PrejudicePrejudice

Hostile, negative attitudes toward a distinguishable group of people based solely on their membership in a group

What causes prejudice?

Nature? Biological survival mechanism

Nurture? Learned from our parents, society, teachers, etc.

Mental bi-product? Social categorization: Us vs. Them In-group bias: + feelings & special treatment for people in our

group and – feelings & unfair treatment for people not in our group Out-group homogeneity: perceiving individuals not in our group as

more similar to each other than they really are as well as more similar than the members of the in-group are

Stereotype

A generalization about a group of people where identical characteristics are assigned to virtually all members regardless of actual individual varianceNot necessarily emotional, not necessarily intentional, does not necessarily lead to abuse: can be a way of simplifying the world (remember schemas?)Gender, race, occupation, religion, hair color…

Can we ‘undo’ stereotypes?

Bookkeeping Model: information inconsistent with a stereotype leads to a modification of that stereotype (accommodation)

Conversion Model: information inconsistent with a stereotype leads to a radical change in the stereotype

Subtyping Model: information inconsistent with a stereotype leads to the creation of a new stereotype to accommodate the information with out changing the initial stereotype (assimilation)

Two Step Model of Cognitive Processing

The return of automatic vs. controlled processing as they apply to stereotypes

Automatic: pops up with the right stimulus (member of stereotyped group, stereotypical statement, etc.) causing stereotype to be accessed from memory Occurs without awareness…you don’t think stereotypical

thoughts on purpose

Controlled: aware of the occurrence of stereotypical thought access For example, choosing to ignore stereotypical information

Discrimination vs. Reverse Discrimination

Discrimination: an unjustified negative or harmful action toward a member of a group solely because of their membership in that group.

Reverse discrimination: an unjustified negative or harmful action toward a member of a group solely because of their membership in that group.

Ultimate Attribution Error

Tendency to make dispositional attributions about an entire group of people Differs from Fundamental Attribution Error in

that you make attributions about a GROUP, not an individual

Bodenhausen (1988) College students were more likely to find a

defendant guilty of a crime if his name was Carlos Ramirez rather than Robert Johnson

But flip the coin…

Affirmative Action & Quotas

Set of laws requiring employers to hire employees from diverse ethnic back-grounds

Applies to public university admissions as well

Forcible desegregation of work and college environments

Heavily criticized in the present day; does it still have a use? Sprit vs. application

The Bell Curve

Book by Herrnstein & Murray, 1995Suggested statistically significant differences in academic performance between African, Anglo, and Asian Americans There IS a difference on academic tests w/ considerable

overlap Traditionally, Asian outscore Anglo who outscore African

Americans So question is not does it occur (yes) but why?

Recall the stereotype threat Remember, also applies to gender

Blaming the Victim

Tendency to blame individuals (dispositional attributions) for their victimization Usually motivated by the “belief in a just world” Aimed at the homeless, traditionally oppressed

persons (e.g. Jews), etc. Janoff-Bulman, Timko, & Carli, 1985 Wagstaff, 1982

33% of surveyed Brits believed that victims of rape are “almost always to blame for it.”

Realistic Conflict Theory

Limited resources lead to conflict between groups and result in increased prejudice and discrimination Italian vs. Irish immigrants Hovland & Sears, 1940

Correlated price of cotton in Southern states from 1882 to 1930 with the number of lynchings of southern African Americans in the same time frame

VERY strong negative correlation (r = -.72) Sherif, Harvey, White, Hood, & Sherif, 1961

Classic “boy scout” experiment with “eagles” and “rattlers”

Institutionalized Racism, Sexism

Institutionalized Racism: racist attitudes held by the vast majority of us because we live in a society where stereotypes and discrimination are the normInstitutionalized Sexism: sexist attitudes held by the vast majority of us because we live in a society where stereotypes and discrimination are the normNormative Conformity: go along with the group to gain acceptance and fulfill the group’s expectations Non-conformity has consequences but can invoke change Rosa Parks, Sydney Poitier “By far the greatest determinant of prejudice is slavish

conformity to social norms.”

What’s good for the goose…

Members of the “in-group” can behave one way but if members of the “out-group” behave in that same way, they are perceived as mocking, insulting, or in violation of a social norm thus furthering the “us vs. them” distinction Speech patterns, behavior, etc.

Prejudiced behavior can change with convenience as well as time Alabama Governor George Wallace

What reduces prejudice?

May be reduced by equal status contact between majority and minority groups in the pursuit of common goals. Helps if sanctioned by institutional support (e.g. laws,

customs, norms, etc.) Applications to desegregation (jigsaw classroom) Mutual Interdependence: situation where 2 or more groups

need each other and depend on each other to accomplish a goal important to both

Education, proper models, intolerance for prejudice on the highest and lowest levels