1. Stereotypes, Prejudice, & Discrimination

2. Stereotypes, Prejudice, & Discrimination
True Colors
What are your thoughts?
Does it ring true?

3. Stereotypes, Prejudice, & Discrimination
True Colors
What are your thoughts?
Does it ring true?
Can we use social psychological principles to understand what happened?

4. Stereotypes, Prejudice, & Discrimination
a set of beliefs about the personal attributes of a group of people (Ashmore & Del Boca, 1981)
a type of schema

5. Stereotypes, Prejudice, & Discrimination
a biased evaluation of a group (often targeted at it’s individual members), based on real or imagined characteristics of the group members (Nelson, 2002)
a type of attitude

6. Stereotypes, Prejudice, & Discrimination
negative act towards a person or group of people because of their group membership

7. Stereotypes, Prejudice, & Discrimination
ABC’s of social psychology
Affect: prejudice
Behavior: discrimination
Cognition: stereotypes

8. Stereotypes, Prejudice, & Discrimination
What did we see in True Colors?
What stereotypes?
What examples of prejudice?
What examples of discrimination?

9. Stereotypes
How stereotypes are formed?
categorization

10. Stereotypes How stereotypes are formed? categorization
ingroups and outgroups (Social Identity Theory; Tajfel & Turner, 1986)
ingroup bias (Ostrom & Sedikides, 1992)
outgroup homogeneity bias (Hamilton, 1976)

11. Stereotypes How stereotypes are formed? categorization
ingroups and outgroups
social learning

12. Stereotypes stereotypes make information processing more efficient
name and 10 personality characteristics
Nigel: caring, honest, reliable, friendly…
stereotype: Nigel is a doctor
cognitive load task
recall characteristics and facts about Indonesia
(Macrae, Milne, & Bodenhausen, 1994)

13. Stereotypes
(Macrae, Milne, & Bodenhausen, 1994)

14. Stereotypes
Why do stereotypes persist?
subcategorization

15. Stereotypes Why do stereotypes persist? subcategorization
illusory correlations

16. Stereotypes Why do stereotypes persist? subcategorization
illusory correlations
selective attention to stereotype-relevant information

17. Stereotypes Why do stereotypes persist? subcategorization
illusory correlations
selective attention to stereotype-relevant information
once formed, very difficult to change

18. Stereotypes stereotype threat African American and White participants
difficult verbal task
IV: intellectual ability (threat) or verbal task (no threat)
DV: performance on the verbal task
(Steele & Aronson, 1995)

19. Stereotypes stereotype threat
no threat condition: AA and White participants performed equally
threat condition: AA performed more poorly than the White participants
also shown to occur when race is made salient
(Steele & Aronson, 1995)

20. Prejudice
Where does prejudice come from?
What can be done about it?

21. Origins of Prejudice cultural/group norms
conformity to the group norm can influence prejudice

22. Origins of Prejudice social dynamics
Realistic Group Conflict Theory (Levine & Campbell, 1972)

23. Origins of Prejudice social dynamics
Realistic Group Conflict Theory (Levine & Campbell, 1972)
Scapegoat Theory

24. Origins of Prejudice social dynamics
Realistic Group Conflict Theory (Levine & Campbell, 1972)
Scapegoat Theory
Just World Theory

25. Origins of Prejudice universal cognitive processes
e.g., minimal group paradigm

26. What Can Be Done about Prejudice?
stereotype suppression
5 minutes writing about a skinhead
IV: suppress negative thoughts or not
5 minutes writing about the second skinhead
DV: How stereotypic is the writing?
(Macrae, Milne, & Bodenhausen, 1994)

27. What Can Be Done about Prejudice?
stereotype suppression
suppression condition: less stereotypic thinking the first time, but more stereotypic thinking the second time
(Macrae, Milne, & Bodenhausen, 1994)

28. What Can Be Done about Prejudice?
contact hypothesis
increasing exposure to members of outgroups can increase positive evaluations of the outgroup and decrease prejudice and stereotyping
e.g., Sherif’s Robber’s Cave studies

29. What Can Be Done about Prejudice?
contact hypothesis
Allport (1954): “…the effect of contact will depend on the kind of association that occurs, and on the kinds of persons who are involved.”

30. What Can Be Done about Prejudice?
contact hypothesis
four necessary criteria:
equal status members
common goals
intergroup cooperation
support of a legitimate authority (e.g., social norms)
(Allport, 1954)

31. What Can Be Done about Prejudice?
contact hypothesis
an additional criterion:
must be friendship potential
(Pettigrew, 1998)

32. What Can Be Done about Prejudice?
Jigsaw Classroom
6-person learning groups
each responsible for teaching and learning the material
pay more attention to and respect each other more
(Aronson, 1979)

33. Discrimination difficult to demonstrate at the individual level
women tend to acknowledge having been discriminated against as a group, but few report being personally being discriminated against
(Crosby, 1981)

34. Discrimination normally assessed at the aggregate level
Florida homicide cases
rate of first degree murder prosecution based on the race of the victim and defendant
(Radelet, 1981)

35. Discrimination normally assessed at the aggregate level
AA defendant/White victim 90%
White defendant/White victim 50%
White defendant/AA victim 50%
AA defendant/AA victim 40%
(Radelet, 1981)

36. Discrimination normally assessed at the aggregate level
White man $11, 362
African American man $11, 783
White woman $11, 504
African American woman $12, 237
(Ayres, 1991)

37. Conclusion stereotypes are cognitive schemas
stereotypes facilitate information processing, but are resistant to change
prejudice is a negative evaluation (i.e., an attitude)
discrimination is a negative action