Chapter 6: Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Discrimination
Stereotypes
• Beliefs about social groups
• Beliefs that associate a whole group of people with certain traits.
• A type of schema
• Can be activated automatically
Expression of Negative Attitudes
• Segregation
• Stereotypes
• Lipmann (1922): Father of stereotypes
• Fixed way of thinking about someone
Social Psychology Perspective
• Formation of stereotypes involves two related processes:
1. The categorization of people into groups
2. Our perception that the in-group is different from the out-group
Social Categorization
• The classification of persons into groups on the basis of common attributes
• Serious drawback:
– Overestimate between group differences
– Underestimate within group differences
Outgroup Homogeneity Effect
• Outgroup members are more alike than they really are
– “They are all the same; We are all different and unique”
– Bias is NOT confined to one racial group and does NOT appear to be related to one’s
racial attitudes
Why Do Stereotypes Persist?
• Social Learning (Bandura, 1977)
– Differentiating between social groups
– Leads to evaluations of these groups
– Influence agents play a large role
Why Do Stereotypes Survive?
1. Illusory Correlations
• Belief that two variables are related when they are not
• Positive or negative mood makes people less likely to see such a correlation
• Predispose people to perceive such correlations
• Engagement of biased processing
• Stereotype proves resistant to change
2. Global Stereotype
• More limited, specific subtypes called subcategories
• Allows stereotypes to persist in the face of disconfirming evidence
– Deau, Winton, Crowley, & Lewis (1985)
– Subcategories for women:
• Very little overlap between the two
• Devine and Baker (1991)
– White Americans’ stereotype of Black business people and athletes is primarily positive
– Global stereotype still negative
3. The Media
• Perpetuates negative stereotypes
– most negative toward homosexuals
• Focus more on negative events than positive events
• Availability heuristic?
4. Power
• Pay less attention to those below them
• More likely to judge based on social stereotypes
– Too little time
– The “powerless” have less impact on the “powerful”
Effects of Negative Schemas
• Bias our perceptions of others
• Bias how the stereotyped group perceives itself
– Eye of the Storm
• Fredrickson et al. (1998)
• “That Swimsuit Becomes You”
- Study of emotions & consumer behavior
- Asked to evaluate scent, clothes, food
- Calvin Klein’s CK One, swimsuit,cookies or Twix
- Given a math test in swimsuit condition
Prejudice
• Negative attitude based on another’s group membership
– Applied inflexibly
• Explicit and/or implicit
– Explicit nonprejudiced attitudes may coexist with implicit prejudiced attitudes
– Which is harder to change?
Components of Prejudice
• Affective: negative feelings
• Cognitive: beliefs about targets
• Behavioral: treat targets unfairly
Three Forms of Prejudice
1. Contemptuous: Low status + competition
2. Envious: High status + competition
3. Paternalistic: Low status + cooperation
Prejudice and Stigma
• Attribute that discredits a person/group in the eyes of others
• Goffman’s categories of stigma
– Tribal identities
– Blemishes of individual character
– Abominations of the body
Sexism
• Prejudice/discrimination based on a person’s sex
– Men → Women and Women → Men
• Often ambivalent
• Benevolent vs. Hostile
Weight Prejudice
• Individualist cultures assume that weight is controllable
– Twofold stigma
• Stigma is stronger for obese women than men
• Courtesy stigma
Sexual Prejudice
• Prejudice/discrimination based on sexual orientation
– Based in heterosexism
• Tied to social-conservative value systems
Social Causes of Prejudice
• Unequal power and oppression
• Intergroup competition
• Realistic Conflict Theory
–
Competition for limited resources
Two Important Changes
• Hostility increases toward the opposing group
• Increase of ingroup loyalty
– Ethnocentrism
Experimental Evidence
• Robber’s Cave (Sherif, 1966)
• Tajfel (1969)
– Intergroup competition not necessary
– Minimal groups
– Performance biased in favor of ingroup member
Social Identity Theory
• Tajfel & Turner (1979)
• Personal Identity: specific facts
• Social Identity: memberships
–Self-esteem partly determined by the social esteem of our ingroups
• Social Identity Theory
• Basking in Reflected Glory (BiRG)
– Good = collective “We”
• Cutting Off Reflected Failure (CORF-ing)
– Bad = “They”
Cialdini’s Phone Call Study
• Explanations for football game outcomes
– Team Wins: “WE won!”
– Team Loses: “THEY lost”
• Group is an central component of their self-concept
Flip-Side
• Low self-esteem may lead us to derogate members of the outgroup
– Why?
• Meindl and Lerner (1985)
“Computer Card” Study
Ambivalence Models of Racism
1. Modern/Aversive Racism
•
Egalitarian values ≠ Negative feelings
–
Feel ashamed → Avoidance
•
Protects self-image
Fried (1997)
• Pts. asked to evaluate lyrics to a song
– “Blind Man’s Blunder”
• Rap vs. Country Song
• Pts. asked evaluative questions
Modern/Aversive Racism
• Whites feel discomfort around Blacks
1. Sit farther away
2. Less friendly voice tone
3. Less eye contact and more errors
4. Interviews end more quickly
2. Value Duality
• Two value systems:
– Egalitarianism and Individualism
• Egalitarianism gives rise to pro-Black attitudes
• Individualism gives rise to attributing negative patterns to outgroups
3. Prejudice with Compunction
• Discrepancies in how people would and should act
• People ARE AWARE of their discrepancies
• Stereotypes are well-learned = automatic activation
Prejudice Reduction
1. Takes Time, Effort, & Attention
• Contact Hypothesis:
1. Equal status
2. Close one-to-one contact
3. Intergroup cooperation
4. Norms favoring equality
– Authority figures play a key role here
2. Don’t Feed Your Biases
3. Learn & Appreciate Cultural Diffs.