W11: Stereotypes, Prejudice and Discrimination

Question 1

What is the tripartite view of intergroup bias?

Answer 1

1. Prejudice (Affective response towards groups and their members)
2. Discrimination (Behaviours towards individuals based on their group membership)
3. Stereotypes (Cognitions or beliefs that certain attributes are characteristic of members of certain groups)

Question 2

What is traditional vs modern racism/prejudice?

Answer 2

1. Traditional: prejudice against a racial group that is explicitly acknowledged and expressed by the individual
2. Modern: Prejudice against a racial group that exists even though explicit racist beliefs are rejected
   - subtle indicators

Question 3

What are the two experiments regarding modern racism?

Answer 3

1. Group vs individual responses to confederates in need (being able to act in line w racism when there’s a group)
2. Attitudes towards Blacks scale
   - Modern racism is suppressed when a behaviour would make you look clearly “racist”.
   i. e., Rejecting a Black applicant who is excellent, accepting a White applicant who is terrible
   - But it emerges when the racist behaviour can be masked.
   i. e., Rejecting a Black applicant who has mixed qualities, accepting a White applicant who has mixed qualities.

Question 4

How do you measure implicit prejudicial attitudes?

Answer 4

1. IAT (Implicit Association Test)

2. Affective Priming Paradigm

Question 5

Why do implicit attitudes differ from explicit ones?

Answer 5

1) People are trying to hide/mask their “true” attitudes.
2) People may not be aware of these implicit associations
These are not actually representative of their explicit beliefs

Question 6

Why do we favour ingroup members over outgroup members (intergroup bias)?

Answer 6

1. economic perspective
   - scarce resources
2. motivational perspective
   - enhance self-esteem and social identity
3. cognitive perspective

Question 7

What is the economic perspective of intergroup bias?

Answer 7

Realistic Group Conflict Theory: When groups compete for limited resources (e.g., territory, jobs, power), these groups experience conflict, prejudice, and discrimination.
- Prejudice and discrimination should be strongest among groups that stand to lose the most if another group succeeds.

Question 8

What can we learn from Robber’s Cave experiment?

Answer 8

1. Economic competition is sufficient for intergroup bias
2. Competition against outgroups can increase ingroup cohesion
3. Intergroup conflicts reduced when forced to work together

Question 9

What is the motivational perspective behind intergroup bias?

Answer 9

A. Social Identity Theory:
A person’s self-concept and self-esteem are derived from
1. Personal identity
2. AND ingroup status/accomplishments.
- therefore, people are more motivated to view their ingroup favourably because this enhances self-concept and self-esteem

B. Minimal Group Paradigm
- Researchers create groups based on arbitrary and meaningless criteria to see if they can get people to develop intergroup bias as a result.

C. Self-Enhancement:

• ingroup love: reflected glory
• outgroup derogation: collective self, social comparison

Question 10

What is the cognitive perspective of intergroup bias?

Answer 10

We have limited cognitive resources, so sometimes STEREOTYPING IS FASTER!

Question 11

When is stereotyping useful?

Answer 11

Stereotypes can be useful because they decrease the time/effort needed to deal with the environment.

Question 12

When are stereotypes harmful?

Answer 12

1. Biased information processing (the shoving study)
2. Distinctiveness/illusory correlations
   - negative behaviors from minority members are doubly distinct (paired distinctiveness), and seem much more common than they really are.
3. Self-fulfilling prophecies
   - interview study 1974
   - When Black (or other discriminated group members) display negative behaviours, it may be that the behaviours were elicited by people who discriminate against them, rather than reflective of their true nature.
4. Outgroup homogeneity effect
   - The tendency to assume that members of outgroups are “all alike” whereas members of ingroups have differences.
   - Own race identification bias
5. Automatic vs Controlled Processing
   - Police officer’s dilemma

BDSOA

Question 13

What are the consequences of being stigmatized?

Answer 13

1. Attributional Ambiguity
2. Stereotype Threat (The fear that we will confirm a stereotype that others have because of a stereotyped group we belong to.) performance anxiety
3. Cost of Concealment

Question 14

How to reduce intergroup bias?

Answer 14

1. Contact Hypothesis