PSY 321Dr. Sanchez

Stereotyping, Prejudice, & Discrimination Part II

How Stereotypes Affect their Targets

Target’s Perspective

• Stereotype threat• Misunderstandings in Interracial

Interactions• How can prejudice be reduced?

Stereotype and Social Identity Threat

• Stereotype threat– the apprehension experienced by

members of group that their behavior might confirm a cultural stereotype in a particular domain

– individual does not have to believe the stereotype for it to shape performance

Steele & Aronson (1995, Study 1)

• Black and White Ps • Make racial stereotype of intelligence

salient– Diagnostic of ability– Nondiagnostic (control)

• Examine test performance on a challenging verbal test.

Steele & Aronson (1995, Study 1)

Steele & Aronson (1995, Study 2)

• Black and White Ps• Make racial stereotype of intelligence

salient– Indicate Race– No race question

• Examine test performance on a challenging verbal test.

Steele & Aronson (1995, Study 2)

• General Features– Threat is situational– Domain connected– About social identity applies to

many groups

Stereotype Threat

Stereotype Threat

• Research on Meta-stereotypes– Whites concerned with appearing

prejudiced (Vorauer, Hunter, Main, & Roy, 2000; Vorauer, Main, & O’Connell, 1998; Vorauer &

Kumhyr, 2001)– Concerns can influence judgments,

behaviors, performance on measures of racial attitudes

• Self-relevant negative stereotype in a particular domain – “Whites are racists.”

• Person identifies with that domain – “I’m egalitarian.”

• Performance in the situation is diagnostic– “I might validate the stereotype.”

Stereotype Threat(Frantz, Cuddy, Burnett, Hart, & Ray, 2005)

• Investigation of whether stereotype threat is operating during an implicit test of prejudice

• Hypothesis – Participants show more racial bias on implicit

test when they believe the test is diagnostic of racism.

• 3 conditions– Explicit threat condition– Explicit no-threat condition– No instructions condition

Stereotype and Social Identity Threat

Explicit Threat Instructions

• “The IAT compares your attitudes towards two different racial groups. It is a measure of racial bias. In this study, we are interested in measuring your unconscious racial attitudes toward Blacks and Whites as accurately as possible... This is a challenging task, but it's necessary for the aim of this study. Please try hard to help us in our analysis of individual's racial attitudes.”

Explicit No-Threat Instructions

• “The IAT is a measure of knowledge of cultural stereotypes. In this study, we are interested in measuring the extent to which people are aware of cultural stereotypes... This is a challenging task, but it's necessary for the aim of this study. Please try hard to help us in our analysis of people's knowledge of cultural stereotypes. ”

No-Instructions Condition

• “This is a challenging task, but it's necessary for the aim of this study. Please try hard.”

0

50

100

150

200

IAT

Effe

ct

Explicit Threat Explicit No-Threat

No instructions

Stereotype and Social Identity Threat

Stereotypes and Multiple Identities

Good at Math

Not Good at Math

Multiple Identities(Shih, Pittinsky, & Ambady,1999)

• Remind Asian-American women of their– Asian identity (questions about

languages spoken, race, etc.)– Female identity (questions about co-ed

housing)– Neither identity (questions about

telephone service)

• Take a math test

0.2

0.4

0.6

Asian Neutral Female

Acc

urac

y on

mat

h te

stMultiple Identities(Shih, Pittinsky, & Ambady,1999)

Interpersonal Concerns with Prejudice• Whites

– Concern with being perceived as prejudiced (Vorauer, Hunter, Main, & Roy, 2000; Vorauer, Main, & O’Connell, 1998; Vorauer & Kumhyr, 2001)

– Concerns influence social judgments about and during interracial contact

• Blacks– Concern with being treated negatively

because of prejudice and being perceived stereotypically (Mendoza-Denton et al., 2002; Shelton, 2003)

– Concerns influence social judgments about and during interracial contact

Interpersonal Concerns with Prejudice

• Whites and Blacks

– Harbor fear of rejection because of their group memberships

– Fear that out-group members will perceive them in a way that threatens their identity (Steele, Spencer, & Aronson, 2003)

Pluralistic Ignorance

People observe others behaving similarly to themselves but believe that the same behaviors reflect different feelings and beliefs (Miller & McFarland, 1987, 1991)

Pluralistic Ignorance

• Own behavior– Reflect fears of social exclusion

• Other person’s behavior– Taken at face value– Reflects the person’s true feelings

Divergent Attributions

• Predictions– Attribute own failure to make the first

move to fear of being rejected

– Attribute potential partner’s failure to make the first move to lack of interest

Divergent Attributions

You enter the dining hall for dinner. You are alone because your close friends are in a review session. As you look around the dining hall for a place to sit, you notice several White (Black) students who live near you sitting together. These students also notice you. However, neither of you explicitly makes a move to sit together.

Divergent Attributions

• Fear of Rejection– How likely is that fear of being rejected because of your

race would inhibit you from sitting with these students?

• Lack of Interest– How likely is that your lack of interest in getting to know

these students would inhibit you from sitting with them?

• Answered for self and other (counterbalanced)

7-point scale where 1 = not at all and 7 = very much

Black Participants with White Partner

1.01.52.02.53.03.54.04.55.05.56.0

Fear of Rejection Lack of Interest

Self Other

White Participants with Black Partner

1.01.52.02.53.03.54.04.55.0

Fear of Rejection Lack of Interest

Self Other

Black Participants with Black Partner

1.01.52.02.53.03.54.04.55.0

Fear of Rejection Lack of Interest

Self Other

White Participants with White Partner

1.01.52.02.53.03.54.04.55.0

Fear of Rejection Lack of Interest

Self Other

Divergent Attributions

• Blacks and Whites– Make divergent attributions for own and

out-group members’ avoidance of interracial contact

– Interpersonal Concerns with Prejudice• I’m afraid of being rejected!• They lack interest in interacting!

– Misunderstanding occurs even before the interaction

What Can We Do?

• Repeated Intergroup Contact that involves

• Individuation

• Common In-Group Identity

Jigsaw Classroom(Aronson, 1978)• Students separated into diverse six-person

learning groups• Lesson divided into six parts• Like pieces of puzzle, each of the six parts

is required to see the whole picture• Each student learns her/his piece, then

teaches the rest of the group• They need each other to do well on the test• Prejudice diminishes

Jigsaw Classroom: Why does it Work?

Self-Esteem in U.S. Minority Groups

From J. M. Twenge and J. Crocker, “Race and Self-Esteem: Meta-Analysis Comparing Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and American Indians,” Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 128, 2002, pp. 371-408.

Coping with Stigma • Stigma = having an attribute that is

viewed by others as inferior, deficient, etc.

• 1) attributing negative feedback to prejudice

• (2) comparing outcomes with those of their ingroup

• (3) selectively devaluing areas in which their group does poorly and valuing dimensions in which their group excels