Stereotyping and Prejudice: I

• Prejudice is a widespread, ubiquitous social problem.

Attitudes toward social groups: Components

• Affective=Prejudice: A hostile or negative attitude toward a distinguishable group of people, based solely on their membership in that group.

• Could be prejudiced in a positive way (e.g., toward people from Massachusetts), but usually refers to a NEGATIVE attitude.

Components of an attitude

• Cognitive=Stereotype: A generalization about a group of people in which identical characteristics are assigned to virtually all members of the group, regardless of actual variation among the members.

Components of an attitude

• Behavioral=Discrimination: an unjustifiable negative or harmful action toward a member of a group, simply because of his or her membership in that group.

Stereotypes and prejudice

• Stereotypes and prejudice can be based on any kind of group membership: Your race, gender, or age; your religion, where you go to college, your sexual orientation, etc.

• Common stereotypes on campus?

Stereotyping and Prejudice based on Race

• What does “race” mean? (from Diamond, 1994, November, Discover)

• Not a meaningful biological category• Human genome project: Percentage of our genes that

determine our external appearance about .01 percent• Human species very young from an evolutionary

perspective; “it simply has not had a chance to divide itself into separate biological groups or ‘races’ in any but the most superficial ways”

In what other possible ways could we categorize people into “races”?

• Presence or absence of anti-malarial genes– Present: African blacks, Arabs living on

the Arabian peninsula– Absent: Swedes, some black Africans (the

Xhosas)

What is race?

• Presence or absence of the enzyme lactase in adults (helps to digest milk)– Present: Fulani of West Africa, Swedes, Central

Europeans– Absent: East Asians, Native Americans,

Australian Aborigines, most black Africans

What is race?

• Different types of fingerprints– Type 1: Black Africans, most Europeans,

East Asians (loops)– Type 2: Jews, some Indonesians (arches)– Type 3: Australian Aborigines (whorls)

• Source: Jared Diamond (1994, Nov.). Race without color. Discover, pp. 92-97.

What is race?

• Race is an arbitrary ________category, not a ______________one.

• So, why is it such an important category for humans?

Categorization

• Categorization

• Principle of least effort: the tendency to rely on over-simplified generalizations and to resist information that complicates our categorical distinctions.

Categorization

– Humans categorize their physical and social worlds – People group together objects and people that have

similar features. Circles, triangles, people.– It’s efficient – speeds up processing and helps us learn

about people and things.– All categorization involves some distortion and

oversimplification. (principle of least effort)– A stereotype is a schema about a group. Just like other

kinds of schemas, stereotypes will lead us to pay attention to information that confirms them, to interpret information in light of the stereotype, and to remember information that fits w/the stereotype.

Example of stereotype confirmation bias

• Clip from “Hairspray”

Illusory correlation

• Illusory Correlation – the tendency to see relationships, or correlations, between events that are actually unrelated.

•

Illusory Correlation (Hamilton & Gifford,1976)

• Jane, a member of Group A, visited a sick friend in the hospital.

• Kate, a member of Group B, cheated on a test.• Sue, a member of group A, helped a friend with her

homework.• Mary, a member of Group B, was the lead in her

school play.• Debby, a member of Group A, was arrested for drunk

driving.•

Illusory correlationGroup A Group B

• (majority) (minority)• Behaviors• Desirable• Undesirable

• 2x more statements for Group A and for desirable behaviors.

• Results:

• Class exercise

Ingroups/outgroups

• Ingroup bias: positive feelings toward those in our group, negative feelings, unfair treatment for those not in our group (i.e., in the outgroup)

• Outgroup homogeneity: the perception that individuals in the outgroup are more similar to each other (homogeneous) then they really are, as well as more similar than members of the ingroup are.

Social identity theory

• Social identity theory (Henri Tajfel): People favor ingroups over outgroups in order to enhance their self-esteem.

• 2 hypotheses:• (1) Threats to one’s self-esteem __________________________________________________.• (2) Expressing ingroup favoritism ___________________________________________.

Social identity theory

Fein and Spencer (1997)• IV 1: People received positive or negative feedback

on a test of their intellectual skills. IV 2: The job applicant to be evaluated was either

Jewish or not Jewish.• DV: How people evaluated the job applicant• Results: (1) People who received negative feedback

evaluated the _____________________________.• 2. People who received negative feedback and

evaluated the Jewish applicant (negatively) showed the _____________________________________.

• Video clip: Ingroup bias/negative view toward outgroup “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles”

Realistic conflict theory

• Realistic Conflict Theory: Intergroup conflict develops from competition for limited resources.

Robbers Cave Study: Intergroup competition and cooperation

• Robbers Cave Study (Sherif et al., 1954)• 11 yr. old boys, white, well-adjusted, middle-class• Two groups: Rattlers versus Eagles• 3 phases• Phase 1: Creating in-groups• Phase 2: Intergroup competition• Phase 3: Intergroup cooperation• Creating common (superordinate) goals & mutual

interdependence

Creating ingroups

• Divided into two groups.

Intergroup competition

• Rattlers & Eagles

• Ingroup favoritism

Intergroup cooperation

• Said nice things about other group

• Put in situations together (e.g., dining hall)

• Mere contact did not work!

What worked?

• Shared, superordinate goal to overcome adversity

Contact hypothesis

• Contact hypothesis: Direct contact between hostile groups will reduce prejudice under certain conditions.

• 1954 in Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, the Supreme Court ruled that racially separate schools were inherently unequal and that they were in violation of the Constitution.

Disappointing outcome

• Research in the 1970's and 80's showed that contact between children from different ethnic/racial groups was not reducing prejudice.

Why was the outcome disappointing?

• Contact hypothesis: proposes that ______________________________

_______________________________

• These conditions were ____________

_________________________________.

What are the conditions necessary for reducing prejudice?

• 1. Equal status• 2. Personal, informal contact • 3. Contact w/ multiple group members to

breakdown stereotypes.• 4. Mutual interdependence• 5. Common goals• 6. Existing norms must favor group equality

Jigsaw technique

• Jigsaw technique (Eliot Aronson):. A jigsaw classroom is a classroom setting designed to reduce prejudice and raise the self-esteem of children by placing them in small desegregated groups and making each child dependent on the other children in the group to learn the course material and do well in the class.

Why does the jigsaw work?

• Breaks down ________________

______________________________.

• Places people in a “favor-doing” situation and __________________

____________________.

• Fosters ______________.