Week 6: Prejudice, Stereotyping And Stigma

Question 1

What is prejudice?

Answer 1

Holding negative attitudes towards individuals only based on their group membership. It involves making judgments without regarding real attributes or actions of the individual, disregarding group variability and it causes to antisocial behavior
It often results in discrimination

Question 2

What is discrimination?

Answer 2

Unjust treatment of people based on group membership. it is caused by prejudice

Question 3

What is a stereotype?

Answer 3

An over generalized belief about a group’s traits. Not all stereotypes are negative, but some work to justify prejudice

Question 4

What are the 3 major causes of prejudice (simple list)?

Answer 4

1) ethnocentrism: judging other cultures with the standard of your own, making the assumption that your own culture is superior
2) In-group bias: the belief that the group you are part of better that the other groups
3)Hostile (unfriendly) feelings linked to a category

Question 5

How does ethnocentrism cause prejudice?

Answer 5

Ethnocentrism: judging other cultures with the standards of your own:
- symbolic racism: ideologies of rejecting groups that do not conform to one’s own group world views (basically covert prejudice but focuses on perceived violations of traditional values, rather than overt hostility toward racial groups) 🍕🍍
-Terror management theory: maintaining one’s own worldview offers psychological security, when people challenge you worldview you see them negativly

Question 6

How does in group bias form prejudice?

Answer 6

In group bias is we tend to favor ingroup>ourtgroup
Self serving bias: attributing failures to external factors and successes to in group ones
Social identity theory: gaining self esteem from being part of a group
When self esteem is threatened –> Scapegoating: unfairly blaming group/individual for problems and events to remove responsibility from true cause

Question 7

How do hostile (unfriendly feelings) lead to prejudice?

Answer 7

Humans innately categorize people. People become hostile/agressive when feeling threatened.
When we experience something negative we tend to associate the negative feelings with most salient cause
Displaced frustration is when negative feelings and actions are directed towards the out group even in the absence of direct links.
Realistic group conflict theory: idea that prejudice arises when there is conflict caused by the lack of resources. Even after conflict is resolved prejudice remains

Question 8

Innate prejudice: What is right wind authoritarianism?

Answer 8

👨‍💼People that perceive outgroup as threats and justify devaluing these groups to project personal values
- see themselves as superior than those labeled as inmoral by authority figures (LGBTQ, women, ethnic minorities)
-accept authority
- prefer well-defined power
- think rigidly (black and white)
- value traditional morals and want moral conformity

Question 9

innate prejudice: what is social dominance orientation?

Answer 9

• desire to the ingroup to dominate and maintain superiority
• believe in group is better than others
• oppose programs that promote social equality

Question 10

What innate cognitive biases lead to develop prejudice?

Answer 10

• Cognitive process - how it is in the brain’s natural tendency to categorize and oversimplify complex info (stereotyping, ingroup outgroup bias, cognitive biases and heuristics)
  Automatic biases: unconscious quick judgments or associations people make about others based on race (based on implicit associations - resist to change because occur out of conscious
• Motivational factors - what drives individuals to form and sustain prejudice (need for high status and self esteem)
• Social cultural processes - the influence of societal norms, cultural practices and socialization on the development of prejudice (transmission of cultural beliefs and stereotypes across gens, socialization, cultural norms)
  System justifying ideologies: beliefs or attitudes that defend, rationalize or legitimize exisiting inequalities (in this case of negative ratial attitudes)

Question 11

What is modern prejudice?

Answer 11

Modern prejudice: subtle, indirect and unconscious type of prejudice that is more socially acceptable

Question 12

What are some examples of modern prejudice?

Answer 12

Ambivalence: holding both positive and negative beliefs about another group simultaneously
Justification suppression model: when people have a stereotype they know isn’t socially acceptable, choose to supress it and then use a socially acceptable reason to achieve the same effect the stereotype would’ve. Example: man doesn’t want to hire woman because he thinks men are more competent, he knows that is sexist so instead he says she doesn’t seem confident enough.
Aversive racism

Question 13

What is aversive racism theory

Answer 13

Aversive racism: people who overtly believe in equality and fight against discrimination that but hold predice unconsciously (Implicit prejudice)
it can be tested observing behaviors, bogus Pipeline Experiment (when ppt were told they were hooked to a lie detector machine 🤥 they expressed more negative towards black people than if they weren’t attached to any machine)

Question 14

What are 5 characteristics of Implicit prejudice?

Answer 14

1) it is an unintentional operation: will influence prejudice although you may feel it is unfair to do so - automatic cognitive process
2) they may differ from explicit prejudice. Implicit is in amygdala while explicit (conscious) in prefrontal cortex
3) difficult to control, operate automatically
4)don’t necessarily predict behavior
5) ubiquity: they influence everyone 🌍

Question 15

How can implicit associations be measured?

Answer 15

• asking to describe character- examine words used and behavior
• Implicitly association test: measuring speed of categorization/ association between groups (👨🏿‍🦳 vs 👨🏻‍🦳) and traits (🥰 vs 😠)

Question 16

What are some limitations of studying implicit associations?using implicit association test?

Answer 16

• implicit biases have low predictive validity: implicit biases do not directly shape behavior - society has an important impact on what is explicitly said
• it is impossible to differentiate whether you are testing for stereotypes the individual is aware of or of those the individuals accepts
• low reliability (same person repeating the test more than once will achieve different results) which means it has a low construct validity ( not measuring what is claims to be measuring)
• simplistic model for implicit cognition (for example doesn’t account for influence of anxiety)

Question 17

Are stereotypes accurate? What do we mean by the kernel of truth?

Answer 17

Stereotype’s accuracy can be tested by comparing the true attributes of the group whilst keeping in mind individual prejudice, familiarity to group and metrics used for assessment.
‘Kernel of truth’ 🪄 suggests that stereotypes do emerge from a truth about the group, which overtime have been distorted/oversimplified and modifies.

Question 18

What is the social role theory?

Answer 18

Theory of why gender role stereotypes exist:
1) Originally because of biological differences and enviornmental factors men and women took on different roles (men hunters and women caregivers)
2) Over time through socialization and need to conform to social norms these roles persisted
This theory shows how in modern day different genders act in certain way not because it is innate for them to do so but because they have the need to fit social standards

Question 19

What is the stereotype content model

Answer 19

Idea that people judges social groups based on 2 dimentions
1) warmth 🔥: is the other group helpful and cooperative or competitive and harmful
2) Competence 💪: is the group capable of harming me, do they have a high or low status in society?

Question 20

What are limitations of the stereotype content model?

Answer 20

• over/simplification as it only contains 2 dimentions
• doesn’t account for cultural variability: across cultures competence and warmth may be evaluated differently
• neglects power dynamics: competence may be directly linked with social hierarchy
• static representation: cultures are continuously changing and developing, how one behaves may also be a product of the environment at that moment
• generalizability: doesn’t include complex traits of marginalized and dehumanized social groups

Question 21

Why do we use stereotypes?

Answer 21

• act as cognitive shortcuts: they facilitate understanding in complex world
• used to justify prejudice and descrimination
• help justify negative behavior
• dehumanization (g sexual objectification) of outgroup - infrahumanisations (thinking as the outgroup as less human)
• judging status quo. System justification theory: using stereotypes to support existing social structures and power dynamics.
• to boost self esteem by applying negative traits to outgroup

Question 22

What are ambivalent stereotypes?

Answer 22

Mixed stereotypes that include both positive and negative stereotypes about a certain group.

Question 23

Where do stereotypes come from?

Answer 23

• humans innately categorize into group, this process is often subjective and helps to categorize complex social setting
• social categorization doesn’t necessarily activate stereotypes. It depends on how we cog engage with target
  -can be learned through socialization, transmitted from family, friends and media

Question 24

What is the homogeneity effect?

Answer 24

idea that when someone is part of an out group they are no longer viewed as an individual but rather as a rapresentative of the entire outgroup

Question 25

How do stereotypes create a bias?

Answer 25

• stereotypes influence how we percieve others: shooter bias suggests we judge people’s danger/threat based on ethnicity/race)
  -how we interprate their behaviors: ambiguous actions will be interpreted to confirm already existing schema
  -how and to who we attribute fault: ultimate attribution error
• by distorting memories: we are more likely to remember things that are consistent with stereotype
• because they are self-perpetuating: this means that id action doesn’t fit action we will see the action as an exception rather than revising or eliminating stereotype

Question 26

How does illusory correlation cause stereotypes?

Answer 26

Illusory correlation is the tendency to assume an association between two variables, although it doesn’t actually exist. It can contribute to stereotype formation as one may incorrectly associate a behavior with a group/individual

Question 27

What is the fundamental attribution error?

Answer 27

Idea that people will attribute (determine the cause of) behavior of individuals from an out-group differently than those from their in-group, often in ways that reinforce stereotypes or prejudices

Question 28

What is master status?

Answer 28

the idea of being seen as a generalized view of your culture rather than for your skills. it is a reductionist view that impacts self consciousness and individuality

Question 29

How does stigma impact an individual? What is stigma consciousness?

Answer 29

The degree to which stigma can influence an individual depends on how strongly they identify with the stigmatized group (the more they identify, the more they will be affected)
Stigma consciousness: the anticipation of getting stereotyped because of the stigma you are associated with (people will think i have 💣 because I am muslim 🕋) will impact behavior

Question 30

What is a stigma?

Answer 30

A stigma is a negative social label 🚩 or mark of disgrace associated with a person, group, or characteristic that sets them apart and leads to discrimination, prejudice, or social rejection. Stigmas often arise from stereotypes, misinformation, or cultural biases and can significantly impact an individual’s self-esteem, behavior, and social standing.

Question 31

What is person group discrimination discrepancy?

Answer 31

The idea that an individual believes that they personally recieve less discrimination compared to other members of the same group (other group members recieve more discriminatins)

Question 32

What are the impacts of prejudice on health and behavior?

Answer 32

• psychological problems: anxiety, depression
• physical health problems
• causes self fulfilling prophecies: unconsciously behaving in a way that confirms what others expect

Question 33

What is the accumulation hypothesis? How does it forma cycle?

Answer 33

idea that stereotypes accumulate over time, the more people will hold similar expectations of a same target the more stronger the stereotype will be.
1) situational affordances: when percievers (people holding stereotype) interacts with target they create situations that will work to confirm expectations (when interacting with french 🇫🇷🥖 you are rude because you have the stereotype that all french are rude. Because YOU were rude to begin with french will act rudely and confirm your steretype)
2) commulative effect: french will always get treated rudly and actually become rude
3) Downstream consequences: now french is rude and any new person that interacts with them will get stereotype that french are rude

Question 34

What is the objectification theory?

Answer 34

A framework used to explain the consequences reducing of individuals, often women, to their physical appearance and sexual attributes.
- causes women to be more self aware because they are more frequently whatched
- needing to fit in with certain standards can cause mental health challanges
- diminishes woman’s internal bodily states –> disconnection–> mental health issues like depression, sexual dysfunctions and ed
- varying effects

Question 35

What is stereotype threat? When is it strongest?

Answer 35

The fear of confirming negative stereotypes about one’s group. It can influence performance, attitudes
It is strongest when:
-individuals are led to believe that their results will be compared to those of a higher achieving group
-when individual is aware of stereotype and is scared others believe it is true

Question 36

What is social identity threat?

Answer 36

The feeling that your group isn’t valued in a particular context. This may lead to disidentification (when people no longer feel that performance in a domain is an important part of themselves 🏂)
Examples: women being undermined in engeneering

Question 37

What are 3 general strategies to cope with stereotype and social identity threats?

Answer 37

1) reappraising anxiety: helping individuals realize that anxiety is a natural effect of stereotype threat (being scared to confirm negative stereotypes) and to try approach problem with more resilience and control.
2) Self-affirmation: focusing on one’s core values. Increased self identity creates sense of control when approaching or being faced with bias perceptions
3)identifying positive role models

Question 38

What are 3 social strategies to hope with stereotype and social identity threat?

Answer 38

1) directly confronting those with the bias 🍒: may get ppl to listen BUT this can be very hard as it can damage relationship and have a backlash - people are morel likely to listen to those who are similar (🧑 to 👨‍🦰)
2) compensating for other’s biases: oversharing or being extra kind when you believe someone is judging you 💖
3)Seeking social support: creating and celebrating 🥳 minority identity with those similarly stigmatize. Example: rejection identification theory is when negative consequences of stigmatization cause people to create a strong sense of identification and pride within their group (gay pride 🏳️‍🌈)

Question 39

What are psychological strategies for coping with stereotype and social identity threat?

Answer 39

1) Blaming the bias and not the self: maintaining a positive self image and not internalizing negative stereotype by not using bias to justify their shortcomings
2) Devalue domain where the prejudice occurs: By reducing the personal importance of a domain ppl can shield the the negative outcomes they experience - naturally on some domains this isn’t effective

Question 40

Explain the contact hypothesis

Answer 40

prejudice can be reduced by direct contact that follows 4 specific conditions
1) equal statues: groups must perceive themselves as equal during the interaction 🟰
2) The two groups must have a common goal to work towards 🚀
3) intergroup cooperation >competition
4)Institutional support by authorities, law and societal norms

Question 41

After initial contact, according to the contact theory, how do the groups reduce prejudice?

Answer 41

1) Initial contact, decategorization, initial anxiety
2) established contact, salient categorization, decreased prejudice towards outgroup. A midfield group is created
3) common ingroup identity, recategorization, cooperation

Question 42

How was contact hypothesis explored in Sherif’s Robbers Cave Study?

Answer 42

2 groups of boys were created, each with strong ingroup membership.
Intergroup competition (games between the teams) led to physical aggression - competition + limited resources (prizes and status) led to conflict and prejudice between the groups.
Contact alone in not enough, it need to be structured
Groups were given tasks that required cooperation –> hostility was reduced and increased social interaction

Question 43

What makes contact theory successful?

Answer 43

Why the contact theory was succesful:
1) reduced stereotyping as ppt in different groups got to know eachother and stop decategorizing the outgroup
2) reduced anxiety: enhancing familiarity with out group reduces feelings of anxiety cause by unknown
3) fosters empathy: contact theory allows people to adopt new perspectives and focus on similarities rather than differences

Question 44

How can prejudice be reduced even without contact?

Answer 44

• perspective taking: gets people to view outgroup members more positively enhancing intergroup relations. Helps reduce implicit and explicit bias BUT may be inaccurate as one doesn’t know what others think
  -self-bolstering: this means boosting your self esteem. A high self esteem buffers from threats of outgroup - less likely to be defensive and agressive (TMT)
  -multicultural ideology: celebrating differences, promoting inclusivity MAY cause group differences to become salient increasing stereotype. This is the opposite of being colorblind: where people act as if group membership didn’t exist not accounting for existence of marginalized groups

Question 45

What is the dual view of prejudice? System 1 and 2

Answer 45

System 1: Automatic activation of stereotypes, fast, reflexive, unconscious. Biases may contradict explicit beliefs.
System 2: Controlled processing that deliberately works to inhibit automatic prejudice - NOT FOOLPROOF- Cognitive depletion: when individuals are under stress or have occupied cog. capacity system 1 overrules

Question 46

What is the effect of education and motivation on implicit bias?

Answer 46

Education: simply educating of presence of prejudice isn’t enough. People need to engage in the for change to take place
Motivation: people who are intrinsically motivated are more likely to be involved in sustained efforts to reduce prejudice. Externally motivated individuals will only suppress bias to avoid social dissaproval - short term difference

Question 47

What are the direct and indirect effects of stigma?

Answer 47

Stigma= discrimination or devaluation caused by membership in a group that is seen as inferior/marginalised
Direct effects= discrimination, confirmation bias, automatic stereotype activations
Indirect effects= threats to personal and social identity

Question 48

What is intersectionality? Where does it originate?

Answer 48

Framework that explores how different social identities (SES, gender, race, disability) can overlap to create unique experiences of discrimination, privilege or oppression.
Created by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989 to highlight how traditional approaches to social justice often fail to consider the combined effects of multiple forms of inequality.