Chapter 11
Prejudice, Stereotyping
and Discrimination
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Any rental, lease, or lending of the program
Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2005
Rate your feelings about Irishmen:
Dislike 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Like
List three things you think about
Irishmen.
Would you discourage your sister from
marrying an Irishman?
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Chapter Outline
Planet Prejudice
Goals of Prejudice, Stereotyping, and
Discrimination
Supporting and Protecting One’s Group
Gaining Social Approval
Managing Self-Image
Seeking Mental Efficiency
Reducing Prejudice, Stereotyping, &
Discrimination
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Planet Prejudice
Have you ever been the object of
negative feelings based simply on
your membership in a group?
How about positive feelings?
Prejudice –
a generalized attitude toward
members of a social group
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Planet Prejudice
What are the characteristics of:
A typical New Yorker?
A typical Californian?
A typical white male?
A typical sorority woman?
Stereotype a generalized belief about members of a
group attached to individuals
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Planet Prejudice
If you were asked your opinions about
Irishmen, Californians, or fraternity
men, that would tap:
Explicit prejudice –
positive or negative feelings of
which you are aware
But not implicit prejudice –
feelings of which you are not aware
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esearch
The Subtle Expression
of Bigoted Views
Participants in one study were asked to
judge White and Black applicants for
university admission.
Participants did not discriminate when the
applicant’s test scores, grades, etc. were
consistently strong or weak.
The following slide shows how
discrimination emerged when the
applicant’s credentials were ambiguous.
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esearch
Highly
recommend
4
Strength of
recommendation
for admission
White Applicant
Black Applicant
3
2
1
Barely
recommend
Non-prejudiced
Participant’s Rating
Highly Prejudiced
Participant’s Rating
Participants who had scored highly on scales of
prejudice gave the black applicants much
weaker recommendations than they gave the
white applicants.
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G. Hodson, J.F. Dovidio, S.L. Gaertner (2002)
Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2005
Planet Prejudice
Do you know anyone who has, because of
their membership in a group, been:
Denied a job or promotion?
Insulted or harassed?
Ignored or poorly served in a restaurant or
other business?
Denied an apartment or house?
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Planet Prejudice
Discrimination –
behaviors directed toward others
because of their group membership
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Sexual Harassment
as Gender Discrimination
As many as 80% of high school
students report having been sexually
harassed (Hostile Hallways, 2001).
The U.S. Army spent $250 million in
one year to deal with problems
related to sexual harassment (Faley
et al., 1999).
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Sexual Harassment
as Gender Discrimination
Behavior is seen as
More harassing when performed by someone
in power (Pryor & Day, 1988)
Less harassing when performed by an
attractive single individual (Sheets &
Braver, 1993)
More harassing when directed at women
than at men (e.g., U.S. M.S.P.B. 1988).
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Sexual Harassment
as Gender Discrimination
esearch
Men are more likely to harass than are
women.
But whether men harass or not
depends on the person, and, on the
situation.
In one study, male students were asked
to train a young woman on a
complex word-processing task.
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Sexual Harassment
as Gender Discrimination
esearch
The men were introduced to the
female trainee by a male graduate
student who acted either:
Sexist – put his arm around trainee,
visually checked out her body
Professional – respectful of trainee.

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Sexual Harassment
as Gender Discrimination
esearch
The dependent variable in the research
was the amount of sexuality
expressed by the male student while
instructing the female trainee.
Results depended on the participant’s
chronic disposition to harass.

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Pryor, LaVite, & Stoller (1993)
esearch
5
Sexuality
of Physical
Contact
4
3
2
1
Disposition To
Harass
Sexist
Professional
Role Model’s Treatment of Woman
Low
High
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Institutionalized Discrimination
Institutionalized discrimination is built into
the legal, political, social and economic
institutions of a culture.
It may be direct
Example: military rules requiring expulsion
of openly homosexual soldiers.
Or more indirect and subtle
Example: hiring those with better educations
excludes some minorities, favors others.
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Material Costs of Prejudice,
Stereotyping, and Discrimination
Physicians were only 60% as likely to
suggest a top-rated diagnostic test
for black “heart patients” as for
whites.
Even when blacks presented same
symptoms, and gave identical
information about themselves
(Schulman et al., 1999).
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Material Costs of Prejudice,
Stereotyping, and Discrimination
One study found white men were
offered better deals on cars:
$109 less than White women
$318 less than Black women
$935 less than Black men
(Ayres & Siegelman, 1995 page 377).
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Psychological Costs of Prejudice,
Stereotyping, and Discrimination
A token minority in a group tends to:
become self-conscious
perform less well on tasks that require
concentration (Lord & Saenz, 1985;
Saenz, 1994 page 377).
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esearch
Stereotype Threat
In one study, black and white students
were asked to take a difficult exam
taken from the verbal portion of the
GRE (Graduate Record Exam).
For some students, race was made
salient by asking them to report it at
the beginning of the test.

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Steele & Aronson (1995)
esearch
10
Number of
Items
Answered
Correctly
(adjusted by
SAT score)
8
6
4
2
0
Student’s Race
Black
Not Salient
Salient
Salience of Race
White
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Stereotype Threat
Stereotype threat –
the fear that one might confirm the
negative stereotypes held by others
about one’s group
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Stereotype Threat
White men did worse on athletic tasks they
thought tapped “natural ability.”
But black men did worse if they thought it
tapped “athletic intelligence”(Stone et
al, 1999).
White men did worse in math when they
thought they were being compared to an
Asian (Aronson et al, 1999).
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Stereotype Threat
Stereotype threat sometimes leads people
to disidentify with those arenas where
society expects them to fail.
Disidentify –
to decide that the arena is no longer
relevant to their self esteem, and effort is
withdrawn
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Goals of Prejudice, Stereotyping,
and Prejudice
Supporting and Protecting One’s
Group
Gaining Social Approval
Managing Self-Image
Seeking Mental Efficiency
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Supporting and
Protecting One’s
Group
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Creating and Maintaining Ingroup
Advantage
Minimal intergroup paradigm –
an experimental procedure in which
short-term, arbitrary, artificial
groups are created to explore
foundations of prejudice,
stereotyping, and discrimination
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Minimal Intergroup Paradigm
Example: students give preferential
treatment to others who they believe
share otherwise irrelevant traits:
A tendency to “overestimate” dots
A preference for the artist Kandinsky
A random assignment to a group with
the same color t-shirt
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Creating and Maintaining Ingroup
Advantage
Ingroup bias –
tendency to benefit members of
one’s own groups over members of
other groups
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Creating and Maintaining Ingroup
Advantage
Realistic group conflict theory –
proposal that intergroup conflict, and
negative prejudices and stereotypes,
emerge out of actual competition
between groups for desired resources
Example: Members of different ethnic
groups may compete for the same jobs, or
the same farmland.
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Supporting and Protecting
One’s Group
Social Dominance
Orientation
Intergroup Competition
The self-fulfilling spiral of
intergroup competition
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Social Dominance Orientation
Social dominance orientation –
the extent to which a person wants
his or her own group to dominate
and be superior to other groups
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Circle the number corresponding
to how you feel about each
statement
1 = very negative 9 = very positive
1. Winning is more important than
how the game is played.
2. It is alright to use any means
necessary to get ahead.
3. Sometimes war is necessary to put
other countries in their place.
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1 = very negative 9 = very positive
4. Inferior groups should stay in their
place.
5. Some people are just better cut out
than others for important positions
in society.
6. Some people are better at running
things and should be allowed to do
so.
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People scoring high in social
dominance orientation are
prejudiced against weaker groups:
Blacks and homosexuals (in the U.S.)
Natives and Asian immigrants (in
Canada)
Native Taiwanese (in Taiwan)
Sephardic Jews and Palestinians (in
Israel) page 382
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Intergroup Competition
When economic times were tough in
the Southern U.S. during the 20th
century, lynchings of Blacks
increased (Hovland & Sears, 1940;
Hepworth & West, 1988).
Economic downturns in Northern U.S.
increased violence against Blacks
and immigrants (Olzak, 1992).
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Intergroup Competition
Middle class boys placed into
competing areas in a summer camp:
Raided one another’s cabins
Stole and burned one another’s flags
Came to view one another as “stinkers”
“smart-alecks” and “sneaks” (Sherif et
al., 1988).
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Self-fulfilling Spiral of
Intergroup Competition
Competition and hostility breed more
competition and hostility.
When other groups are viewed as
competitors, this becomes a selffulfilling prophecy.
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Limited Economic, Social, or
Political Resources
Group B acts in a
competitive and
hostile manner
Group A sees
Group B as a
threat
Group B sees
Group A as a
threat
Group A acts in a
competitive and
hostile manner
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Gaining Social
Approval
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Gaining Social Approval
Think of the last time someone made a
prejudiced remark you found
offensive.
Did you express your disapproval
publicly?
Did you let it pass?
Did you force a smile?
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Gaining Social Approval
To win approval from members of our
group, we may conform to their
negative views of other groups.
A prejudiced social environment may
also provide permission for people to
express bigoted opinions they
already hold.
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Gaining Social Approval
Conformity Seeking
Self-Monitoring
Perceived Social Standing
The Times
Intrinsic Religiosity &
Prejudice
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Conformity Seeking
Racist students in S. Africa agree with
statements such as:
“A good group member should agree
with the other members.”
“To become a success these days, a
person has to act in the way that
others expect him to act”
(Pettigrew, 1958).
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Self-monitoring
High self-monitors –
people who use the beliefs about
what others expect to guide their
own actions
High self-monitors are more likely to
express stereotypical views if they
think it socially appropriate
(Fiske & VonHendy,1992; Sheets &
Bushardt, 1994)
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Perceived Social Standing
Newcomers, who are uncertain of
being accepted in the ingroup, are
especially likely to express hostility
towards outgroups.
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esearch
Perceived Social Standing
In one study, fraternity and sorority
pledges (new members) and full-fledged
members expressed their opinions about
other frats and sororities (Noel, Wann, &
Branscombe, 1995).
They either expressed their opinions:
Privately
Publicly (full-fledged members would hear
them).
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Noel et al. (1995)
esearch
3
Amount of
Bias Against
Outgroup
Those who were uncertain of
their acceptance showed more
bias in public than in private
2
1
0
Opinions
Expressed
Publicly
Members
Pledges
Status in Fraternity or Sorority
Privately
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The Times
Over the past forty years, white people
report increasingly favorable views
toward issues such as
Racial integration
Interracial marriage
Black presidential candidates.
Do findings like these reflect actual
changes in people’s prejudices and
stereotypes?
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The Times
Local norms affect people’s expression of
prejudice.
Example: White students in North Carolina
express more positive views of Blacks if
their parents and friends approve of
interracial relationships (Cox, Smith, &
Insko, 1996). Page 386
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esearch
The Times
One researcher compared racial
attitudes among prison inmates who
had been randomly assigned to:
A racially tolerant prison ward, or
A racially prejudiced ward.
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esearch
PERCENTAGE OF
INMATES
80
Foley, 1976
Inmates assigned to the
high prejudice ward were
more likely to increase
than to decrease their
prejudice.
40
0
Decrease
Increase
No Change
Prejudice Expressed One Month Later
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Foley, 1976
esearch
But those assigned to
the racially tolerant
ward were more likely
to decrease than to
increase their prejudice.
PERCENTAGE OF
INMATES
80
40
0
Decrease
Increase
No Change
Prejudice Expressed One Month Later
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Intrinsic Religiosity and
Prejudice
Extrinsic Religiosity –
an orientation that sees religion as a
means of gaining friendship, status,
comfort, or other valuable ends
Extrinsically religious people express
more prejudice than non-religious
people.
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Intrinsic Religiosity and
Prejudice
Intrinsic Religiosity –
an orientation in which people
attempt to internalize religious
teachings, seeing religion as an end
in itself
Intrinsically oriented people present
themselves as unprejudiced, but their
behavior may be discriminating if they
don’t think others are watching.
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Intrinsic Religiosity and
Prejudice
Quest religiosity –
An orientation that sees religion as a
journey taken to understand
complex spiritual and moral issues
(vs. quick, simple answers)
Those who adopt this orientation are
less prejudiced in word and in deed.
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Managing Self-Image
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Personal and Social Identities
Scapegoating –
process of blaming members of
other groups for one’s frustrations
and failures
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Personal and Social Identities
Social identity –
beliefs and feelings we have toward
the groups to which we see
ourselves belonging
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Social Identity Theory
We desire to feel good about ourselves.
Part of our identity comes from the groups
to which we belong.
Just as individual social comparison can
boost self-esteem, comparing our
ingroups with outgroups that are less
well off can raise our self-esteem
(Rubin & Hewstone, 1998).
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Managing Self-Image
Ingroup Identification
Authoritarianism
Failure
Self-Esteem and
Threat
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Ingroup Identification
People who are more strongly
identified with their groups
discriminate more against members
of other groups.
Example: A student who is gung-ho for
our school is more prejudiced against
the traditional opponents.
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Authoritarians:
Readily submit to authorities
Mistreat those lower on the ladder
Are highly conventional
Believe in punishing the unconventional
View world in black-and-white terms
Are prejudiced towards socially rejected
outgroups (such as homosexuals)
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Failure
People whose self-esteem is threatened
by failure may attack members of
outgroups.
Example: Students in one study
derogated a Jewish student after they
themselves failed (Fein & Spencer,
1997).
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Self-esteem and threat
Derogation of outgroups is generally
more common among those with
chronically low self-esteem
(Crocker et al., 1987).
But when people with high self-esteem
are threatened with failure, they may
be even more prejudiced (Aberson,
Healy, & Romero, 2000).
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esearch
Amount of 2.0
Negative
Bias against
1.0
Members of
Other
0
Sororities
Low-Status Sorority
High-Status Sorority
Low
High
Subjects’ Self-Esteem
In a study of sorority women at Northwestern
University, those with low self-regard
derogated members of other sororities.
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esearch
Amount of 2.0
Negative
Bias against
1.0
Members of
Other
0
Sororities
Low-Status Sorority
High-Status Sorority
Low
High
Subjects’ Self-Esteem
The views of women who thought highly of
themselves, however, depended on the
prestige of their own affiliations.
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Seeking Mental
Efficiency
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Seeking Mental Efficiency
Stereotyping –
process of categorizing an
individual as a member of a
particular group and then inferring
that he or she possesses the
characteristics generally held by
members of that group
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The Characteristics of Efficient
Stereotypes
People may use stereotypes because,
although some are badly inaccurate,
many contain a “kernel of truth.”
Students rarely get the direction of
actual sex differences wrong, though
they sometimes overestimate them
(Swim, 1994).
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Seeking Mental Efficiency
The Reality
Females
Less
The Stereotype
Males
Aggressiveness
Females
More
Less
Males
Aggressiveness
More
To save us time and cognitive effort, we
often sharpen the distinctions between
groups and soften the differences within
groups.
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Persistence of Stereotypes
• Prejudice is a belief, and beliefs
have a strong emotional aspect
which make them resistant to logic,
or to new information. (re-fencing)
• Prejudice is tied to firmly
established schemas for the target
group.
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Seeking Mental Efficiency
Perceived outgroup homogeneity –
phenomenon of overestimating the
extent to which members within
other groups are similar to each
other.
Examples:
“All men are sports fans.”
“They all look alike.”
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Focus on Method:
Exploring The Automatic
Activation of Stereotypes
Hearing the word “bread” primes people
to think about the word “butter.”
Similarly, even non-prejudiced people have
automatic associations linked to racial
stereotypes.
These can be activated without conscious
awareness.
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Automatic Activation of
Stereotypes
Students in one experiment made rapid
decisions about words stereotypically
associated with Blacks (e.g. “musical”).
They recognized these words more rapidly
if subliminally primed with the word
“BLACK.”
They recognized words such as “educated”
more rapidly if subliminally primed with
“WHITE.”
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Automatic Activation of
Stereotypes
• Automatic and Controlled information
processing
• Automatic – stereotypes are activated by
categorizations, schemas, heuristics, emotions, selfinterests, and our limited processing abilities,
including memory.
• Controlled – we apply thoughtful analysis of our
own ideas before and after we act.
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Seeking Mental Efficiency
Need For Structure
Moods and Emotions
Cognitively Taxing
Circumstances
Overheard Ethnic Slurs
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esearch
Need For Structure
Students who had taken the Need For
Structure scale read the following
account:
Richard, a Junior at ASU, was taking
Math 110 (pre-calc and geometry)
against the advice of his roommate.
After spring break, he started to get
behind in his classes and it turned out
to be an especially bad week for him.
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esearch
Need for Structure
Richard had a test coming up that he
had to do well on in order to pass.
After studying for the test for almost
two hours, he still did not
understand the material and was
extremely frustrated.
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esearch
Need for Structure
Part of his difficulty may have been
problems he was having that were
unrelated to school.
Earlier that day, he had an argument with
his girlfriend.
He had changed his mind about some plans
they had for the coming weekend.
Trying to back out of the plans seemed to
have caused the disagreement.
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esearch
Need for Structure
He usually went out every weekend.
But he was worried about how much work
he had to do and thought he should try
to stay home and study to get caught up.
He was beginning to think he should never
have enrolled in so many classes or
should have dropped his math course.
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esearch
Need for Structure
Other students read a female version
of the identical story:
Michelle, a junior at ASU, was taking
math 110 (precalc and geometry)
against the advice of her roommate.
After spring break, she started to get
behind in her classes and it turned out
to be an especially bad week for
her.… etc.
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esearch
Need for Structure
Students high in need for structure
made judgments more in line with
sex stereotypes –
Michelle was judged more emotional
and irrational than Richard in the
exact same situation (Neuberg, &
Newsom, 1993 ).
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Moods and Emotions
Compared with neutral mood,
stereotyping is enhanced by:
Positive mood
Anger or anxiety
Social Categories (status)
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Motivation:
Anger reduces motivation to
form unbiased impressions
Stereotype
Other in
Negative
Way
Intense
Anger
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Motivation
Capacity :
Intense
Anger
Anger’s arousal makes it more
difficult to engage in the
thoughtful processes needed to
see the other person in nonstereotypical ways
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Stereotype
Other in
Negative
Way
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Motivation
Capacity
Intense
Anger
Construal and
Interpretation:
Stereotype
Other in
Negative
Way
Negative tinge of anger
increases likelihood of seeing
other as a member of
unfavorable group, interpreting
other’s behaviors unfavorably,
etc.
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Cognitively Taxing
Circumstances
1-704-8926 – Imagine trying to keep that
number in mind while also forming an
impression of “Hilda,” an elderly
woman.
Students used more stereotypes in forming
impressions if their minds were
occupied with remembering an 8 digit
number (Pendry & MacRae, 1994).
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Overheard Ethnic Slurs
The effects of overhearing an ethnic
slur depends upon the person
hearing it, as demonstrated in a
study by Simon and Greenberg
(1996).
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Overheard Ethnic Slurs
Three groups of subjects, differing in their
level of prejudice, participated in a study
of group processes.
White participants and a black confederate
first worked individually on a problem,
then passed solutions around to other
students working in different cubicles.
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Overheard Ethnic Slurs
Unknown to the participants, the
researchers replaced these solutions with
others, attaching to one either a
comment stating:
“I can’t believe they stuck us with this black
person!”
“I can’t believe they stuck us with this n_-__-_-_!”
Or no comment at all (control condition).
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Simon & Greenberg, 1996
esearch
More
Favorable
44
Anti-Black Subjects
Ambivalent Subjects
Pro-Black Subjects
41
Favorability
of
38
Evaluations
35
32
Less
Favorable
No Comment
“Black Person”
“N_-_-_-_-_”
The subjects were then asked to rate the
performance of their fellow group members.
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Simon & Greenberg, 1996
esearch
More
Favorable
44
Anti-Black Subjects
Ambivalent Subjects
Pro-Black Subjects
41
Favorability
of
38
Evaluations
35
32
Less
Favorable
No Comment
“Black Person”
“N_-_-_-_-_”
The ethnic slur had a negative effect on
evaluations of the black team member, but
only for participants who had strong
negative prejudices to begin with.
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Simon & Greenberg, 1996
esearch
More
Favorable
44
Anti-Black Subjects
Ambivalent Subjects
Pro-Black Subjects
41
Favorability
of
38
Evaluations
35
32
Less
Favorable
No Comment
“Black Person”
“N_-_-_-_-_”
Participants who had strong pro-black
attitudes were uninfluenced by the ethnic
slur.
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Simon & Greenberg, 1996
esearch
More
Favorable
44
Anti-Black Subjects
Ambivalent Subjects
Pro-Black Subjects
41
Favorability
of
38
Evaluations
35
32
Less
Favorable
No Comment
“Black Person”
“N_-_-_-_-_”
And participants with ambivalent feelings
toward blacks evaluated the black team
member more positively after hearing the
ethnic slur.
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Reducing Prejudice, Stereotyping,
and Discrimination
One hypothesis is negative stereotypes
and prejudice are due to ignorance.
From this perspective, simply
exposing people to different groups
should reduce prejudice.
But merely putting different groups
together does little to reduce
hostility.
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Reducing Prejudice, Stereotyping,
and Discrimination
Another approach is based on the
assumption that prejudice,
stereotyping, and discrimination
serve important goals for people.
A goal-based approach tries to target
interventions to the different goals.

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Goal-based approach
One route:
Change features of the person.
Example: Reduce people’s anxiety
before they interact with members of
other groups.
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Goal-based approach
Another route:
Change features of the situation.
Example: Create and advertise norms
that disapprove of discrimination.
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Goal-based approach
Another route:
Give people alternative ways to
satisfy their goals.
Example: Students who got to affirm
their self-worth by writing about
things important to them later
expressed less stereotypes about a
Jewish job candidate (Fein & Spencer,
1997).
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Goal-based approach
Another route:
Activate goals incompatible with
prejudice, stereotyping, and
discrimination.
Example: Students forced to confront
the inconsistency between their
egalitarian beliefs and their prejudiced
attitudes were later more likely to join
NAACP (Rokeach, 1971).
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Intervention:
Change Person
Intervention:
Provide
Alternative ways
to Satisfy Goal
The
Situation
The Person
Goal
(e.g. to gain economic
resources for one’s
ingroup)
Intervention:
Change Situation
Intervention:
Change Goal
Negative Prejudice,
Stereotyping, or
Discrimination
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Contact Helps When:
Outgroup members have traits and abilities
challenging negative stereotypes
Contact is supported by local authorities
and norms
Groups are of equal status, at least in
contact setting
Contact is at individual level
Contact is rewarding
Groups work toward common goals.
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Contact Helps When:
Importance of common goals was shown
in the study of the Rattlers and Eagles
(boys in summer camp in Oklahoma).
When their only contact involved
competitive games, interactions became
increasingly negative,
But then researchers forced the boys to
cooperate towards common goals (such
as starting a bus to take them all to a
movie).
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esearch
100
80
Percentage of
Rattler and
Eagle Ratings
That Were
Unfavorable
60
40
20
0
Ratings of Own Group
Ratings of Other Group
After
Competition
After
Cooperation
After competing, the Rattlers’ impressions
of the Eagles were highly unfavorable, as
were the Eagles’ impressions of the
Rattlers.
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Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2005
esearch
100
80
Percentage of
Rattler and
Eagle Ratings
That Were
Unfavorable
60
40
20
0
Ratings of Own Group
Ratings of Other Group
After
Competition
After
Cooperation
The hostility between the groups eventually
turned into friendship and acceptance after
they were induced to begin cooperating with
each other (Sherif et al.).
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Piecing Together the Puzzle
Jigsaw Classroom –
each student in a mixed race group
is given a different, and essential,
task to complete towards a class
project
This intervention takes advantage of
each of the six principles of
effective group contact.
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