Chapter 11: Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Discrimination

Social Psychology by Tom Giliovich, Dacher Keltner, and Richard Nisbett

Characterizing Intergroup Bias

Stereotypes - beliefs about attributes that are thought to be characteristic of members of particular groups

Prejudice - a negative attitude or affective response toward a certain group and its individual members

Discrimination - unfair treatment of members of a particular group based on their membership in that group

Sources of Prejudice

Social Sources– Unequal Status– Social Identity

Cognitive Sources– Stereotypes– Perceived Similarities and Differences– Illusory Correlation

Social Sources of Prejudice

Unequal Status– realistic conflict theory - direct competition between

groups over valued resources (jobs, schools) Robber’s Cave Experiment Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis

Racial Violence and Economic Conditions

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Social Sources of Prejudice

Social Identity– social categorization- divide world into in-group

(“us”) and out-group (“them”) in-group bias- view own group more favorably

– Bele: You're finished Lokai. Oh, we got your kind penned in on Cheron in a little district. And it's not going to change. You half-white.Lokai: You half-black.

In-Group Bias from Exercise

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Cognitive Sources of Prejudice

“prejudice is by-product of our thinking processes”stereotypes- sweeping generalizations of social groups influence social thought by:

– process information consistent with stereotype quicker– focus on information consistent with stereotype– use tacit inferences to make inconsistent information appear

consistent

Cognitive Sources of Prejudice

out-group homogeneity– out-group members seen as more alike

in-group differentiation– in-group members seen as more diverse

(heterogeneous) illusory correlations

– overestimating rates of negative behavior in minority groups

Out-Group Homogeneity

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Discrimination

Discrimination- negative behaviors directed toward members of some social group

subtle forms– tokenism- perform trivial actions for minorities– reverse discrimination- leaning over backwards to

treat targets of prejudice favorably– “modern” racism

Characterizing Intergroup Bias

1. Modern Racism and SexismModern racism - prejudice directed at other racial

groups that exists alongside a rejection of explicitly racist beliefsa. Benevolent Racism and Sexism

Characterizing Intergroup Bias

2. Measures to Assess True Attitudesa. Implicit Association Test (IAT)

technique for revealing unconscious prejudices toward particular groupsb. Priming and Implicit Prejudice

Priming - procedure used to increase the accessibility of a concept or schema (for example, a stereotype)

Implicit Attitudes

Are automatically activated evaluations outside of a person’s awareness (unconscious)– Formed slowly through experience– Very resistant to extinction

Changing implicit attitudes– Can be changed without subject’s conscious

awareness Prime subjects with counterstereotypes

Being a Member of a Stigmatized Group

1. Attributional Ambiguity2. Stereotype Threat

- fear that one will confirm the stereotypes that others have regarding some salient group of which one is a member

Reducing Prejudice

Social Learning– teach parents to socialize children to be tolerant

Increase intergroup contact– contact must involve cooperation and interdependence– norms favoring group equality must exist– focus on individual-based (vs. category) processing

Extended Contact Hypothesis– knowing that members of in-group have formed friendships with

out-group members may reduce prejudice

Reducing Prejudice (con’t)

Have groups work on superordinate goals Focus on similarities between in-group and

nonthreatening out-group Recategorization

– reset boundaries between “us” and “them”, so former out-group is now included in in-group

Focus on others’ specific traits and outcomes (attribute-driven processing) rather than on group stereotypes (category-driven processing)

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