SOCIAL 5 Flashcards
Stereotype
Beliefs about typical behaviors and characteristics of a certain group or category of people or things. they can be true or false
Stereotypes are simply generalizations about members of social groups (including many related to social roles/schemas)
Prejudice
Attitudes - both good and bad – about people or things that belong to a certain group or category. They can be positive or negative. They usually come
from stereotypes
Discrimination
Behaviors – positive and negative – that are influenced by
prejudice towards a certain group or category. They can be positive (privileging) or negative (discriminating). They usually come from prejudice.
Can you have stereotypes, and not prejudices or discriminations?
You can have some of these without the others!
Generalization
An inference that a particular phenomenon will share
properties or traits with the broader category to which it belongs.
Why are stereotypes useful?
- Save up time, memory, and attention
- Save us having to learn everything over and over again.
- Help us instantly identify which things to approach and which to avoid
Why are stereotypes bad?
Inaccurate, self-perpetuating and to easy to develop.
Where do problems with stereotypes most often stem from ?
Biased sampling: Based on observed evidences and most likely remembered if it was extremely positive or negative.
Small samples: we make generalizations even after just a few experiences, failing to account for variability amongst social groups. FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR
Outgroup biases: we don’t question negative stereotypes about an outgroup, we are more likely to not question about in-group ones.
Example of stereotypes are inaccurate “sharks”
Sharks frequently attack people
Confirmation bias
The tendency for people to seek out and notice evidence
that agrees with their beliefs, desires, and stereotypes.
What are the two sources of confirmation bias?
- Positive hypothesis testing: the tendency to only seek out evidence in favor of what you believe, as opposed to evidence that might falsify it.
- Distrust of alternatives: the tendency to come up with various reasons to not believe evidence against your current views, even when it is not provided to you.
The rule discovery task
Confirmation bias
Seek out evidence that agrees with our beliefs.
The vast majority of participants test triplets that align with their first hypothesis
Fail to note a simpler rule
“numbers increase in sequence”
How do stereotypes cause harm?
- Implicit prejudice
2. Stereotype threat
Implicit prejudice
negative feelings and or beliefs about a group that people hold without being aware. It can lead to overt discrimination.
Explicit display of unequal treatment given to a certain individual or group because of a particular characteristic they possess
Stereotype Threat
The phenomenon whereby when people are reminded of a stereotype that applies to them, they perform consistent with the stereotype.
Implicit Associations Test (IAT)
A psychological test that measures the degree of implicit and automatic stereotyping
What is the process of the IAT?
Classify faces and objects between Caucasian or African, weapon or non-weapon.
Stereotype match condition
Press one button for Caucasian and non-weapon and another one for African and weapon.
Stereotype Mismatch condition
Switch. Press one button for Caucasian and weapon and another one for African and non-weapon.
How do people with strong implicit stereotypes do on the IAT?
People with strong implicit stereotypes are much faster on the stereotype match condition compared to stereotype mismatch.
What does IAT show?
- Explicit discrimination: People who display more overt racist attitudes also show higher scores on the IAT.
- Implicit discrimination: people who do not show overt racist attitudes show moderate scores on the IAT, suggesting we carry implicit stereotypes.
- Primary target groups: implicit stereotypes are strong for ethnic minorities.
- Self-stereotyping: Members of these groups also get moderate scores on the IAT, even for their own group, suggesting that everyone carries similar implicit stereotypes.
Resume/ CV study
Evaluate competency and propose a starting salary
African-American and Caucasian names with same resume.
Even with identical resumes, candidates with typically Black names were judged as less
competent and deserving lower wage.
How can we minimize out fundamental attribution errors?
- Be aware of your biases: (DECATEGORIZATION) if we are aware that we are making a FAE to an entire group, we can reflect on this and decide to apply it to situation or specific person.
- Self-affirmation: people are substantially less likely to prejudice of others when their own identity and self-worth are secure.
Implicit Bias training
An increasingly popular workplace training aimed at helping individuals recognize implicit bias and find ways to overtly counteract it through policy changes and self monitoring.
Reduces implicit prejudice
Little evidence that it actually changes behaviors
Contact Hypothesis
Prejudice is reduced when we interact and cooperate with people from groups different than our own, including through shared goal and social support
Contact changes the way we think about out-groups
- Empathy: build empathy towards them as we realize they are human.
- Education: learn about the actual causes of their behaviors, and correcting our stereotypes.
- Reduce outgroup homogeneity: teaches about diversity.
- Crossed categorization: we realize that people are in overlapping groups.
