Stereotypes

Question 1

L1:

What are the learning objectives of Stereotypes Lecture 1?

Answer 1

• Define social categorisation and stereotypes
• Debate the idea that categorisation is inevitable
• Distinguish between categorisation, stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination
• Describe the key premises of the stereotype content model (SCM)
• Evaluate evidence for the SCM
• Distinguish between stereotype activation and stereotype application

Question 2

L1:

Define “stereotype”

Answer 2

Walter Lippman - “picture inside one’s head”

Modern definition - Collection of traits that society associates with one particular social group

ASSIGNING TRAITS

Question 3

L1:

Define “social categorisation”

Answer 3

The process of assigning people to groups based on social categories e.g. age, sex, race, religion.

This is rarely all or nothing e.g. “English people”… born here? Born elsewhere and moved here? Born here and moved away?

Categorisation revolves around a central prototype

ASSIGNING CATEGORY

Question 4

L1:

Is social categorisation inevitable?

Answer 4

+ Humans are cognitive misers - so social categorisation often occurs into salient categories e.g. age, race, sex - so probably occurs automatically

• Mere exposure to a person isn’t sufficient to accurately categorise a person
• Categorisation should only occur when it is relevant to do so
• Goal-dependent, if we only categorise when relevant then processing goals are involved (Quinn and Macrae) - found that people only categorised faces into gender when instructed to - wasn’t automatic

Question 5

L1:

Define “prejudice”

Answer 5

A negative attitude towards a social group or its members

Question 6

L1:

Define “discrimination”

Answer 6

Biased behaviour towards a person because of their group membership

Question 7

L1:

What is the tripartite model of prejudice?

Answer 7

STEREOTYPES - cognitive
DISCRIMINATION - behavioural
EMOTIONS - affective

These three are the components of prejudice (attitude)

Question 8

L1:

Do stereotypes change?

Answer 8

Stereotypes change as society does. Princeton studies - most ethnicity- and nationality-based stereotypes have changed

Question 9

L1:

What is the stereotype content model (SCM)?

Answer 9

(Fiske et al 2002)

Stereotypes are classified here along two key dimensions: warmth and competence, linked to current status and potential for competition.

Question 10

L1:

Define “paternalistic prejudice”

Answer 10

High Warmth
Low Competence

Low Status
Not Competitive

Evokes: Pity/ Sympathy

E.g. elderly people, housewives, disabled people

Question 11

L1:

Define “admiration prejudice”

Answer 11

High Warmth
High Competence

High Status
Not Competitive

Evokes: Pride, Admiration

e.g. in-group member/ ally

Question 12

L1:

Define “contemptuous prejudice”

Answer 12

Low Warmth
Low Competence

Low Status
Competitive

Evokes: digust, anger, contempt, resentment

e.g. welfare recipients, poor people

Question 13

L1:

Define “envious prejudice”

Answer 13

Low Warmth
High Competence

High Status
Competitive

Evokes: envy, jealousy

e.g. Asians, Jews, rich people, feminists

Question 14

L1:

Define “stereotype activation”

Answer 14

The degree to which a stereotype is accessible in the mind

Question 15

L1:

Define “stereotype application”

Answer 15

The actual use of activated stereotypes in judgement formation e.g. forming an impression

Question 16

L2:

What are the learning objectives of Stereotypes Lecture 2?

Answer 16

• Discuss key explanations for why people stereotype, with reference to empirical evidence
• Explain how stereotypes are formed and maintained, with reference to empirical evidence
• Critically evaluate whether prejudice, and goals and motivation, moderate stereotype activation, with reference to empirical evidence

Question 17

L2:

Why do people stereotype?

Energy saving device

Answer 17

1. Stereotypes as an energy saving device:
   - cognitive misers, simplifies information processing and reduces cognitive load - “judgemental heuristic”

Evidence: Macrae et al Study 1

Dual-task paradigm, asked to form impressions of people based on a computer description while monitoring audio track (describing geography and economy of Indonesia).

Experimental condition - John, skinhead: John’s traits (half stereotypical) - given category label “skinhead”
Control condition - John: John’s traits (half stereotypical) not given category label

If stereotypes conserve cog resources, you should perform better on the MPC about the audio track in the experimental conditions, because stereotypes had already been formed - true to results obtained

Question 18

L2:

Why do people stereotype?

Justification function

Answer 18

2. Stereotypes as a justification function:
   - people want to believe that social systems are fair and legitimate
   - stereotypes can rationalise any inequality that exists

Evidence: Jost & Kay

System justification theory – argues even disadvantaged groups act in a way to perpetuate the social hierarchy

Participants were exposed to communal gender stereotypes

• stereotype exposure condition: do these communal traits apply more to women or men and to what degree?
• control condition: no exposure

Participants then completed a questionnaire assessing agreement with current gender relations and sex role division

Findings: Men engaged in system justification no matter their experimental group, women engage in justification when exposed to stereotypes but not generally. Concluded that making stereotypes salient encourages people to endorse gender roles and legitimise the hierarchy

Question 19

L2:

Outline how stereotypes are formed

Answer 19

Stereotypes are formed through socialisation with family, peers, media etc.

Cognitive biases also help to perpetuate (maintain) them:

• Biases in exposure/interpretation
• Self-fulfilling prophesy

Question 20

L2:

Outline how stereotypes are maintained in terms of bias

Answer 20

1. Biased exposure

Stereotypes may bias the information we look for, in a way that confirms the view we already hold

Evidence: Johnston and Macrae
- impression formation task of physics students, based on the selection of Q/A from interviews of students, ppts chose to view stereotype confirming questions

2. Biased interpretation

Ultimate attribution error (Pettigrew)

• Negative stereotypic traits are attributed to stable disposition (internal factors)
• Positive stereotypic traits are attributed to the situation (external factors)

Evidence: Barrett and Bliss Moreau

• ppts shown emotional faces with situational explanations, then asked to say whether targets were emotional or having a bad day
• results reinforced the stereotype that females are more emotional

Question 21

L2:

Name the two ways in which stereotypes are maintained

Answer 21

1. Bias (exposure or interpretation)

2. Self-fulfilling prophesy

Question 22

L2:

Outline how stereotypes are maintained in terms of the self-fulfilling prophesy theory

Answer 22

Stereotypic expectations are said to lead outgroup members to behave in a way that reinforces those expectations (stereotype-consistent behaviour)

Evidence: Chen and Bargh

• Perceiver condition: subliminally primed with faces of african-americans (priming hostility in the ppt) or caucasians during a dot-counting task
• Target condition: no subliminal prime during dot counting

Perceiver and target play game of catch phrase via a microphone (recorded), judges rate verbal behaviour in terms of hostility. Judges rated participants who were primed with Af-Am faces to be more hostile, however this also occured in the ratings of the target condition (not primed)… they were reacting to the hostility of the people they were paired with

See diagram in notes

Question 23

L2:

Is stereotype activation automatic?

Answer 23

Remember: this is the degree to which the s.types are accessible in the mind

Devine (1989): Stereotypes learnt in childhood, long history of activation, automatic activation (automatically easily accessible)

Question:
Is stereotype activation moderated by prejudice/ goals and motivation?

Question 24

L2:

Is stereotype activation moderated by prejudice?

Outline Devine’s Theory, and the 2 processes implicated

Answer 24

Do high levels of prejudice make stereotypes automatically activated/ salient in the mind?

Evidence: Devine - Dual Process Theory
Stereotypes learned in childhood -> whole life of being activated (salient) -> activation becomes automatic

2 processes implicated…

1. Automatic processes: Stereotypes are automatically activated regardless of prejudice level

Stereotypes are learned in childhood (before personal beliefs/ attitudes) because they’ve been frequently activated (made salient) for longer than personal beliefs, s.types are automatically activated upon categorisation (assigning a category like gender etc).

2. Controlled process: when people have the cognitive resources to control their response, they can inhibit the s.type and instead express their personal beliefs

Argues that everybody activates stereotypes automatically, but non-prejudiced people can control them i.e. choose not to apply them to people

Question 25

L2:

Explain what the words ‘prejudice’ and ‘moderate’ mean

Answer 25

Prejudice - negative attitude towards a person due to outgroup membership

Moderate - variable that changes and affects the strength and/ or direction of a relationship between two other variables (doesn’t necessarily cause it, like a mediator)

Question 26

L2:

Is stereotype activation moderated by prejudice?

Describe Devine’s Experiment (2)

Answer 26

Devine Experiment (2): Examined whether high- and low-prejudiced people both automatically activate stereotypes

Method:
- primed ppts with labels (blacks etc) and stereotypes (athletic, poor etc) of African Americans, 80% vs 20%

-Stereotype activation measured via impression formation task…
> Participants read an ambiguously stereotypic (hostile) description of ‘Donald’s day’, then rate him on hostility related/ unrelated traits
> ppts unaware of tasks racial purpose, so don’t control responses
> so… differences in hostility ratings between the intense priming condition (80%) vs the less intense priming condition (20% of words) reflect automatic stereotype activation

Results:

• Higher ratings of hostility in the intense priming condition
• This wasn’t moderated by prejudice: both high- and low-prejudice people formed a more hostile (stereotypical) impression

CONCLUSION: Everyone activates stereotypes, regardless of prejudice

Question 27

L2:

Is stereotype activation moderated by prejudice?

Critically evaluate Devine’s Experiment (2)

How could this be improved?

Answer 27

Category labels participants were primed for were all pejorative (negative) and stereotypic traits, along with associated concepts (poor, slavery, ghetto) probably directly activated hostility for all participants, regardless of their own prejudice towards black people.

Improval by:
- current practice is to prime particiapnts with neutral category labels and non-stereotypic traits e.g. women, man, age etc

Question 28

L2:

Is stereotype activation moderated by prejudice?

Describe the follow up experiment to Devine’s Experiment (2)

(Kawakami et al)

Answer 28

Exp 1: Again, examined whether high- and low-prejudice people both automatically activate stereotypes

Used a method not subject to confounds of Devine’s exp.

Method:

• Pronunciation task: ppts primed with neutral category labels (e.g. black, white), followed by stereotypic and non-stereotypic words, participants asked to pronounce each trait aloud
• Stereotype activation is inferred from shorter pronunciation latencies (quicker) of stereotypic traits following the black prime relative to the white prime

Results:
- High prejudice ppts automatically activate stereotypes
> showed shorter latencies of pronunciation to stereotypic words
- Low prejudice ppts do not automatically activate stereotypes
> showed no difference in pronunciation latencies to black stereotypic words following black prime relative to white prime

Question 29

L2:

Is stereotype activation moderated by goals and motivation?

Outline Sinclair and Kunda 1999 (Exp. 3)

Answer 29

Can motivation to enhance self-worth prompt selective activation and inhibition of stereotypes?

If people belong to multiple social groups (e.g. female, British, gay), can they selectively activate stereotypes that suit their purpose, and inhibit those that don’t?

Sinclair and Kunda (Exp. 3):

Method:

• ppts answered Qs on interpersonal skills
• Positively/negatively evaluated by a black/white doctor
• stereotype activation assessed using lexical decision task
• words associated with the stereotype of black people (jazz, violent) and doctors (health, patient)

Results:

• ppts who received negative feedback on a task from a black doctor tended to activate traits associated with the racial stereotype (quicker reaction times), but inhibited those associated with the doctor s.type (slower)
• ppts who received positive feedback tended to activate traits associated with the doctor stereotype, and inhibit those associated with the racial s.type

Activating racial s.type allows for negative feedback to be discounted, so not affecting self-esteem. Activating doctor stereotype gives positive feedback more legitimacy.

Question 30

L2:

What is a dual task paradigm?

Answer 30

An experimental method where subjects are required to perform two concurrent tasks, for example, tracking an object on a screen while responding to an audio track at the same time.

Question 31

L2:

What is a probe reaction task?

Answer 31

The task where the reaction time to a stimulus of a secondary task is used as a measure of the attention demands of the primary task; low reaction times are assumed to indicate that the amount of attention required for the primary task is relatively small.

Question 32

L2:

Summarise Macrae’s Study 1

Answer 32

Ppts asked to form impressions of targets using computer-based presentation of trait descriptors, while simultaneously monitoring an audio track.

…in order to see if stereotypes reduce cog load, so resources can be used elsewhere

Experimental condition - John, skinhead: John’s traits (half stereotypical) - given category label “skinhead”
Control condition - John: John’s traits (half stereotypical) not given category label

If stereotypes conserve cog resources, you should perform better on the MPC about the audio track in the experimental conditions, because stereotypes had already been formed - true to results obtained

Question 33

L2:

Summarise Macrae’s Study 2

Answer 33

Investigating automaticity of stereotype activation when subjects are unaware of stereotype labels (subliminal priming) in order to see if stereotypes reduce cog load, so resources can be used elsewhere

If stereotypes conserve cog resources, you should perform better on the MPC about the audio track in the experimental conditions, because stereotypes had already been formed - true to results obtained

Question 34

L2:

Summarise Macrae’s Study 3

Answer 34

Investigating whether stereotypes reduce cog load, so resources can be used elsewhere, using probe reaction task (asked to switch off an auditory stimulus).

To manipulate the difficulty of the impression-formation task, the stereotypic information on the targets was presented either supra- or subliminally.

If stereotypes serve to reduce cognitive load, then reaction times to probe task should be shortened when stereotypic information is presented supraliminally.

This was supported by their results

Question 35

L3:

What are the learning objectives of Stereotypes Lecture 3?

Answer 35

• Define stereotype threat
• Describe empirical evidence that stereotype threat affects performance
• Apply knowledge of stereotype threat to real-world phenomena, by using empirical examples to explain how stereotype threat may contribute to the underrepresentation of women in STEM
• Recognise common interventions to reduce stereotype threat
• Describe Miyaki et al’s (2010) empirical evaluation of a values-affirmation intervention to reduce stereotype threat, including rationale, methodology and results

Question 36

L3:

Describe stereotype threat and briefly explain how it affects behaviour

Answer 36

Definition: The concern experienced by a person when there is a possibility that they may act in a way consistent with negative stereotypes

Question 37

L3:

Explain how stereotype threat affects behaviour

(Including empirical evidence - Steele and Aronson)

Answer 37

How does it affect behaviour?
The situational “threat in the air” affects performance on the stereotypes dimension/ task

Steele and Aronson (1995)
Black ppts performed worse than white ppts on a test presented as a measure of their intellectual ability, but performed equally well when no reference was made to intellectual ability

Basically, stereotypes and the worry that one will act in accordance with a negative stereotype of themselves, affects people performance/ behaviour in that dimension

Question 38

L3:

Describe further studies into stereotype threat and it’s effect on performance/ behaviour

1. Spencer Steel and Quinn
2. Koenig and Eagly

Answer 38

1. Spencer, Steele and Quinn -
   Women vs men on maths tests performed worse when told the test reveals gender differences
2. Koenig and Eagly -
   men performed worse on interpersonal perception task when told it was to assess social sensitivity (and that men usually perform worse than women), relative to when told it was just to assess complex information processing

Question 39

L3:

Describe Frantz et al’s 2004 Study into stereotype threat in psychology undergraduates

Answer 39

Do white american undergrad psych students experience s.type threat in relation to concern about appearing racist?

White Americans are negatively stereotypes as racist. IAT (implicit measure) used to measure prejudice/ racial attitudes… psych undergrads know this

Study 1 -

3 conditions: Explicit threat, no threat or no instruction group (determined info given about the IAT)
Ppts then completed the IAT

Results: Ppts in explicit threat condition show greater implicit bias than both other conditions, implies that stereotype threat inflates the amount of racial bias shown

Question 40

L3:

Apply stereotype threat to real world phenomena

Answer 40

Women and STEM(M) -

Leaky pipeline - 42% of UK academic staff are female, however when you reach the most senior level 17% are female…

Could stereotype threat be contributing to the leaky pipeline?

The stereotype than women aren’t as good as men at STEM subjects could affect their ability to perform due to percieved pressure to do well, the s.type that women are emotional etc could then affect grades, whether they apply for jobs or are promoted.

Question 41

L3:

Other than performance, what else does stereotype threat affect?

Answer 41

Stereotype threat doesn’t just affect performance… also withdrawal from the stereotyped domain and learning from the stereotyped domain

Question 42

L3:

Beyond performance… stereotype threat and disengagement from the stereotyped domain

Answer 42

Disegagement from the stereotyped domain…

Davies et al: Does stereotype threat undermine women’s career aspirations?

Women exposed to gender-stereotypic TV ads reported less interest in pursuing qualifications/ careers in fields involving quantitative skills (maths,, engineering, physics etc)

Question 43

L3:

Beyond performance… stereotype threat and learning in the stereotyped domain

Answer 43

Learning in the stereotyped domain…

Rydell et al: Does stereotype threat reduce womens ability to learn mathematical concepts and rules?

Women under s.type threat showed reduced performance when learning mathematical rules compared to when not under threat

Question 44

L3:

Describe the 3 main stereotype threat intervention methods

Answer 44

1. Reframing and Reappraisal (Threat -> Challenge)

Effects of s.type threat are reduced when tests are reframed as a challenging learning experience

S.type threat effects are reduced when anxiety is presented as helpful rather than harmful to task performance

2. De-emphasis of threatened social identity or domain

Stereotype threat effects are reduced when ppts given opportunity to list positive and negative aspects of personal identity rather than social indentity

3. People have multiple social identities

All of these different associated stereotypes have difference affects on performance

Question 45

L3:

Breifly explain Miyaki et al’s 2010 study

Answer 45

Reducing the Gender Achievement Gap in College Science: A Classroom Study of Values Affirmation

Men and women on an introductory physics course completed intervention twice in a semester

Values affirmation group: Choose most important value and write about why it is important to you

Control: choose least important value and write about why it is important to others

Results: Women performed better in school in values affirmation condition

Question 46

L3:

Describe the rationale behind Miyaki et al’s 2010 study

Answer 46

There’s a massive gender gap in both representation of women in STEM studies, performance, qualifications and careers.

Some interventions have been attempted: Small scale - having students discuss concepts in groups during class and intorductory classes + large scale - restructuring whole courses and having mentors focused on women…

But these interventions only go so far (focus on instructional methods rather than socio-psychological or cogntivie factors than contribute to the gender learning and achievement gap).

…One such contributor is Stereoype Threat
The fear of being devalued based on group identity i.e being a woman

Values attribution works to counteract s.type threat

Question 47

L3:

Describe the methodology of Miyaki et al’s 2010 study

Answer 47

Tested whether the values affirmation technique would reduce the gender achievement gap in a 15-week introductory physics course for STEM majors

Randomised double-blind study, 399 students (283 men, 116 women) randomly assigned to either values affirmation condition or control group.

Students in the affirmation conditon picked their most important value from a list and wrote about it via promps
Students in the control picked their least important value and wrote about why it might be important to others, so wall left self-relevant than experimental condition.

This process was repeated 3 times over the semester, at the beginning, 4 weeks in and right before the midterms.

Question 48

L3:

Describe the results of Miyaki et al’s 2010 study

Answer 48

Values affirmation succeeded in reducing the gender gap in performance of the students

This reduction in the gender gap remained evidence on the final exam, despite the technique not being used before that exam (just the midterm)

Grades were raised from average C to B for women

Values affirmation was particularly beneficial for women who endorsed the gender stereotype that women are poorer at STEM than men

Figures: closed the gap on in-class scores by 61% and eliminated the gap entirely on the conceptual mastery final (force and movement conceptual evaluation).

Question 49

L3:

What is ‘values affirmation’

Answer 49

This is where people reflect on self-defining values

This is done on an individual level, focusing on the values of oneself rather than group values

When someone affirms their personal values in a threat situation they reestablish their view of integrity and worth, helping them to cope with the threatening environment effectively (lessens stress), and thus, perform better