Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Discrimination

Question 1

What is stereotyping?

Answer 1

A belief that a particular attribute (positive or negative) is characteristic of the group as a whole, regardless of actual variation

Question 2

What is prejudice?

Answer 2

A negative attitude toward members of a distinguishable group, based solely on group membership

Question 3

What is discrimination?

Answer 3

Unfair treatment of a group or member of a group based on group membership

Question 4

What are the two reasons we use stereotypes?

Answer 4

Cognitively efficient - like heuristics for people, otherwise hard to form unique beliefs about every single person
Natural categorization - evolutionarily adaptive to notice “us” vs. “them”

Question 5

What is the outgroup homogeneity effect?

Answer 5

The tendency to view outgroup members as more similar to each other than they really are

Question 6

What is the own-race bias?

Answer 6

Refers to the difficulty distinguishing faces of other races

Question 7

How are beliefs about cause a consequence of stereotypes?

Answer 7

Beliefs about frequency can slide into beliefs about cause (making causal claims due to frequency)

Question 8

How are expectations of group members a consequence of stereotypes?

Answer 8

Can create unrealistic expectations for some group members

Question 9

How is discrimination a consequence of stereotypes?

Answer 9

Legitimizes discrimination
Ex. benevolent sexism (appear positive, still contribute to gender inequality) vs. hostile sexism (overtly negative and hostile attitudes)

Question 10

How is confirmation bias a consequence of stereotypes?

Answer 10

Stereotypes can bias perceptions

Question 11

How does the Stone et al. (1997) “white men can’t jump” study explain the relationship between confirmation bias and stereotypes?

Answer 11

Black players in a basketball game were rated as more athletic, while white players were rated as having more determination/intelligence → participants used stereotypes to describe the athletes

Question 12

How is self-fulfilling prophecy a consequence of stereotypes?

Answer 12

Stereotypes affect behavior toward outgroup members in ways that confirm beliefs (i.e. women discouraged in STEM due to assumed deficiency in STEM subjects)

Question 13

What is stereotype threat and how is it a consequence of stereotypes?

Answer 13

Concern about doing something to confirm a negative stereotype of their group → usually end up confirming the negative stereotype

Question 14

What does the Spencer and Steele (1995) women and math tests study tell us about stereotype threat?

Answer 14

Women and men completed difficult math tests → women confirmed the stereotype of women being worse at math when told about the gender difference

Question 15

How is disidentification a consequence of stereotypes?

Answer 15

Removing effort and engagement in areas where your group has been traditionally underrepresented/where negative stereotypes are associated

Question 16

What is ingroup bias?

Answer 16

The tendency to favor one’s own group (“us” = ingroup, “them” = outgroup)

Question 17

What is the minimal group paradigm?

Answer 17

Create groups that have no social reality (i.e. randomly place people in groups)

Question 18

What does the Klee and Kandinsky study tell us about the minimal group paradigm?

Answer 18

Participants allocated more money to peers that selected the same painting as them than those that selected the other painting → prioritized their in-group despite the only factor making them part of the in-group is the painting

Question 19

What is realistic group conflict?

Answer 19

Prejudice is likely to arise when groups compete for limited resources (land, money, work, etc.)

Question 20

How are self-image concerns related to prejudice?

Answer 20

Fein & Spencer (1997) → stereotyping and prejudice is a common means to maintain one’s self-image, especially when it’s threatened (putting someone down boosts self-image)

Question 21

How is socialization a cause of prejudice?

Answer 21

Explicit/implicit processes in which we’re trained about the norms of our culture, which includes prejudice
Consists of direct observation (parents, peers, etc.) and media

Question 22

How does media contribute to prejudice?

Answer 22

Stereotypical roles (places certain groups in stereotypical roles, i.e. women are usually the cleaners in cleaning ads)
Underrepresentation

Question 23

What is implicit “prejudice”?

Answer 23

Negative attitudes toward a group of people below the level of conscious awareness, which operates in an automatic way

Question 24

What are some ongoing questions related to implicit bias?

Answer 24

Does the Implicit Attitudes Test (IAT) measure implicit prejudice? If not, how?
Does implicit prejudice (via the IAT) predict behavior?
Why are people so accurate in guessing their own bias?
Individual vs. regional level bias (how does bias differ across people, country, state, etc.)

Question 25

What is stigma consciousness?

Answer 25

Expectation that others will define you based on your membership in a stigmatized group (i.e. openly gay but aware of the societal stigma of being a part of the LGBT → very cautious in social settings)

Question 26

What is attributional ambiguity?

Answer 26

Uncertainty about whether negative experiences are due to prejudice (hard to tell when a situation is due to prejudice/discrimination or just bad luck)

Question 27

What does Crocker & Major (1989) say are the 3 ways self-esteem is protected in stigmatized groups?

Answer 27

External attributions to protect self-esteem: it was an unfair outcome from someone else (nothing you did/didn’t do)
Restricting social comparisons to stigmatized in-group reduces potential for threatening upward comparisons: compare yourself to others who are similar, rather than comparing to an out-group is better
Focusing on areas in which your group can succeed: avoiding areas where you know you’ll have discrimination, it can be better to avoid/devalue it & view it as not as important

Question 28

What are the consequences for health and well-being from perceiving prejudice?

Answer 28

People who report more daily prejudice report depression and lower life outlooks

Question 29

What is institutional discrimination?

Answer 29

Laws and policies that unfairly disadvantage certain groups

Question 30

What are 4 examples of ongoing individual discrimination?

Answer 30

Microaggressions
Job applications and home appraisals
School suspensions
Police interactions

Question 31

What does the Voigt et al. (2017) study tell us about how police interactions can be a form of individual discrimination?

Answer 31

Body cams showed racial discrimination in police for different people in routine stops → police showed more discrimination towards the black community than others (didn’t matter what race the police officer was)

Question 32

What is the contact hypothesis?

Answer 32

Contact between members of groups can lead to positive intergroup attitudes (contacting out-group is good → mere-exposure effect)

Question 33

What factors are necessary for effective contact between groups?

Answer 33

Equal status: contact must be w/ people of equal status, best if friendships form
Cooperation: sometimes more than contact is required

Question 34

What are instances that require intergroup cooperation?

Answer 34

Superordinate goals: shared goals that require cooperation (some things you need other people for)
Shared threats: event/mutual out-groups to work against (i.e. 9/11 gave everyone a common enemy)

Question 35

What does Sherif’s Robbers Cave study (1961) tell us about cooperation?

Answer 35

Kids at camp were split into groups, competition caused conflict → mere exposure didn’t resolve the conflict, cooperation resolved the conflict/reduced prejudice

Question 36

How does perspective taking reduce prejudice?

Answer 36

Vividly imagining the experiences of another person → produces empathy (feeling that you can understand that person’s experiences by putting yourself in their shoes)

Question 37

How does self-affirmation reduce prejudice?

Answer 37

Focus on personally important value to boost one’s self-worth → minimizes urge to put others down to boost self-esteem, reduces defensiveness and prejudice

Question 38

How does multicultural ideology reduce prejudice?

Answer 38

Acknowledging and appreciating different cultural identities and worldviews (in contrast to a colorblind ideology) → embrace differences and not expect everything to be viewed the same

Question 39

What are two ways to remove the impact of prejudice?

Answer 39

Orchestra auditions → can only hear people sing, not see them
Policing policies → pursuing officer and officer that puts on the handcuffs can’t be the same person, reduces use of force and safer approach to apprehend suspect