Section 11: Stereotyping and Prejudice Flashcards
Stereotyping =
beliefs and opinions about the characteristics and behaviors of people based on their group membership
Ex. Racial, gender, major, college
Negative or positive
Prejudice =
attitude directed towards people because they are members of a specific social group
Mainly negative bias – unfair feeling of dislike for a person or a group, feeling of like or dislike when not reasonable or logical
Explicit (overt/conscious):
do and have intentionally, aware of, believe in or willing to say
Implicit (covert/unconscious):
processes we do not do on purpose, unaware, not indorse attitude, not be willing to reveal, influenced by societal messages
Discrimination =
act of treating someone differently based on their group membership
Generally negative – more worse of treatment
Individual vs. institutionalized: discrimination =
class from professor vs. built into legal, political, or social institutions of a culture Ex. Jobs, behaviors
Social categorization:
spontaneous classification of persons into groups of the basis of common attributes – can be visible or invisible (gender, race, age, social -class, sexual orientation)
- natural process without any thought – simplify information - Errors from categorization: old members guided to new members making assumptions --> stereotyping
Research on “shooter bias”=
• Cultural stereotypes about Black men vs. White men
Black men = more violent and dangerous
- Results: when unarmed = shoot black more vs white – Fast to process to react to targets who are consistent with the stereotype
Ingroups favoritism vs outgroup derogation:
• In-groups – groups you identify with (women, classmate, CNA, etc.) vs. outgroups – not a part of (men, professor, Nurse, etc.)
• Resources: in-groups = spontaneously giving positive activity (like more – especially if stronger identified with)
groups are competitive – favor anger
• Minimal group research:
-divide people into meaningless groups develop attachments into groups quickly (class group projects) • We like to belong to groups!
Outgroup Homogeneity effect:
tend to assume that members of outgroups are more similar than members of in-groups (in-groups = unique)
• Sharpening difference between, softening or minimize differences within
Ex. College students with a certain major think theirs is better or harder than the other groups
3 Factors that affect stereotyping:
- Need for Structure
- Moods and Emotions
- Cognitively taxing situations
Need for Structure
like their lives to be simple, well organized, and unexpected events, predictable – more likely to use stereotypes to make things simple
Moods and Emotions:
being in positive/good mood and want to stay in one = more likely to stereotype because less concerned with being accurate, bad mood = does not change outcome – limited cognitive resources (anger, fear, euphoria)
Cognitively taxing situations:
resources are limited = do not have time to think about complex situations, multi-task, or time pressure –> too tired
Intergroup competition:
Supporting and protecting one’s own group
Robber’s Cave Study (Sherif):
competition of groups = prejudice and stereotyping
-Group of young boys in state park: separated boys into 2 groups
Found: discovering outgroup and in countering with competitive situations = strong hostilities of feelings
Realistic conflict theory:
prejudice and conflict develop when there is competition or valuable but scarce resources between groups
Social dominance orientation (Sidanius and Pratto):
individual difference (high or low) -extent to which someone wants their group to dominate and be superior to other groups High = prefer social systems where groups are ranked according to work, power and wealth, negative stereotypes against lower ranks
Justifying and maintaining in-group advantages:
help down grade other groups
- stereotyping poor is lazy and irresponsible
- people deserve what they have
Social identity theory says:
Road to prejudice starts with our own self esteem
Self-esteem depends on two factors=
1. How we feel about ourselves
2. Social identities to which groups we belong
3 ways you can boost esteem
- Think of things you are proud of –enhancing personal achievements
- In-group members’ achievements
- Derogating the outgroups
Derogation Reasoning:
Fein and Spencer-
complete a task and feedback about performance
IV1: ½ receives positive feedback, ½ receives negative
Results: when both positive = same outcome, negative feedback = more prejudice towards Jewish
Self-esteem: putting down Jewish student boosted self-esteem
5 ways we perpetuate stereotyping
- Confirmation bias
- Attribution biases
- Situational
- dispositional attributions
- Subtyping
Confirmation bias:
tendency to seek and interpret information about outgroup members that verifies existing beliefs
Attribution biases:
make judgement off of behavior
Situational:
just the situation if no stereotype
dispositional attributions:
member of group/stereotype matching
Subtyping
process of characterizing a-typical group members into more specific sub-categories with in a social category, thereby leaving their category intact
Stereotype Threat:
fear of confirming other people’s negative stereotypes about your group
4 ways we reduce stereotyping and prejudice=
- Common or superordinate goals
- Equal status
- Personal friendships
- Support of authorities that favor or legitimize
Dasgupta and Rivera =
Exposing people to admired outgroup members effect for implicit but not explicit prejudice
- found that The contributors were rather supportive of legalizing gay and lesbian civil rights. Voting intentions were similar for items specific to lesbians and gay men.
- Short–term media exposure with long–term contact continued to have an effect on voting intentions. Attitudes did not change but behavior did.
