Stereotypes, Prejudice,

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Stereotypes, Prejudice, Discrimination
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Stereotypes, Prejudice, Discrimination

• True Colors
• What are your thoughts?
• Does it ring true?

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Stereotypes, Prejudice, Discrimination

• True Colors
• What are your thoughts?
• Does it ring true?
• Can we use social psychological principles to
  understand what happened?

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Stereotypes, Prejudice, Discrimination

• stereotypes
• a set of beliefs about the personal attributes of
  a group of people (Ashmore Del Boca, 1981)
• a type of schema

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Stereotypes, Prejudice, Discrimination

• prejudice
• a biased evaluation of a group (often targeted at
  its individual members), based on real or
  imagined characteristics of the group members
  (Nelson, 2002)
• a type of attitude

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Stereotypes, Prejudice, Discrimination

• discrimination
• negative act towards a person or group of people
  because of their group membership

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Stereotypes, Prejudice, Discrimination

• ABCs of social psychology
• Affect prejudice
• Behavior discrimination
• Cognition stereotypes

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Stereotypes, Prejudice, Discrimination

• What did we see in True Colors?
• What stereotypes?
• What examples of prejudice?
• What examples of discrimination?

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Stereotypes

• How stereotypes are formed?
• categorization

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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)

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Stereotypes

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

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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)
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Stereotypes
(Macrae, Milne, Bodenhausen, 1994)
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Stereotypes

• Why do stereotypes persist?
• subcategorization

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Stereotypes

• Why do stereotypes persist?
• subcategorization
• illusory correlations

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Stereotypes

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

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Stereotypes

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

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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)
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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)
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Prejudice

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

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Origins of Prejudice

• cultural/group norms
• conformity to the group norm can influence
  prejudice

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Origins of Prejudice

• social dynamics
• Realistic Group Conflict Theory (Levine
  Campbell, 1972)

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Origins of Prejudice

• social dynamics
• Realistic Group Conflict Theory (Levine
  Campbell, 1972)
• Scapegoat Theory

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Origins of Prejudice

• social dynamics
• Realistic Group Conflict Theory (Levine
  Campbell, 1972)
• Scapegoat Theory
• Just World Theory

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Origins of Prejudice

• universal cognitive processes
• e.g., minimal group paradigm

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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)
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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)
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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., Sherifs Robbers Cave studies

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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.

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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)
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What Can Be Done about Prejudice?

• contact hypothesis
• an additional criterion
• must be friendship potential

(Pettigrew, 1998)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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