Stereotypes, Prejudice, & Discrimination

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stereotypes How stereotypes are formed? categorization

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)

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

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)

Stereotypes (Macrae, Milne, & Bodenhausen, 1994)

Stereotypes Why do stereotypes persist? subcategorization

Stereotypes Why do stereotypes persist? subcategorization illusory correlations

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

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

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)

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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)

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

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.”

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)

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

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)

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)

Discrimination normally assessed at the aggregate level Florida homicide cases 1976-77 rate of first degree murder prosecution based on the race of the victim and defendant (Radelet, 1981)

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)

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)

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