Chapter 12 - Prejudice and Intergroup Relations
• Common Prejudices and Targets
• Why Prejudice Exists
• Content of Prejudice and Stereotypes
• Inner Processes
• Overcoming Stereotypes, Reducing Prejudice
• Impact of Prejudice on Targets
Prejudice and Intergroup Relations
• Treatment of aboriginal and half-caste
children in Australia
• Rabbit-Proof Fence
– Prejudice
– Racism
– Aversive racism
Prejudice and Intergroup Relations
• Discrimination
– Unequal treatment based on group
membership
• Stereotype
– Beliefs that associate groups with traits
• Subtypes
– Categories for people who don’t fit a general
stereotype
ABC’s of Intergroup Relationships
• Affective component
– Prejudice
• Behavioral component
– Discrimination
• Cognitive component
– Stereotyping
Prejudice and Intergroup Relations
• Categorization
– Natural human tendency to group objects
• Social categorization
– Sorting people into groups on common
characteristics
Prejudice and Intergroup Relations
• Outgroup members (Them)
• Ingroup members (Us)
• Out-group homogeneity bias
• Eyewitnesses are more accurate identifying
people of their own racial group
– Angry outgroup members are easier to
identify than angry ingroup members
Common Prejudices and Targets
• Most prejudice arise from external
characteristics
– Racial prejudice (Racism)
– Gender prejudice (Sexism)
• Most people claim not to be prejudiced
– Behavior sometimes differs from expressed
attitudes
Common Prejudices and Targets
• Arabs
– Prejudice and discrimination increased in
US after September 11, 2001
• People who are overweight
• Homosexuals
– Homophobia
Food for Thought: Prejudice Against the Obese
• Anti-fat attitudes begin as early as preschool
• Stigma
– Individual’s characteristics considered
socially unappealing
• Stigma by association
– Discrimination toward people associated
with a stigmatized person
Social Side of Sex- Roots of Anti-Gay Prejudice
• Both men and women are intolerant of
homosexuality in their own gender
– Perhaps people fear being the target of a
sexual advances from a homosexual
– May fear a positive response to homosexual
advances
Why Prejudice Exists
• Tendency to hold stereotypes and prejudices
may be innate
– Content of stereotypes is learned though
socialization
• People automatically know stereotypes and
have to work to override them
Why Prejudice Exists
• Ingroup favoritism
– Preferential treatment or favorable attitudes
toward one’s own group members
• Minimal group effect
– Ingroup favoritism occurs even when group
membership was random
Us Versus Them: Groups in Competition
• Intergroup relations at Robber’s Cave (Sherif
& Sherif, 1954)
– After one week of group competition the two
groups were intensely hostile
– To induce cooperation, introduced
superordinate goals
Us Versus Them: Groups in Competition
• Realistic conflict theory
– Competition over scarce resources leads to
intergroup hostility and conflict
• Competition
• Cooperation
Tradeoffs - Competition Versus Cooperation
• Some societies have little or no competition
– Typically peaceful, economically
undeveloped groups
• Competition has both costs and gains
– May produce prejudice, hostility, aggression
– May also produce progress, advancement
Evolution and Groups in Competition
• Group who readily formed prejudices and
acted to drive out others was more likely to
survive
• Doing favorable deeds for ingroup members
aids in their survival
Us Versus Them: Groups in Competition
• Discontinuity Effect
– Groups are more competitive than
individuals are
– Motivated by fear and greed
• Reduce intergroup competitiveness
– Have people consider long-term effects of
their actions
– Make group members identifiable
Contact Hypothesis
• Under favorable conditions, regular interaction
between members of different groups reduces
prejudice
– Negative stereotypes arise because groups
don’t have contact with each other
Contact Hypothesis
• Problems with contact hypothesis
– Students of different racial backgrounds do
not interact with each other
– When they do, the interactions are generally
negative
Contact Hypothesis
• Contact only works…
– Among people of equal status
– When positive
– When outgroup members are perceived as
typical of their group
Why Prejudice Exists
• Rationalization for Oppression
– Powerful group retains power through use
of stereotypes and prejudices
• Prejudice and self-esteem
– Can be self-affirming
– If other groups are inferior, my group (“I”)
must be superior
Stereotypes as Heuristics
• Stereotypes as mental shortcuts
– Law of least effort (Allport, 1954)
– Stereotypes simplify the process of thinking
about other people
– We conserve energy and effort by using
stereotypes
– Use information from other people versus
direct experience
Content of Prejudice and Stereotypes
Accuracy of Stereotypes
• Many stereotypes may be based on genuine
difference, but then overgeneralized
• Accuracy may be based on roots
– Heuristics may be fairly accurate
– Exaggerated with little factual basis
• Used to boost self-esteem, oppression, or
rationalize status quo
•
Is Bad Stronger Than Good?
Why Aren’t There More Good Stereotypes?
Stereotypes could be positive or negative
– Most seem to be unfavorable
• Negative stereotypes
– Are more durable
– Takes more exceptions to disconfirm a bad
stereotype
Inner Processes
• Stereotypes can form on the basis of salience
• Scapegoat theory
– Blame problems on outgroup, contributing
to negative feelings
• Self-serving bias
– People make internal attributions for
success but refuse external attributions for
failure
Inner Processes
• Difficult times cause people to behave
aggressively toward outgroups
• Conflict and stress bring out stereotypes
• People use their stereotypes as hypotheses to
be tested rather than rules applicable to all
– Confirmation bias
Overcoming Stereotypes, Reducing Prejudice
• Modern Americans have come far in
overcoming many prejudice and stereotypes
• Must consciously override prejudice feelings
– Automatic system may sustain prejudice
– Implicit prejudices are strong predictors of
behaviors
Overcoming Stereotypes, Reducing Prejudice
• People exert themselves consciously to
overcome and hide prejudices
– Extra effort leaves people less able to self
regulate
• Internal and external motivations to overcome
prejudice are not mutually exclusive
– Internal – morally wrong
– External – avoid social disapproval
Mental Processes of Nonprejudiced People
• Which mental processes underlay prejudice
(Devine, 1989)
– Both groups had equal knowledge of
stereotypes
– Both groups thought of the stereotype when
they encountered a member of that group
– Nonprejudiced people consciously override
the stereotype
Discrimination in Reverse
• People accused of prejudice, often exert
themselves to prove the opposite
• People overcome prejudice by making
conscious efforts to be fair and equal in their
treatment of others
Motives for Overcoming Prejudice
• Plant & Devine’s (1998) measure
– Internal Motivation to Respond Without
Prejudice
• Based on strong inner belief that
prejudice is wrong
– External Motivation to Respond Without
Prejudice
• Socially unwise to express politically
incorrect opinions
Overcoming Stereotypes, Reducing Prejudices
• Contact
– Under specific conditions, intergroup
contact does reduce prejudice to outgroup
– Vicarious contact can also influence
– Covert expressions of prejudice can be
reduced through contact
Overcoming Stereotypes, Reducing Prejudices
• Superordinate Goals
– Jig-saw classroom
– Symbols as superordinate goals
• Patriotism and the flag (Plant, Butz &
Doerr, 2005)
Impact of Prejudice on Targets
• Self-fulfilling prophecy
– Prediction that ensures, by the behavior it
generates, that it will come true
– People would come to act like the
stereotypes others hold of them
• Self-defeating prophecy
– Prediction that ensures, by the behavior it
generates, that it will not come true
Stigma and Self-Protection
• Cultures may label a group inferior, but those
groups members may reject those messages
• African Americans generally have higher levels
of self-esteem than European Americans
– Social comparison
– Criteria of self worth
– Attribution theory
Stereotype Threat
• Fear that one’s behavior may confirm a
stereotype that others hold
– Most powerful when it is difficult to contradict
• Creates anxiety in interracial interactions for
both races
Stereotype Threat
PLAY
VIDEO
What Makes Us Human?
• Humans create stereotypes about other groups
• Culture increases importance of prejudices
– Stereotypes help people deal with the social
world
• Humans can rise above prejudices
• Only humans create societies with people from
different groups can live together in peace