Stereotyping and Prejudice: I

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Stereotyping and Prejudice I

• Prejudice is a widespread, ubiquitous social
  problem.

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Attitudes toward social groups Components

• AffectivePrejudice 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.

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Components of an attitude

• CognitiveStereotype 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.

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Components of an attitude

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

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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?

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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

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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)

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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

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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.

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What is race?

• Race is an arbitrary ________category, not a
  ______________one.
• So, why is it such an important category for
  humans?

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Categorization

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

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Categorization

• Humans categorize their physical and social
  worlds
• People group together objects and people that
  have similar features. Circles, triangles,
  people.
• Its 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.

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Example of stereotype confirmation bias

• Clip from Hairspray

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Illusory correlation

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

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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.

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Illusory correlation

• Group A Group B
• (majority) (minority)
• Behaviors
• Desirable
• Undesirable
• 2x more statements for Group A and for desirable
  behaviors.
• Results

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• Class exercise

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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.

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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 ones self-esteem __________
• ________________________________________.
• (2) Expressing ingroup favoritism _______
• ____________________________________.

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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 _____________________________________.

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

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Realistic conflict theory

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

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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

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Creating ingroups

• Divided into two groups.

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Intergroup competition

• Rattlers Eagles
• Ingroup favoritism

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Intergroup cooperation

• Said nice things about other group
• Put in situations together (e.g., dining hall)
• Mere contact did not work!

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What worked?

• Shared, superordinate goal to overcome adversity

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Contact hypothesis

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

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• 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.

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Disappointing outcome

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

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Why was the outcome disappointing?

• Contact hypothesis proposes that
  ______________________________
• _______________________________
• These conditions were ____________
• _________________________________.

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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

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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.

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Why does the jigsaw work?

• Breaks down ________________
• ______________________________.
• Places people in a favor-doing situation and
  __________________
• ____________________.
• Fosters ______________.