Social - Lecture 8 - Stereotypes, Prejudice and Discrimination

Question 1

Define the following key terms:

1. Prejudice / discrimination / stereotypes
2. Sexism / ambivalent stereotypes / benevolent sexism / hostile sexism
3. Racism / modern/aversive racism / implicit racism
4. Intergroup theories:
5. Realistic Conflict Theory
6. Social Identity Theory
7. Individual process theories:
8. Belief Congruence Theory
9. Social categorisation

Answer 1

1. Prejudice / discrimination / stereotypes - Prejudice: “Negative feelings towards persons based on their membership in certain groups” (Kassin, Fein & Markus, 2011, p. 148)
   Discrimination: “Behaviour directed against persons because of their membership in a particular group” (ibid.)
   Stereotypes: “Beliefs or associations that link whole groups of people with certain traits or characteristics” (ibid.)
2. Sexism / ambivalent stereotypes / benevolent sexism / hostile sexism - Sex, race and age are the most prevalent bases for stereotyping (Mackie et al., 1996).
   Sexism: “prejudice and discrimination against people based on their gender” (Hogg & Vaughan, 2014, p. 361).
   Sexism persists in many forms; the consequences are powerful and highly detrimental (Swim & Hyers, 2009).
   Gender stereotypes are prescriptive; they suggest how men and women should be.
   E.g. stereotypes of “working mothers” (Cuddy et al., 2004).
   Unusually, sexist stereotypes involve ambivalence (Kassin, Fein & Markus, 2011).
   Hostile sexism: negative feelings about women’s abilities, value and ability to challenge men’s power.
   Benevolent sexism: chivalrous feelings underpinned by the belief in women’s vulnerability.
   Positively correlated! (Glick et al., 2000).
   Emerge in many indirect ways (e.g. Chapleau et al., 2007)
3. Racism / modern/aversive racism / implicit racism -
   Katz & Braly (1933) – attitudes of white college students
   Average white American - SMART, INDUSTRIOUS & AMBITIOUS
   Average African American as SUPERSTITIOUS, IGNORANT, LAZY & HAPPY-GO-LUCKY.
   Similar studies since 1951 to 2001:
   Negative images of African Americans mostly replaced with more positive, favourable images (Dovidio et al., 1996; Madon et al, 2001).
   However…… Modern Racism - Racial prejudice that manifests in subtle ways when it is deemed safe, socially acceptable, and easy to rationalise due to its ambiguity (Kassin, Fein & Markus, 2011).
   E.g. In ambiguous situations, racial prejudice is more likely to surface (see Hodson et al., 2005).
   Racist beliefs are generally more likely to be expressed these in situations where it’s deemed ‘safe’ to do so.
   HOWEVER – much “old fashioned” racism still prevalent.

Implicit Racism - “Racism that operates unconsciously and unintentionally” (Kassin, Fein & Marcus, 2011, p.150).
E.g.:
Eberhardt et al (2006): predictors of whether a criminal defendant was likely to be sentenced to death.
Loring et al (1988): mental health diagnosis.
Participants not consciously aware of these biases?

4. Intergroup theories: Intergroup emotions theory relies on social identity and self-categorization theories, as well as appraisal theories of emotions at the individual and inter-indi- vidual level, to explain when emotions are likely to occur and influence intergroup processes and relations (https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/222813016.pdf)
5. Realistic Conflict Theory - Sherif (1966) argued that when groups have to compete over scarce resources, intergroup relations become marked by conflict, and ethnocentrism arises.
   Ethnocentrism: use one’s own ethnic group and ways of doing things as a point of reference; one’s own group (e.g. its beliefs, values etc.) regarded as superior to anything different.
6. Social Identity Theory - Tajfel et al (1971): Dots study.
   Boys told that they’d been divided into two groups – overestimators and underestimators.
   Asked to allocate rewards to other participants which could later be cashed in for money.
   The boys consistently allocated more points to members of their own group.
   How come, when:
   Boys had no history of rivalry or antagonism
   They didn’t appear to mind which group they were in.
   They didn’t compete for a limited resource
   They weren’t even acquainted with one another!
   Tajfel (1982) and Turner (1987): Social Identity Theory. People try to enhance their self-esteem which has two components:
   Personal Identity
   Social Identities

Two basic predictions:
Threats to self-esteem increase the need for ingroup favouritism
Expressions of ingroup favouritism enhance one’s self-esteem
Explains phenomena such as ethnocentricism.

7. Individual process theories: Early attempts to describe prejudice with reference to individual’s early experiences.
   Authoritarian personality (Adorno et al., 1950)
   Dogmatism (Rokeach, 1948, 1960)

However, these accounts:
Underemphasised situational and sociocultural factors;
E.g. Pettigrew (1958): Racism varied across cultures, even when participants all reported the same authoritarian personality type.
Failed to account for sudden surges in prejudice against specific groups at specific times.

8. Belief Congruence Theory - Rokeach (1960): belief is more important than group membership as factor in discrimination
   Congruent belief systems facilitate group harmony.
   Incongruent belief systems produce an opposite effect.
9. Social categorisation - Using group membership to make inferences about others saves time and effort (Fiske & Taylor, 2008).
   However, perceived differences between groups are magnified (Sherman et al., 2009)…
   … with depersonalisation the result.

Question 2

2. Describe at least two pieces of research evidence demonstrating the existence of sexism and/or racism as social processes.

Answer 2

Racism - Katz & Braly (1933) – attitudes of white college students
Average white American - SMART, INDUSTRIOUS & AMBITIOUS
Average African American as SUPERSTITIOUS, IGNORANT, LAZY & HAPPY-GO-LUCKY.
Similar studies since 1951 to 2001:
Negative images of African Americans mostly replaced with more positive, favourable images (Dovidio et al., 1996; Madon et al, 2001).

Sexism - Gender stereotypes are prescriptive; they suggest how men and women should be.

E.g. stereotypes of “working mothers” (Cuddy et al., 2004).
(https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.460.4841&rep=rep1&type=pdf) - In one study (Kelley, 1979), when male and female partners explored varying ways to share the housework, women reacted more strongly than
men to the situations of both partners cleaning (rated as highly desirable by the
women, moderately desirable by the men) or both partners not cleaning (more
undesirable for women, but negative for both women and men). If traditional
roles reversed (the man cleaned and the woman did not), both were upset, but
ironically, the woman more than the man (Was it guilt? Was it judgment about the
man’s cleaning?)

Question 3

3. Describe two key inter-group social psychological theories of prejudice and discrimination, with reference to research studies.

Answer 3

Social Identity Theory - Tajfel et al (1971): Dots study.
Boys told that they’d been divided into two groups – overestimators and underestimators.
Asked to allocate rewards to other participants which could later be cashed in for money.
The boys consistently allocated more points to members of their own group.
How come, when:
Boys had no history of rivalry or antagonism
They didn’t appear to mind which group they were in.
They didn’t compete for a limited resource
They weren’t even acquainted with one another!

Tajfel (1982) and Turner (1987): Social Identity Theory. People try to enhance their self-esteem which has two components:
Personal Identity
Social Identities

Two basic predictions:
Threats to self-esteem increase the need for ingroup favouritism
Expressions of ingroup favouritism enhance one’s self-esteem
Explains phenomena such as ethnocentricism.

Realistic Conflict Theory - Sherif (1966) argued that when groups have to compete over scarce resources, intergroup relations become marked by conflict, and ethnocentrism arises.
Ethnocentrism: use one’s own ethnic group and ways of doing things as a point of reference; one’s own group (e.g. its beliefs, values etc.) regarded as superior to anything different.
Sherif et al. (1961) ‘Robbers Cave’
2 groups of (white) boys first isolated, then introduced/engaged in competitive games
Resulted in intense rivalry and hostility.
i.e. displayed intense ingroup favouritism and outgroup hostility.
Later, groups set super-ordinate goals; needed to work in co-operation with each other.
Led to considerable improvement to intergroup relations.
Used to model racism and routes to improving integration.

Question 4

4. Describe two key individual process theories of prejudice and discrimination, with reference to research studies.

Answer 4

Authoritarian personality (Adorno et al., 1950): believed that prejudice was caused by a flaw in the personality, an ego-weakness, that meant the person was “maladjusted”. He says that highly prejudiced people have an “Authoritarian Personality”, and he developed a questionnaire including many items which would assess people on a variety of scales relating to Anti-Semitism, Ethnocentrism, Conservatism and receptivity to fascist ideals. These attitudes and beliefs appeared to cluster together to form a coherent pattern, and this patterning seemed best explained as an expression of basic needs within the personality. (https://psychologyrocks.org/authoritarian-personality/)

Evidence from a number of sources and particularly their own research comparing persons high and low in ethnocentrism on indices and ratings scored blind from interview data, and projective test protocols suggested that a constellation of nine tightly covarying traits characterized this authoritarian personality syndrome. Moreover, these traits seemed to bedirectly expressed in particular ‘implicitly antidemocratic,’orauthoritarian, attitudes and beliefs. This meant that it would bepossible to identify authoritarian personalities by the degree towhich people would agree with these ‘implicitly antidemo-cratic’attitudes and beliefs. On this basis, Adorno et al. (1950)developed their famous F scale consisting of items expressingattitudes which were believed to be direct expressions of eachof the nine ‘traits’of the authoritarian personality syndrome.

These nine ‘traits’are listed below with their gist definitions inparentheses followed by an example in quotation marks:
Conventionalism (rigid adherence to conventional middle-class values): “A person who has bad manners, habits,and breeding can hardly expect to get along with decentpeople.”
Authoritarian submission (a submissive, uncritical attitudetoward authorities): “Obedience and respect for authorityare the most important virtues children should learn.”
Authoritarian aggression (tendency to condemn, reject, andpunish people who violate conventional values): “Homo-sexuals are hardly better than criminals, and ought to be severely punished.”
Anti-intraception (opposition to the subjective, imaginative, and tender-minded): “Nowadays more and more people are prying into matters that should remain personal and private.”
Superstition and stereotypy (belief in mystical determinants ofthe individual’s fate, disposition to think in rigid cate-gories): “Some day it will probably be shown that astrologycan explain a lot of things.”
Power and toughness (preoccupation with the dominance–submission, strong–weak, leader–follower dimension;identification with power, strength, toughness): “People canbe divided into two distinct classes, the weak and the strong.”
Destructiveness and cynicism (generalized hostility, vilifica-tion of the human): “Human nature being what it is, therewill always be war and conflict.”
Projectivity (disposition to believe that wild and dangerousthings go on in the world; the projection outward ofunconscious emotional impulses): “Most people do notrealize how much our lives are controlled by plots hatchedin secret places.”
Sex (an exaggerated concern with sexual ‘goings-on’): “The wild sex life of the old Greeks and Romans was tamecompared to some of the ‘goings-on’in these regions, evenin places where people might least expect it.”
Adorno et al.’s (1950) theoretical explanation for the origin of this authoritarian personality drew heavily on psychodynamic theory. It suggested that overstrict, harsh, and punitive parental socialization sets up an enduring conflict within the individual. In this conflict, parental punitiveness engenders resentment and hostility toward parental authority and by extension all authority, but cannot be expressed because of fear of and dependence on the all-powerful parents. The anger and hostility are therefore repressed and replaced by an uncritical idealization of the parents and conventional authority and submission to them. The repressed anger and hostility toward authority does not disappear but is displaced and directed toward substitute targets, notably those seen as being sanctioned by conventional authority, such as vulnerable and culturally deviant out-groups and minorities. These inner impulses and conflicts are then directly expressed in the nine surface trait components of the authoritarian personality and those implicit antidemocratic beliefs sampled by the F scale (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304194497_Authoritarian_Personality)

Dogmatism (Rokeach, 1948, 1960) - Rokeach (1960): belief is more important than group membership as factor in discrimination
Congruent belief systems facilitate group harmony.
Incongruent belief systems produce an opposite effect.

Therefore…prejudice is an individual reaction to incongruent belief systems, not an attitude based on group membership.
However… this theory does not account for many kinds of prejudice…