaction to police shooting unarmed black man raising hands (41 shots)
• Vast majority of american paticipants
  
  • faster to shoot armed black people than white
  • faster to not shoot unarmed white people than black
• Measures both reaction time and error rate
• Australian version
  
  • vary presence of gun and muslim appearance
  • replicated american findings (but hasnt been replicated elsewhere)

Question 13

How can priming responses be a measure of racial bias?

Answer 13

• Variation on IAT task with subliminal black/white image
  
  • Devine showed that people have non-conscious negative stereotypes of African Americans.
  • Later work by Lepore and Brown showed effect is more marked for people who score high on explicit measures of prejudice
• Found white improved positive speed, reduced negative speed. Black opposite

Question 14

What is the IAT task and its criticisms?

Answer 14

• Speed test of categorisation aimed at revealing unconscious attitudes. Compares groups and a series of adjectives matched to the group member
  
  • Scoring:
    
    • Compatible/incompatible mapping (to assumed bias)
    • IAT difference score = mean latency for incompatible
• Criticisms:
  
  • reflects social learning not held beliefs 40% black americans display white positive bias
  • Can be faked even at speed
  • poor behavioural predictor
  • Lack of justification for cut-off speeds
  • Could reflect familiarity rather than bias

Question 15

What is the MODE model?

Answer 15

• The Motivation and Opportunity as DEterminants (MODE) Model
  
  • Dual process model proposes that motivation and opportunity to control prejudice moderate the attitude-behaviour and implicit-explicit measure relationship
• Explains disassociation between explicit/implicit tests
  
  • Implicit measures are less affected by motivation and opportunity for control
  • Therefore these two factors determine how likely measures of prejudice are to reflect actually behaviours
• Supported by FMRI research: amygdala lights up with stereotypes/automatic but pre-frontal cortex kicks in to inhibit this

Question 16

What is some empirical data of racism in Australia?

Answer 16

• Indigenous Australians
  
  • High prejudice more likely to show negative stereotypes, low prejudice more likely to show positive stereotypes
  • Modern racist attitudes towards Indigenous-Australians was more prevalent than traditional forms
• Asian Australians
  
  • A nationwide survey of 2,031 international Asian students revealed that 73% of participants had experienced prejudice and discrimination while studying in Australia
• Muslim Australians
  
  • Islamic appearance was found to increase automatic bias

Question 17

What is the evolutionary account of racism?

Answer 17

• Outgroup bias: Historically, tribe members showed greater preference for each other which maximised the percentage of genes that are transmitted
  
  • rival tribes were a threat
• Matches cognitive theories offer explanations of prejudice based on automatic categorisation according to similarities to oneself
• Advantages/disadvantages
  
  • Helps us understand the origins of attitudes and behaviours
  • Doesnt give an understanding of the immediate causes.
  • Doesnt explain “ranking” of outgroups

Question 18

What is the cognitive categorisation (and social identity) explanation of racism?

Answer 18

• Cognitive categorisation: cognitive efficiency by using surface characteristics
• Social Identity theory (Tajfel and Turner):
  
  • Ingroup and outgroup bias is motivated by a need for self-esteem
    
    • we want to affiliate with high status groups, avoid low status
• Limitations of SI Theory
  
  • Favouring our ingroup does not necessitate dislike of outgroups
  • Outgroup discrimination occurs the more homogenous the outgroup and when an outgroup member does something bad
  • Cognitive recategorisation alone has limited explanatory power for prejudice formation.

Question 19

What is the cognitive ability explanation of racism?

Answer 19

• Lower cognitive abilities are attracted to right-wing ideologies because they minimise complexity and increase perceived control.
• The individuals are drawn to ideologies that emphasise what is presently known and considered acceptable to make sense and impose order over their environment.

Question 20

What is the Social-Cognitive (and family socialisation) theory of racism?

Answer 20

• Bandura argued that children can learn prejudice through observational learning and vicarious reinforcement of these attitudes from parents and peers
• Allport found authoritarian parenting styles predict prejudicial attitude
• However, doesn’t predict behaviour as much as attitudes
• The Family Socialisation Model of Racial Prejudice
  
  • Family attitude transfer is moderated by interaction between level of family socialisation processes and type of attitudes being transmitted

Question 21

What is Allports Contact hypothesis of racism?

Answer 21

• Argues that outgroup biases results from a lack of positive intergroup relations and segregation
• In modern times, this segregation is more cultural than physical

Question 22

What is the personality theory of racism?

Answer 22

• Racism can be predicted by personality traits which are thought to be causal
  
  • Right-wing authoritarianism
  • Closed-mindedness/dogmatism
  • Social Dominance Orientation
  • Conservatism

Question 23

What was Dasgupta and Greenwald’s experiment on exposure to positive outgroup examples?

Answer 23

• Attempted to reduce implicit racial bias via learned reverse associations, relfects the importance of exposure in bias formation
• Explained it by increased accessibility to new schema
• Method: Exposed participants to photos:
  
  • Experimental group 1: positive black exemplar and negative white exemplar.
  • Experimental group 2: positive white exemplar, negative black exemplar
  • Control group: showed flowers/insects
• Evaluation
  
  • Group 1 Implicit bias reduction achieved was temporary – only 24 hours
  • May have been effected by relatively large/achieving minority (black in US). Failed to replicate in Aus 2007 (not enough role models)
  • No reduction in explicit measures only IAT

Question 24

How have experiments involving repeated exposure to unrelated minority group characteristics attempted to reduce racial bias?

Answer 24

• Several experiments repeatedly exposed people to social stimuli where the critical characteristic is unrelated to the racial group
  
  • Idea is making race a non-helpful decision making factor - learn that race impairs performance - inhibit
• Plant, Peruche & Butz:
  
  • White students complete 160 trials black/white gun/no gun (random)
  • Evaluation:
    
    • Race biases were eliminated by the end of the second set of trials
    • Only lasted 24 hours again
    • In australia, replication with aboriginal groups only worked when guns replaced by alcohol
    • Again didnt affect explicit measures

Question 25

What do the studies on reduction of implicit bias tell us about racial bias reduction in reality?

Answer 25

• In reality, people are less likely to be exposed to positive features of the outgroup
  
  • Greenwald Implies if media was to become more balanced consistenty, implicit bias rates would drop
  • Plant et al. shows that minorities are biased by media exposure as violent/drunk
• Neither of these studies affected explicit measures
• Both studies focused on majority members only

Question 26

What techniques did Devine use to attempt to produce a long term reduction in implicit racism? Did it work?

Answer 26

• Stereotype replacement:
  
  • Asked to consciously notice stereotyping
  • Label their stereotypical responses as stereotypical
  • Reflect on why that response was present and how it could be replaced
• Counter stereotype imaging: Imagining in detail counter stereotypical examples
• Individuation: evaluate members of group by personal characteristics rather than group characteristics
• Perspective taking: try to take the perspective of stigmatised group
• Increasing opportunities for contact: self explanatory
• Found that techniques worked for reduction in implicit bias and was sustained for 4 weeks. Again no effect on explicit measures (apart from concern for discrimination as an issue)

Question 27

According to Allports contact hypothesis, what four criteria must be met for direct intergroup contact to reduce explicit bias?

Answer 27

• Putting two racial groups together is sufficient for the reduction of prejudice if four criteria are met
  
  1. equal status among group members
  2. common goals to orient the contact
  3. contact via cooperation rather than competition
  4. support from authorities to establish norms of acceptance

Question 28

Give some examples of direct intergroup contact being used to reduce bias

Answer 28

• Sherif’s Robbers Cave:
  
  • Two conflicting groups were given a superordinate goal that could not be achieved without cooperation
• Aronson and Gonzalez’s Jigsaw cooperative classroom
  
  • prejudice was greatly reduced among children when they all had to work together to teach each other information in order to solve a puzzle
• White, Wooten, et al., Friendship dyads
  
  • adolescents that report asian friendship dyads had reduced implicit and explicit racial bias

Question 29

What are some examples on indirect contact between groups reducing bias?

Answer 29

• Extended contact:
  
  • Knowing another ingroup friend who has outgroup friends can still reduce levels of prejudice
  • Reading stories about outgroup members “..”
• Imagined contact
  
  • Imagine meeting outgroup member, list unexpected/interesting things you learn about them
  • Shown to decrease anxiety around outgroup members, increase future contact
  • no measure of long term effectiveness

Question 30

What is the Common Ingroup Identity cognitive recategorisation strategy?

Answer 30

• Common Ingroup Identity strategy involves creating a superordinate identity that encompasses two identitys
  
  • eg Christians/Muslims = Australians
• Problems
  
  • requires relinquishing of current identity group
  • Leads to assimilation to high power group unwilling to relinquish status

Question 31

What is the Dual Identity approach to cognitive recategorisation for reduction of racial bias?

Answer 31

• Encourages the subgroup identity, while simultaneously holding a common superordinate identity
• Benefits:
  
  • Reduces intergroup biases by extending benefits of ingroup to former outgroup members (now common ingroup)
  • No assimilation, instead multiculturalism/integration

Question 32

What evidence is there that racial bias is bi-directional and what that that suggest for reduction strategies?

Answer 32

• Research shows an assymetry in racial prejudice between majority minority groups
  
  • Majority groups show high implicit, lower explicit bias
  • Minority (eg asian australian) show low implicit, higher explicit
• Indicates reduction interventions need to target both minority AND majority cultural/religious groups, but in different ways

Question 33

Why are longitudinal studies needed for racial prejudice research?

Answer 33

• Long-term studies are required to
  
  • track critical periods,
  • test models of causal relationships,
  • provide evidence on optimal times for interventions
• Long term programs and long term evaluations are both required. (Often even ‘long term’ 3 week programs only do one measurement)
  
  • we dont have any that have both
• Longitudinal lessions: Hill and Augoustinos 3 day program, 3 month followup
  
  • prejudice and stereotyping werent maintained
  • knowledge about outgroup was maintained

Question 34

What is the DIEC Harmony Program and what does it show about prejudice reduction strategies?

Answer 34

• Dual Identity and Electronic Contact (DIEC) Harmony Program
  
  • 9 week classroom program tracked a 2 weeks, 6months, 12months
  • Addressed christian and muslim groups at respective schools
  • 8 structured internet sessions, groups of 4 asked to use their religions to solve superordinate goal. Then give presentation.
  • Exp 1: 2M-2C, exp2: 4M or 4C, control: not in intervention
• Results:
  
  • Short term: decreased outgroup anxiety and outgroup bias (both)
  • Short term: increased outgroup knowledge for christians
  • Long term: decreased outgroup bias for muslim students
• Compounding effects
  
  • Ceiling effects for knowledge, bias
  • Anger and sadness words in chat mediated effect

Question 35

What is the two stage model of prejudice reduction?

Answer 35