Chapter 9
David G. Myers
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Nature and Power of Prejudice
Social Sources of Prejudice
Motivational Sources of Prejudice
Cognitive Sources of Prejudice
Consequences of Prejudice
Reducing Prejudice
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Prejudice – a negative prejudgment of a group and its
individual members
◦ Stereotype – beliefs about the personal attributes of a
group of people
 Typically overgeneralized and inaccurate
◦ Discrimination – unjustifiable negative behavior towards
a group or its members
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Racism
Sexism
Heterosexism
Ageism
Weight Bias
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Changing Prejudice – most American’s racial and
gender attitudes have changed in the last 30 years
◦ 90% say people should be treated fairly w/out
discrimination
◦ Only 14% say they are highly prejudiced
◦ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/28/jon-stewart-takes-on-race_n_593527.html
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Publicly people may not admit to
prejudice, but stats. show it still
exists
◦ 53% of African-Americans feel
excluded on college campuses
◦ 61% of people would not see a
homosexual doctor
◦ Profiling - In NJ 35% of all stopped
drivers are Black (15% of speeders)
◦ Interracial Acquaintances vs.
Interracial Intimacy
◦ Race in America
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Gender Stereotypes – typically are stronger than
racial stereotypes (Feminism?)
◦ Ambivalent Sexism – mix of hostile and benevolent
attitudes
 Sexism is even more severe in other countries
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Dual Attitudes - automatic reactions (implicit) still occur
regardless of one’s conscious (explicit) level of prejudice
◦ Automatic reactions are affected by stereotype activation (priming)
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"Every man has reminiscences which he would not tell to
everyone but only his friends. He has other matters in his
mind which he would not reveal even to his friends, but
only to himself, and that in secret. But there are other
things which a man is afraid to tell even to himself, and
every decent man has a number of such things stored
away in his mind.“ (Fyodor Dostoyevsky )
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Modern Prejudice – subtle, even unconscious forms
of discrimination, revealed through preferences
and associations, and judgments
◦ Modern Sexism & Racism - discrimination that occurs
when it’s able to hide behind other motives
◦ http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ncs/newsarch/2006/May06/name.html
◦ Prentice-Dunn “Shocking Study”
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Hart et al (2000). Impression Study
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Implicit Association Test (IAT) – measures
conscious and unconscious associations
◦ Predicts hiring decisions, medical decisions, interpersonal
interactions, biased judgments
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
Round One
◦ Left Hand
African American Name
Right Hand
Caucasian Name
Round Two
◦ Left Hand
Positive Adjective
Right Hand
Negative Adjective
Round Three
◦ Left Hand
African American name
Negative Adjective
Right Hand
Caucasian name
Positive Adjective
Round Four
◦ Left Hand
African American name
Positive Adjective
Right Hand
Caucasian name
Negative Adjective
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Social Inequalities – stereotypes are used to
rationalize unequal status
◦ Social Dominance/Authoritarian Orientation – motivation
to have your group be dominant over others
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Religion and Prejudice – religion is used an excuse
for social injustice
◦ Religion does not cause prejudice
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Conformity - prejudice is often maintained by
public apathy and inertia
Institutional Supports – political leaders,
organizations, and education reflect and reinforce
attitudes
◦ Face-ism – male ads focus more on faces and females
focus more on the body
◦ Comparing how Blacks and White women are portrayed in the top
movies of 1996.
◦ White female movie characters shown using vulgar profanity: 17%
◦ Black female movie characters shown using vulgar profanity: 89%
◦ White female movie characters shown being physically violent:
11%
◦ Black female movie characters shown being physically violent:
56%
◦ Times more likely that a mug shot of the accused will appear in a local
TV news report when the defendant is Black rather than White: 4X
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Frustration & Aggression Hypothesis –frustrations
can lead to displaced aggressions
◦ Realistic Group Conflict Theory – prejudice arises when
groups are competing for scarce resources
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Social Identity Theory – our self-esteem is influenced by
our membership in groups
Categorization – we simplify & organize our world by
categorizing people into groups
◦ Rely on stereotypes when pressed for time, preoccupied,
tired, emotionally aroused, and lacking experience
◦ Ingroup/Outgroup Bias – the tendency to view ingroup
members more favorably that outgroup members
◦ Outgroup Homogeneity Bias – outgroup members are
seen as more similar to one another
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Stereotypes can bias attention, interpretation and
memory (Illusory Correlations)
 Distinct People – draw our attention and have
exaggerated bad and good traits
 Stigma Consciousness - Distinctive individuals
sometimes imagine attention when there is none
 Vivid Stimuli - extreme events are remembered better
and can distort judgments (e.g. Black athletes, Muslim
extremists, Homosexual criminals, etc.)
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Attributions - we commit the FAE when
explaining outgroup members’ behaviors
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Group-Serving Bias – we are lenient with ingroup
members and quick to condemn outgroups
Just-World Phenomenon – false belief that the world is
fair and people get what they deserve
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Self-fulfilling Prophecy – negative
expectations and behaviors cause others to
confirm stereotypes
◦ Stereotype Threat – self-confirming concern where
one’s behavior will verify a negative stereotype
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Knowledge and Awareness
Motivation to Avoid prejudice
◦ Internal vs. External Motivation
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Seeking out diverse experiences
Monitoring and Controlling the prejudice habit