Social Midterm--Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination

What is the difference between blatant & subtle stereotype threat?

1. Blatant threat (explicit): "This is a math test, women typically do worse on math tests, so do your best" 2. Subtle threat (solo status): Women taking math test in the presence of only men.

According to the contact hypothesis, what six things need to be present for exposure to other groups to be effective in reducing discrimination?

1. Interdependence (relying on eachother) 2. Equal status 3. Personal interaction in friendly setting 4. Cooperative activities with a common goal 5. Exposure to multiple members of other group 6. Social norms (need to be accepted and understood by members of both groups)

What is ambivalent sexism?

A form of sexism characterized by attitudes about women that reflect both negative, resentful beliefs/feelings as well as affectionate & chivalrous but potentially patronizing beliefs/feelings.

What is the outgroup homogeneity effect?

A result of social categorization. We tend to look at other groups as being all the same, but note individual differences within our own groups.

What are stereotypes?

Beliefs that associate a whole group of people with a trait.

What is the difference between hostile and benevolent sexism?

Both are forms of ambivalent sexism. Hostile sexism is an antagonistic attitude toward women.. Benevolent sexism is a chivalrous attitude toward women that feels favorable but is actually sexist because it casts women as weak creatures in need of men's protection.

What is social categorization?

Classification of persons into groups on the basis of attributes. In some ways, this is natural and adaptive (saves time and energy).

How does the Jigsaw classroom provide evidence for the contact hypothesis?

Classroom setting designed to reduce prejudice and enhance self-esteem of children by placing them in small, multiethnic groups and making each child dependent on the other children to learn course material. Students placed in diverse six-person learning groups. The day's lesson is divided into six segments, and each student is assigned one segment of the written material. Each student must learn his or her own section and teach it to the other members of the group, who do not have access to the other material. Students in jigsaw groups became less prejudiced and liked their group-mates more, both within and across ethnic boundaries.

How can the tendency to divide people into ingroups/outgroups lead to stereotyping?

Differences between ingroups and other outgroups are often exaggerated. We overestimate differences between groups and undreestimate differences within groups.

What is the realistic conflict theory about the causes of stereotypes?

Direct competition for valuable but limited resources (land, jobs, power) breeds hostility between groups. Realistic competition is not always real.

How did Stone & McWhinnie's study of stereotypes about females and athletics in a golf paradigm exemplify the two types of stereotype threat?

Dual process model-- Two different mechanisms. Blatant threat: Under blatant threat females used more strokes. Subtle threat: Under subtle threat females were less accurate on the final stroke.

What were the major findings and methods used in the study "I Guess What He Said Wasn't That Bad: Dissonance in Nonconfronting Targets of Prejudice" by Rasinski et al?

Examined interpersonal implications of not confronting prejudice. In 3 studies, female participants were exposed to a confederate who made a sexist remark. Reduction of cognitive dissonance was the dependent variable. Operationalized dissonance by looking at group differences in perceptions of sexist confederate (study 1), perceptions of sexist confederate and self affirmation (study 2), and perceptions of importance of confronting bias (study 3). TO reduce cognitive dissonance evoked by confrontation inaction, individuals who value confronting bias will alter (a) their evaluations of a perpetrator of bias and (b) their perceptions of the importance of confronting bias. Educating people to be able to confront prejudice situations that they encounter can help reduce prejudice. Cognitive dissonance is a barrier to confrontation.

How does subtyping maintain and strengthen stereotypes?

Exceptions to a stereotype are placed in a separate category rather than used to revise the held stereotype.

What is relative deprivation?

Feelings of discontent aroused by belief that one fares poorly compared to others.

What is modern racism?

Form of prejudice that surfaces in subtle ways when it is safe, socially acceptable, and easy to rationalize.

Provide an example for how role modeling contributes to gender stereotypes.

Gunderson, Ramirez, Levine & Beilock: Grade school girls math performance is predicted by their teachers own math anxiety. This is related to self-fulfilling prophecy & pygmalion effect.

How can stereotypes be considered evolutionarily useful?

Humans function in groups--fundamental motive is need to affiliate. Serves basic motive of self-protection, but can also create "us vs. them" mentality.

How can humor contribute to prejudice?

Humor provides a socially acceptable situation to denigrate, belittle, or insult a group based on race, gender, age, etc. Ex: -Participants exposed to stereotypical portrayals of African Americans in comedy skits were more likely to say an African American man they read about was guilty of a crime. -Men who score high on measures of hostile sexism were more likely to like jokes that made fun of or disparaged women.

In Sherif's Robber's Cave experiment examining intergroup conflict, what did he discover about reducing stereotype and discrimination?

Lack of superordinate goals (mutual goals that could be achieved only through cooperation) led to intergroup conflict. Exposing groups to each other was not enough to reduce stereotype and discrimination. Led to contact hypothesis.

What were the major findings and methods used in the study "Disability and Autonomy: Priming Alternative Identities" by Wang and Dovidio?

METHODS: Priming college students with disabilities with different aspects of their identity (as a student or as a person with a disability). After being primed with identity as a student or as a person with disability, students completed measures of autonomy-related thoughts, help-seeking, and stigma consciousness. Independent variable: disability-prime condition & student-prime condition. Dependent variable: activation of autonomy, help-seeking, stigma consciousness. FINDINGS: Priming students with disabilities with their identity as a student rather than as a person with a disability activated more autonomy-related thoughts, which was associated with a lower likelihood of seeking help. Help-seeking did not differ between the two priming conditions.

What were the major findings and methods used in Steel and Aronson's study of stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans?

Making black participants vulnerable to judgement by negative stereotype about their group's intellectual ability decreased their standardized test performance relative to white participants, while conditions designed to alleviate this threat improved their performance. Studies 1 and 2 varied whether or not the test was represented as diagnostic of intellectual ability--varied stereotype threat by varying the relevance of the stereotype about blacks' ability to their performance. Study 3 provided evidence that this manipulation aroused stereotype threat in black participants by showing that it activated stereotype-related self-doubts in their thinking. Study 4 showed that simply recording their race (priming) was enough to impair their performance even when the test was not diagnostic of ability.

What is prejudice?

Negative attitudes/feelings about others because of their connection to a social group.

What is discrimination?

Negative behaviors directed against persons because of their membership in a particular group.

How does the working memory account explain the causes of stereotype threat?

People get anxious when under threat and anxiety takes up cognitive resources and impacts working memory. Can be alleviated by practicing problems in which long-term rather than working memory is used.

How is self-control involved in stereotyping and prejudice? Provide an example.

People often stereotype and show prejudice toward others even when they would rather not. Self-control is not an unlimited resource. Ghumman & Barnes found that sleep deprivation leads to stereotyping and prejudice because it depletes people's self-control resources.

What does it mean to be stigmatized?

Persistently stereotyped, perceived as deviant, and devalued in society because of membership in a particular social group or because of a particular characteristic.

How does media exposure contribute to gender stereotypes?

Pervasive media can lead to exposure of images that perpetuate stereotypes and discrimination. Can influence both men and women's attitudes and behavior. Can also promote positive norms.

What is socialization and what role does it play in causing stereotypes?

Process by which people learn the norms, rules and info of a culture or group. Includes stereotypes and status of groups.

What is implicit racism?

Racism that operates unconsciously/unintentionally.

What is stereotype threat? Provide examples.

Risk of confirming a negative stereotype about one's group. Occurs when stereotype is salient and a person is being assessed on a stereotype specific task. Examples: -Steel & Aronson Study--race & academic performance. -Race & athletics. -Gender & STEM performance.

What are minimal group paradigms? Provide an example.

Show how social categorization leads to social discrimination in the absence of real conflict. Ex: In "A Class Divided", the minimal groups paradigm was that kids showed discriminatory behavior after being taught that blue/brown eyed people were superior.

What is the social role theory? According to this theory, what three steps are involved in gender stereotyping?

Small gender differences are magnified in perception by the contrasting social roles occupied by men and women. 3 steps: 1. Combo of biological and social factors, division of labor emerged. 2. People behave in ways that fit the roles they play 3. Behavioral differences provide a continual basis for social perception.

What are confirmation biases and how do they contribute to stereotyping?

Stereotypes are often maintained and strengthened through confirmation biases. Tend to interpret, seek, and create information to confirm expectations.

How can stereotypes result in self-fulfilling prophecies?

Stereotypes can cause a perceiver to act in such a way that the stereotyped group member really does behave in a stereotype-confirming way. The stereotype creates a self-fulfilling prophecy.

What is automatic stereotype activation? Provide an example.

Stereotypes can still bias decision making when a person doesn't agree with the stereotype. Intrinsically motivated people are better at controlling use of stereotypes. Example: Shooter bias. Those who reported thinking that the world was a dangerous place showed an increase bias toward shooting outgroup members.

What is the minority stress model?

Stigma, prejudice, and discrimination can create a hostile and stressful social environment that causes mental health problems. Theory that some health disparities in LGBT community can be explained by stress caused by stigmatization.

What is illusory correlation and how does this contribute to stereotyping?

Tendency to overestimate the link between variables that are only slightly or not at all correlated. Tend to overestimate when: (1) variables are distinctive, (2) variables are expected to go together

How does the mere effort account explain the causes of stereotype threat?

Threat motivates us to do better. Motivation leads to use of our pre-potent response. If pre-potent response is correct, we do well. If pre-potent response is incorrect, we do poorer. Can alleviate stereotype threat by alleviating pre-potent responses.

What is the social identity theory and how does it explain the causes of stereotypes?

Threats to one's self-esteem heighten need for ingroup favoritism. Expressions of ingroup favoritism enhance one's self-esteem.

According to the stereotype content model (Fiske & Cuddy), we stereotype people based on what two dimensions?

We stereotype people based on (1) warmth and (2) competence. More competent people are seen as more of a threat for competition for resources. Doesn't account for intersectionaility/belonging to multiple groups.