Stereotyping and Discrimination Flashcards
What happened in Sherif’s study?
Aim: To see if prejudice occurs when groups have to fight for resources.
Method: 22 American boys went to a summer camp. They had two teams, the Rattlers and the Eagles. They were kept away from each other and given time to settle into their groups.
The groups discovered each other and had to compete within various sports to win a silver cup.
Results: The competition escalated and the boys tried to attack each other and steal, burn and destroy things.
Conclusion: Groups competing may lead to prejudice.
What happened in Adorno’s study?
Aim: To see if personality type may dictate how much someone discriminates and stereo-types against others.
Method: Hundreds of people answered questions on Adorno’s F-Scale.
Results: People with an authoritarian personality type are much more likely to discriminate against others.
What happened in Tajfel’s study?
Aim: To see how easily people discriminate against their out-groups.
Method: Two groups of 14-15 year old boys were set apart and asked to give their own group any amount of money and also to give the other group money.
Result: The groups prioritised themselves and gave the least amount of money to the other group despite them being friends and the most money to their own group.
Conclusion: People will discriminate against their out-group very easily even if they know them. People are unlikely to be altruistic and work together.
What happened in Levine’s study?
Aim: To see if having something in common with someone effects prejudice.
Method: A stuntman was set up to fall in front of Liverpool fans with a Man Utd shirt on. Then he was to fall in front of them with a Liverpool shirt on.
Results: With the Man Utd shirt he was left to pick himself up but with the Liverpool shirt he was picked up and helped every time.
Conclusion: Having something in common with someone may effect prejudice levels. This could also be applied to skin colour, religion etc.
What happened in Elliott’s study?
Aim: To see if people who knew what it is like to be discriminated against were less likely to discriminate against others.
Method: Jane Elliott told her class that blue eyed people are the best people in the room and are smarter than brown eyed people. They are allowed to use the water fountain and get longer lunchtime break. The brown eyed people must always wear collars to show they are brown eyed. Elliott reversed the experiment the next day and observed the results.
Results: The blue eyed kids acted superior to the brown eyes and thought they were the best. The brown eyes became withdrawn and sad and opted out of activities and the two groups of kids squabbled. When the study ended she asked them if they would discriminate against others and they said no as they knew what it was like.
Conclusion: People are less likely to discriminate against others if they know what it’s like to be victims of discrimination themselves.
What happened in Elliott’s study?
Jane Elliott took a group of schoolchildren whom she was teaching. She told them that blue eyed people were the best people in the room and were much smarter than the brown eyed people.
The browns were made to wear collars and couldn’t use the water fountain or the fun equipment outside. Browns became withdrawn and sad while the blues thought they were superior and the browns were inferior.
She reversed the experiment a day later and similarly the browns thought they were superior and the blues were sad. She ended the experiment and asked them if they liked being discriminated against and they all said no, this improved behaviour. Also showing that if people know what its like to be victims of discrimination they are less likely to discriminate against others in life.
This is because they are able to empathise with the discriminated victims.
Where did Sherif’s experiment take place
A summer camp called Robbers Cave
Define Prejudice
An oversimplified set of beliefs about a minority or group of people that are often false and not based on a lot of fact. They usually don’t reflect reality.
Define Discrimination
It is acting upon your prejudices and doing something mean, hurtful or disadvantaging towards someone because they are part of that group or minority that you are prejudiced towards.
Define Stereotyping
Assuming something about someone because they are part of a group of people. This could be something like.
- All Japanese people are smart
- All English people like tea
- All Americans are fat
These stereotypes are often exacerbated by other sources such as the media and they are only based on some shred of truth that doesn’t really mean anything.
