Chapter 11: Stereotyping, Prejudice and Discrimination

The Implicit Association Test

technique for revealing unconscious prejudices toward a particular group Measured by the ease of associating different social categories with positive or negative words

multiculturalism

group differences and memberships should not only be acknowledged but also celebrated

Implicit attitudes:

measure of someone's automatic negative or positive evaluation of a social group or category -implicit attitudes predict differences in neurological responses to racial outgroups

Motivational Perspective

(3 perspectives) prejudice is based on motivations to view one's ingroup more favorably than outgroups Us v. them (ingroup favoritism)

Hiring decisions study

Aversive racism - White college students evaluated candidates for a peer counseling program by looking at excerpts from interviews. No overt racism showed when candidates were strong or weak, racism showed with marginal credentials (blacks recommended less)

Emergency helping study

Aversive racism - less likely to help the black victim when they were in a group, more likely when they were alone (no overt racism)

Modern (symbolic) racism

Characterizes political conservatives who reject explicitly racist belies but maintains and enduring discomfort with or animosity towards minorities -minorities as threat/competition - political, social, corporate power

aversive racism

Characterizes political liberals who openly endorse non prejudice beliefs and truly aspire to be non prejudiced BUT whose unconsious negative feelings get expressed in subtle, indirect, rationalizable ways

Benevolent Prejudice

Many stereotypes are ambivalent, containing both positive and negative features Issues w positive stereotypes: can be used to justify holding other negative stereotypes, may disparage members that dont fit the positive stereotype

Morning person & stereotyping study

P's indicated whether they were a morning person or evening person Stereotype v. non stereotype condition -cheating: well known athletic star v. non athlete -assault: robert garcia v. robert garner drug: mark washington v. mark washburn Ps. made judgements on perceived guilt likelihood of student defendant Morning types: more likely to rate stereotypes more guilty at night

Social identity theory

People derive part of their self-concept and self-esteem from membership in various meaningful groups -motivated to boost status of groups in order to boost self esteem (in group favoritism)

Bolstering self esteem study

Ps (not jewish- made salient to Ps) completed a test of intelligence Rated personal self esteem, rate the personality of a job candidate, rated personal self esteem Randomly assigned to different conditions - feedback of personal intelligence, job candidate Results: p's who received negative feedback derogated the jewish job candidate, the negative ratings of jewish candidates aimed to boost self esteem

Robbers cave experiment

Reducing intergroup conflict Phase 1 - in group formation - two groups isolated from one another & completed tasks to build group cohesion Phas 2 - inter-group conflict - groups brought together in a competitive tournament with a highly desirable prize, increase inter-group hostility and in-group favoritism Phase 3 - reducing inter group conflict - two groups were brought together to interact in a non competitive ways Introduction of SUPERORDINATE GOALS

Dovido & Gaertner (Aversive Racism)

Study 1: car/phone call Conservatives showed a higher helping response to whites whereas liberals helped whites but not significantly more than blacks Liberals hung up prematurely more often, especially on black motorists (more indirect) Study 2: helping behavior white or black in danger, white P either alone or in group. Results: only witness helped whites and blacks equally, other witnesses- helped blacks half as often Study 3: Affirmative action study asked about affirmative action (2 on micro and 2 on macro level) 3 target groups: blacks, elderly and handicapped Macro more accepted, blacks less accepted (particularly when micro) Study 4: Jury Decisions study introduction of inadmissible evidence No difference in race when all evidence was admissible Presentation of inadmissible evidence increased defendants judgement of guilt when black Study 5: Hiring decisions study see other notecard Study 6: College admissions similar

ABC's: Discrimination

Unfair treatment of group members of a particular group based on their group membership

Conditions needed for reducing prejudice

a) equal in status b) shared, superordinate goal c) surrounding social norms need to encourage intergroup interactions d) interactions need to be based at an individual level

Explicit attitudes

attitudes toward other racism scale, modern racism scale, internal motivation to respond without prejudice scale. (Can't always be trusted bc respondents may not think its okay to express views , some forms are ambivalent and hidden)

The ABC's of prejudice

attitudes towards different social groups are composed of: prejudice, stereotypes, discrimination

Shooter bias study

automatic stereotyping series of images of men, some armed/unarmed, in realistic backgrounds -goal is to shoot armed targets but not shoot unarmed targets (half black and white) Made the same number of mistakes for white people, whether armed or unarmed. For black people much more likely to make the mistake of shooting an unarmed person

Blatant (old fashioned) racism

beliefs about minorities that are clearly bigoted and readily admitted "relatively rare" in the US

multiculturalism v. colorblindness study (richeson & nassbaum)

colorblind perspective generated greater racial attitude biased measured both explicitly and implicitly multiculturalism is better for racial harmony Students provided a one page statement that endorsed either colorblindness or multiculturalism pro white bias in reponse latencies existed Participants exposed to color blind promt had significant white bias (generates greater automatic racist bias)

Minimal group paradigm

experimental technique in which people who have never met before are divided into groups on the basis of arbitrary, meaningless criteria - people show biases for their group even though the groups are meaningless

ABC's: stereotypes

generalization about a group that is seen as descriptive of all members of that group

Basketball stereotype study

manipulated photo (race x athleticism) Ps saw profile of "Mark Flick" and listened to radio broadcast of game Those who saw him as black rated him as more athletic and those who saw him as white rated him as having played a savy game

ABC's: Prejudice

negative attitude or affective response toward a certain group and its members

Self fulfilling prophecy

people may act toward members of a certain group in ways that encourage the very behavior they expect (perceiver has initial expectation, alters behavior, alters persons behavior, confirms stereotype)

colorblindness

proposes that racial categories should not be considered when making decisions (undermines cultural heritage)

Economic perspective

realistic group conflict theory - groups develop prejudices about one another and discriminate when they compete for limited material resources - strongest feelings of prejudice will come from the group that feels they have the most to lose

Cognitive perspective

stereotypes as mental shortcuts -help us process social information more efficiently, less effort is required when you know what to expect -more likely to use stereotypes when we are tired or cognitively taxed

Biased construals

stereotypes may be efficient - but frequently inaccurate A)accentuation of in-group similarities and outgroup differences B) out-group homogeneity effect: impaired ability to view out-group as distinct individuals, members in out-group viewed as more similar to each other while in group have more variability c) biased information processing: stereotypes guide our attention, perception, memory and interpretation, people pay attention to and remember things that are consistent with our stereotypes and fail to notice or remember things that are inconsistent (confirmation bias) d) explaining away expectations - happens when people dont see what would fit their stereotype (subtyping)

Stereotype content model

warmth and competence (See chart)

targeted perspective- stereotype threat

when one's group is in a situation which a negative stereotype about ones group applies, members of groups with a may be fearful/anxious of confirming the stereotype

women & math stereotype threat study

when they were told gender differences were found, men performed better and women performed worse