The social psychology of prejudice and racism

Three key concepts defined

Prejudice is: an unjustifiable (and usually negative) attitude toward

a group and its members involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a

predisposition to discriminatory action A stereotype is:

a generalized (sometimes partially accurate, but often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people

Discrimination is: the unfair treatment of individuals; a deliberate action

taken to treat people differently.

Turn to your neighbor and generate a list of the following in the space provided:

Groups of people that most commonly experience prejudice in our society today:

Most common stereotypes that some people believe in today:

Examples of actual discrimination that you’ve actually seen, heard about, or read about:

And now…

… a closer look at how Social Psychology explains prejudice and racism.

Reason #1: Categorization

People are “cognitive misers” who unconsciously and consciously seek to simplify the world by making people and events as predictable as possible. We attempt to fit new information into existing schemas (Piaget), which usually works well, but at times often leads to stereotypes.

Reason #2: In-group bias: Us vs. Them

People tend to favor those who we perceive to be like us.

People within your group are viewed as “unique,” while people in the out-group are viewed as “all the same” and drastically different from your group.

Cliques, schools, sports teams, etc., in addition to race, religion, ethnicity

Reason #3: Social learning (Albert Bandura)

A picture is worth a thousand words- here’s the proof ->

Attitudes (good or bad) are often acquired from parents and other family members through observation and imitation.

Do you know of anyone who has adopted the same attitudes as their parents/grandparents?

Reason #4: Scapegoat Theory

Prejudice provides an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame (also known as the frustration-aggression theory)

Disenfranchised, marginalized, exploited, and/or oppressed people who often cannot vent their anger and hostility often look for scapegoats.

Scapegoating creates a concrete, literal, human symbol to hate rather than understand complex issues.

What are some other examples?

Reason #5: Just-World Phenomenon

The tendency of people to believe the world is just: people get what they deserve and deserve what they get.

“Blame the victim” The “haves” tend to develop

attitudes that justify things as they are.

Did this phenomenon change the outcome of the 2012 election (rightfully or wrongfully so)? Click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2gvY2wqI7M

Reason #6: Vivid cases

People tend to overgeneralize from a few exceptional cases to a group expectation (9/11).

“Availability heuristic:” we judge the frequency of events by thinking of events that come easily to our minds (the impact of media- nightly news- “if it bleeds it leads”)

Can you think of other examples?

Reason #7: The authoritarian personality type

The authoritarian personality is rigidly conventional. They favor following the rules and abiding by tradition, and are hostile to those who defy social norms.

They respect and submit to authority and are preoccupied with toughness and power.

Looking through a lens of rigid categories, they are cynical about human nature, fearing, suspecting, and rejecting all groups other than the ones they belong to.

Four factors that make prejudice more likely (Herbert Blumer)

1. Sense of superiority by the dominant group2. Belief that the subordinate group is

fundamentally different3. A feeling by members of the dominant group

that they are entitled to privileges4. A belief by members of the dominant group

that the subordinate group wishes to take over those privileges

The contact hypothesis (Gordon Allport)

Prejudice will decrease if two groups with equal status have contact, but it will increase if contact occurs under conditions of inequality.

Working class white workers+poor African Americans= more prejudice.

White recruits+black recruits in military= less prejudice.

Meet my grandfather’s old friend and coworker ->

The good news: Americans today openly express much less racial and gender prejudice

The bad news: there still seems to be a difference between what we say and what we do...

Over past 50 years, most Americans’ outward and expressive racial attitudes have changed.

Blatant prejudice wanes, subtle prejudice remains strong (and grows online).

Many white Americans approve of interracial marriage, but would be “uncomfortable” if someone in their family married someone of another race.

Duncan study, 1976

Most white subjects shown a picture of a white man pushing a black man perceived it as “horsing around”

Most white subjects shown a picture of a black man pushing a white man perceived it as “violent” and “aggressive”

Harbert study, 1998

White female college students asked to evaluate flawed essay said to have been written by a black or a white student.

When the writer was said to be black, the ratings were much higher.

Evaluators had lower expectations and offered less criticism of essays they thought were written by African Americans.

Can you think of other examples of “the soft bigotry of lowered expectations?”

Hurricane Katrina media coverage

More about Hurricane Katrina and race

66% of African Americans said that the government’s response would have been better if most of the victims were white; only 26% of whites agreed.

19% of African Americans felt that the government’s response was good or excellent; 41% of whites did.

What did Kanye West say in 2005 on live TV? Check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pVTrnxCZaQ

Racial profiling

Trayvon Martin case? http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-04-17/news/os-senate-racial-profiling-20120417_1_law-enforcement-lawmakers-frederica-wilson

NJ Turnpike study, 1999:African Americans were 13.5% of drivers, 15% of speeders, and 35% of drivers stopped!

NYPD cases: Amadou Diallo http://topics.nytimes.com/top/

reference/timestopics/people/d/amadou_diallo/index.html

http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/b/sean_bell/index.html

The election of President Obama: A landmark in U.S. race relations… or not?

http://thesituationist.wordpress.com/2008/10/07/situational-racism-in-presidential-election/

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/aug/19/nation/na-obama-studies19

From listening to others, in what ways did race influence the 2008 and 2012 election? Share your observations.

To what extent have attitudes about race changed since his election?

Does his election prove that we live in a “post-racial” society?

Would Americans vote for a female Presidential candidate? A Latino? An Asian American? A gay candidate?

The explosion in racist hate groups since 2008

http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2008/11/06/hate-groups-claim-obama-win-is-sparking-recruitment-surge/

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/01/09/1422471/virginia-kkk-obama-recruiting/?mobile=nc

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/04/24/rebranding-hate-in-the-age-of-obama.html

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2012/spring/the-year-in-hate-and-extremism#.UadiiL-IsbA

Guess which relatively small state ranks #5 in the number of hate groups currently operating?

Click here for the answer- and zoom in to get a closer look.http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map

A few words about how to overcome prejudice

Improving group contact: bring people together on equal terms to socialize

Controlled processing: train yourself to be more mindful of your prejudices (once you are aware of what they are- remember this after you take the online IAT tests in a few minutes!)

Instilling empathy: http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/12/10/babies.combating.bullying/index.html

Other interesting articles to check out!

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/05/27/race.empathy/index.html?hpt=Sbin

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/18/doll.study.parents/?hpt=Mid