Stereotyping and Prejudice: I
• Prejudice is a widespread, ubiquitous
social problem.
Attitudes toward social groups:
Components
• Affective=Prejudice: A hostile or negative attitude
toward a distinguishable group of people, based
solely on their membership in that group.
• Could be prejudiced in a positive way (e.g., toward
people from Massachusetts), but usually refers to a
NEGATIVE attitude.
Components of an attitude
• Cognitive=Stereotype: A generalization
about a group of people in which
identical characteristics are assigned
to virtually all members of the group,
regardless of actual variation among
the members.
Components of an attitude
• Behavioral=Discrimination: an
unjustifiable negative or harmful action
toward a member of a group, simply
because of his or her membership in
that group.
Stereotypes and prejudice
• Stereotypes and prejudice can be
based on any kind of group
membership: Your race, gender, or age;
your religion, where you go to college,
your sexual orientation, etc.
• Common stereotypes on campus?
Stereotyping and Prejudice
based on Race
• What does “race” mean? (from Diamond, 1994,
November, Discover)
• Not a meaningful biological category
• Human genome project: Percentage of our genes that
determine our external appearance about .01 percent
• Human species very young from an evolutionary
perspective; “it simply has not had a chance to divide
itself into separate biological groups or ‘races’ in any but
the most superficial ways”
In what other possible ways could we
categorize people into “races”?
• Presence or absence of anti-malarial
genes
– Present: African blacks, Arabs living on
the Arabian peninsula
– Absent: Swedes, some black Africans (the
Xhosas)
What is race?
• Presence or absence of the enzyme lactase
in adults (helps to digest milk)
– Present: Fulani of West Africa, Swedes, Central
Europeans
– Absent: East Asians, Native Americans, Australian
Aborigines, most black Africans
What is race?
• Different types of fingerprints
– Type 1: Black Africans, most Europeans,
East Asians (loops)
– Type 2: Jews, some Indonesians (arches)
– Type 3: Australian Aborigines (whorls)
• Source: Jared Diamond (1994, Nov.). Race without
color. Discover, pp. 92-97.
What is race?
• Race is an arbitrary ________category,
not a ______________one.
• So, why is it such an important
category for humans?
Categorization
• Categorization
• Principle of least effort: the tendency to
rely on over-simplified generalizations
and to resist information that
complicates our categorical
distinctions.
Categorization
– Humans categorize their physical and social worlds
– People group together objects and people that have
similar features. Circles, triangles, people.
– It’s efficient – speeds up processing and helps us learn
about people and things.
– All categorization involves some distortion and
oversimplification. (principle of least effort)
– A stereotype is a schema about a group. Just like other
kinds of schemas, stereotypes will lead us to pay
attention to information that confirms them, to interpret
information in light of the stereotype, and to remember
information that fits w/the stereotype.
Example of stereotype
confirmation bias
• Clip from “Hairspray”
Illusory correlation
• Illusory Correlation – the tendency to
see relationships, or correlations,
between events that are actually
unrelated.
•
Illusory Correlation
(Hamilton & Gifford,1976)
• Jane, a member of Group A, visited a sick friend in
the hospital.
• Kate, a member of Group B, cheated on a test.
• Sue, a member of group A, helped a friend with her
homework.
• Mary, a member of Group B, was the lead in her
school play.
• Debby, a member of Group A, was arrested for drunk
driving.
•
Illusory correlation
•
• Behaviors
• Desirable
• Undesirable
Group A
(majority)
Group B
(minority)
• 2x more statements for Group A and for desirable behaviors.
• Results:
• Class exercise
Ingroups/outgroups
• Ingroup bias: positive feelings toward those
in our group, negative feelings, unfair
treatment for those not in our group (i.e., in
the outgroup)
• Outgroup homogeneity: the perception that
individuals in the outgroup are more similar
to each other (homogeneous) then they
really are, as well as more similar than
members of the ingroup are.
Social identity theory
• Social identity theory (Henri Tajfel): People
favor ingroups over outgroups in order to
enhance their self-esteem.
• 2 hypotheses:
• (1) Threats to one’s self-esteem __________
________________________________________.
• (2) Expressing ingroup favoritism _______
____________________________________.
Social identity theory
Fein and Spencer (1997)
• IV 1: People received positive or negative feedback
on a test of their intellectual skills.
IV 2: The job applicant to be evaluated was either
Jewish or not Jewish.
• DV: How people evaluated the job applicant
• Results: (1) People who received negative feedback
evaluated the _____________________________.
• 2. People who received negative feedback and
evaluated the Jewish applicant (negatively) showed
the _____________________________________.
• Video clip: Ingroup bias/negative view
toward outgroup “Planes, Trains, and
Automobiles”
Realistic conflict theory
• Realistic Conflict Theory: Intergroup
conflict develops from competition for
limited resources.
Robbers Cave Study: Intergroup
competition and cooperation
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Robbers Cave Study (Sherif et al., 1954)
11 yr. old boys, white, well-adjusted, middle-class
Two groups: Rattlers versus Eagles
3 phases
Phase 1: Creating in-groups
Phase 2: Intergroup competition
Phase 3: Intergroup cooperation
Creating common (superordinate) goals & mutual
interdependence
Creating ingroups
• Divided into two groups.
Intergroup competition
• Rattlers & Eagles
• Ingroup favoritism
Intergroup cooperation
• Said nice things about other group
• Put in situations together (e.g., dining hall)
• Mere contact did not work!
What worked?
• Shared, superordinate goal to overcome
adversity
Contact hypothesis
• Contact hypothesis: Direct contact
between hostile groups will reduce
prejudice under certain conditions.
• 1954 in Brown vs. the Board of Education
of Topeka, the Supreme Court ruled that
racially separate schools were inherently
unequal and that they were in violation of
the Constitution.
Disappointing outcome
• Research in the 1970's and 80's showed
that contact between children from
different ethnic/racial groups was not
reducing prejudice.
Why was the outcome
disappointing?
• Contact hypothesis: proposes that
______________________________
_______________________________
• These conditions were ____________
_________________________________.
What are the conditions necessary for
reducing prejudice?
• 1. Equal status
• 2. Personal, informal contact
• 3. Contact w/ multiple group members to
breakdown stereotypes.
• 4. Mutual interdependence
• 5. Common goals
• 6. Existing norms must favor group equality
Jigsaw technique
• Jigsaw technique (Eliot Aronson):. A jigsaw
classroom is a classroom setting designed
to reduce prejudice and raise the self-esteem
of children by placing them in small
desegregated groups and making each child
dependent on the other children in the group
to learn the course material and do well in
the class.
Why does the jigsaw work?
• Breaks down ________________
______________________________.
• Places people in a “favor-doing”
situation and __________________
____________________.
• Fosters ______________.