Prejudice, Stereotypes, and Discrimination

Why do we treat “others” differently?

Self-esteem of the Oppressed• Kenneth and Mamie Clark (1947).

– Demonstrated that black children, as young as 3, rejected black dolls. Felt that white dolls were prettier and generally superior

– Key point in 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education desegregation decision

• Goldberg found similar results for gender– Women rated articles as superior if “written” by

a man (John vs. Joan McKay)• Swim and others have shown that these

tendencies have diminished over the years

Definitions• Prejudice

– A hostile or negative attitude toward a distinguishable group based on generalizations derived from faulty or incomplete information

– Jussim (1996) counters this to some extent with his kernel of truth theory

– Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. – “Trying to educate a bigot is like shining a light into the pupil of an eye – it constricts.”

– Very difficult to change prejudice through information

Definitions• Stereotype

– Assigning identical characteristics to any person in a group, regardless of the actual variation among members of that group

– Not necessarily intended to be abusive, may even be a “positive” stereotype

– They are mental shortcuts like the representative heuristic

– But, if they rob us of our individuality that may be problematic

– Remember the dangers of deindividuation

Stereotype Threat

• Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson – Tried to explain gap in test scores between whites

and blacks– Argued that blacks in test situations may feel

apprehension about confirming existing negative stereotypes of intellectual inferiority

– They labeled this Stereotype Threat– Demonstrated that black students did as well as

whites on the GRE verbal when led to believe that the test itself, and not the student, was being tested

Stereotypes and Attributions

• Ultimate attribution error – in ambiguous situations we make attributions consistent with our beliefs and prejudices

• Formation of these attributions then strengthen the original prejudice because they provide supportive evidence

Gender and Attributions of Success

• Male success is attributed to ability, female success is attributed to luck or effort– True for male and female perceivers– Women frequently do this to themselves,

particularly in “male” domains (Stipek & Galinski)• Mindset may be learned from parents

– Daughters of women who hold strong gender stereotypes tend to believe they don’t have much math ability

Gender and Attributions of Success

• Tennis and attributions for failure– Women were more likely to lose a tennis match in

straight sets (even at the professional level)– Nicholls argues that women may give up because

they attribute the loss in the first set to a lack of ability

– Ignores the fact that men have more chance to come back since they play 3 sets vs. 2 for women

Gender and Attributions of Success

• How might Affirmative Action measures impact attributions of success?– Turner and Pratkanis found that women who

believed that they received a job because of their gender (not merit) downplayed their own abilities and engaged in self-handicapping behaviors

Blaming the Victim

• There is a tendency to assume that those who are worse off deserve it in some way– e.g., the homeless should try harder to find a job– e.g., the often implicit assumption that a women

who was raped brought it on herself somehow– This tendency is even higher in those who have a

strong belief in a Just World– Frightening to think that bad things happen

randomly

Prejudice and Science• Best source for this type of information is

Stephen J. Gould’s The Mismeasure of Man– Follows the history of people like Louis

Agassiz, Samuel George Morton, and Paul Broca, and the history of IQ debates

– Each of these individuals wanted to “prove” the superiority of their group and allowed their biases to taint their science

– For example, Broca based male intellectual superiority on skull size, yet he only used 6 female skulls. Each of these skulls came from a women who died of infectious disease

– Foresaw the quotes from The Bell Curve

Prejudice and Self-fulfilling Prophecies

• Word, Zanna, and Cooper – Study One, white interviewers interact with black

and white subjects– Find that interviewers are less “immediate” with

black subjects– Study Two, trained interviewers to treat white

subjects the same way that blacks had been treated.– Independent judges rate the quality of these

interviewers as less effective than those treated like white subjects

– Belief creates reality

Automaticity of Stereotypes

• Patricia Devine (1989) – Low prejudice individuals exert conscious

vigilance that reduces stereotyping and prejudice– But, when conscious control is is minimized even

those who are relatively unprejudiced slip into automatic prejudice

– Banaji and Greenawald have recently done a huge amount of research that supports this assertion

Gender Role Socialization

• Traditionally– Males are described by instrumental traits– Females are described by expressive traits

• These traits lead to behavioral expectations– Porter and Geis, in all male group person at the

head of the table is viewed as the leader– But, when group is mixed males are viewed as

leader no matter where the women sit – This interpretation is the same even when

subjects self-rate as feminists!!!!

Gender Role Socialization

• Sandra Bem argues for androgyny– Should use both sets of traits in the appropriate

situation– Further research shows that androgynous

individuals are perceived as more likable and better adjusted

– However, must combine the traits. Acting solely in a cross-gendered manner is evaluated very poorly (e.g., highly effeminate male)

Time to Blame the Media Again

• Visibility of minorities is low on prime-time television. One study shows that the presence of African-Americans has fluctuated between 6-16% over the last 15 years. – When present, African-Americans tend to be

concentrated in virtually all Black situation comedies.

Minority Presence • Even worse for other minorities in the 1990’s

– Slightly more than 1% of primetime characters were Latino

– Slightly less than 1% were Asian or Native American

– Presence of gays and lesbians almost non-existent. When present they are often presented as caricatures

– Women outnumbered by men 2 to 1, and are more frequently portrayed as victims of crime

Causes of Prejudice

• Are we biologically wired to hate those who are not like us?– Possible, but even if so, the specifics of

prejudice must be learned• Four causes have been researched

extensively:– Economic and political competition, displaced

aggression, personality needs, conformity to existing social norms

Economic and Political Competition

• Prejudice increases during economic difficulties– In the west in the late 1800’s attitudes toward the

Chinese varied greatly depending upon the amount of employment opportunities. After Civil War the Chinese were hated due to competition for jobs

• Research shows that the most anti-black prejudice is found in groups that are one rung higher on the SES ladder– This variable is confounded w/ educational level

Economic and Political Competition

• All of this data is correlational and descriptive, what about experimental data?

• Muzafer Sherif – Boy Scout Research– Created competition between the Eagles and the

Rattlers and conflict over scarce resources– Even after competition ended animosity

remained and even continued to escalate

Misplaced Aggression

• More commonly known as Scapegoating– Blaming a relatively powerless innocent person

for something that is not his or her fault– Similar to Freud’s concept of displacement– Term is based on ancient Hebrew practice

• Long history – Holocaust, southern Blacks– Between 1882-1930 the number of lynchings in

the south in any give year could be predicted by the price of cotton

Scapegoating

• Laboratory experiments reveal that we scapegoat the following:– Groups that are generally disliked– Groups that are visible– Groups that are relatively powerless

The Prejudiced Personality

• Are there individual differences in the tendency to hate?– Adorno and his research on the Authoritarian Personality

suggests yes• Authoritarian Personality has these characteristics

– Adherence to conventional values (e.g., government, church, parents, middle-class)

– Contempt toward outgroups– Superstition

Authoritarian Personality

• Further characteristics:– Resistance to change– Belief in censorship and strict laws (people

need to be controlled)– Intolerant of weakness– Highly punitive– Extremely respectful of authority

• Appears to stem from harsh and threatening parental discipline

Prejudice through Conformity• Pettigrew suggests that discrimination arrives

predominately from social conformity• Prejudiced individuals, particularly

Southerners, who enter the army tend to become less prejudiced – More non-prejudicial norms to follow

• Laws and customs may provide the notion that one group is inferior to another– Segregation laws– Affirmative Action?

Can Government Policies Reduce Discrimination and Prejudice?

• Desegregation?– Key doesn’t seem to be mere contact, but equal

status contact. Does desegregation insure this?– Dissonance research shows that knowing I will

have to have contact with you reduces my dislike of you (all other things being equal)

– Things are not equal if desegregation leads to economic conflict

Possible Solution?

• Interdependence– Sherif finally reduced the conflict between his

groups of boy scouts by leading them into a cooperative task where everyone was important

• Jigsaw classrooms– Aronson and his work in cooperative classroom

environments. Everyone contributes and competition is counterproductive in the learning environment

A Successful Solution

• Integration of Jackie Robinson into Major League Baseball

• Branch Rickey used a number of Psychological principles to increase the chances of Robinson’s success, including:– Psychology of inevitable change (traded players

who refused)– Establish equal status contact

Jackie Robinson

• Creation of a norm of acceptance (Pee Wee Reese)

• Non-violent resistance• Individuate the new group member• Undo perception of preferential selection• Remove institutional barriers (built

Dodgertown)