Chapter 4: PREJUDICE & DISCRIMINATION

Attitudes
- (attitudes predict one’s behavior)
- Attitudes provide us with a way of organizing information about objects and a way to attach an affective response
to that object (e.g., like or dislike) a special type of attitude directed at groups of people: "PREJUDICE"

The Dynamics
1) Prejudice
2) Stereotypes
3) Discrimination
(These three make up a triad of processes that contribute to negative attitudes, emotions, and behaviors directed at
members of certain social groups.)

Prejudice - The term prejudice refers to a biased, often negative, attitude toward a group of people. Prejudicial attitudes
include belief structures, which contain information about a group of people, expectations concerning their behavior, and
emotions directed at them. When negative prejudice is directed toward a group, it leads to prejudgment of the individual
members of that group and negative emotions directed at them as well.

(Cottrell & Neuberg, 2005) the nature of the emotion directed at a group of people depends on the group to which they
belong.

Profiles
(Cottrell and Neuberg have constructed “profiles” characterizing the emotions directed at members of various groups)

(Nelson, 2002) Prejudice also involves cognitive appraisals that are tied to different emotions directed at
members of stigmatized groups.

Different Forms of Prejudice

1) Racism
2) Sexism
3) Religious and Ethnic prejudice
4) Heterosexism

“Although many scientists maintain that race does not exist as a biological concept, it does exist as a social
construct”

Race - (such as when we discuss race related violence) it is this socially constructed concept, with its historical, societal,
and cultural significance.

Stereotypes - A set of beliefs, positive or negative, about the characteristics or attributes of a group, resulting in rigid and
overgeneralized images of members of that group.

The Content of Stereotypes

1) WARMTH - (liking or disliking)
2) COMPETENCE - (respect or disrespect)

(According to Fiske et al.,these two dimensions combine to define different types of stereotypes)
1) Explicit stereotypes- Are those of which we are consciously aware, and they are under the influence of
controlled processing.
- Explicit attitudes related more closely to the guilt innocence task, which required controlled processing

2) Implicit stereotypes - Operate on an unconscious level and are activated automatically when a member of a
minority group is encountered in the right situation.
- Implicit attitudes related more closely to the word-completion task, which was mediated by automatic
processing

Stereotypes as Judgmental Heuristics

There are also individual differences in the extent to which stereotypes are formed and used. individuals use implicit
theories to make judgments about others. That is, individuals use their past experience to form a theory about what
members of other groups are like.
Two types of Implicit Theories:
1) Entity Theories - Entity theorists adhere to the idea that another person's traits are fixed and will not vary
according to the situation.
2) Incremental Theories - Incremental theorists do not see traits as fixed. Rather, they see them as having the
ability to change over time and situations.

Discrimination - Overt behavior—often negatively directed toward a particular group and often tied to prejudicial attitudes
—which involves behaving in different ways toward members of different groups
 majority groups - (those in power)
 minority groups - (those not in power)

Authoritarianism - A personality characteristic that relates to a person’s unquestioned acceptance of and respect for
authority. Authoritarian individuals tend to identify closely with those in authority and also tend to be prejudiced

The Authoritarian Personality (which is characterized by submissive feelings toward authority; rigid, unchangeable
beliefs; and racism and sexism)
- The Berkeley researchers discovered that authoritarians had a particularly rigid and punishing upbringing.
- They were raised in homes in which children were not allowed to express any feelings or opinions except those
considered correct by their parents and other authority figures. People in authority were not to be questioned and,
in fact, were to be idolized.
- Children handled pent-up feelings of hostility toward these suppressive parents by becoming a kind of island,
warding these feelings off by inventing very strict categories and standards. They became impatient with
uncertainty and ambiguity and came to prefer clear-cut and simple answers.
- Authoritarians had very firm categories: This was good; that was bad. Any groups that violated their notions of
right and wrong were rejected

Social Dominance Orientation - Desire to have one’s in-group in a position of dominance or superiority to out-groups.
High social dominance orientation is correlated with higher levels of prejudice.
Openness to New Experience and Agreeableness

A currently popular model of personality is the “big five” model of personality (McCrae & Costa, 1987). five dimensions
underlying personality: extroversion/introversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness,neuroticism, and openness to
experience and culture.

Gender and Prejudice

- Another characteristic relating to prejudice is gender. Research shows that men tend to be higher than women
on SDO (Dambrun, Duarte, & Guimond, 2004; Pratto et al., 1994).
- This gender difference appears to be rooted in different patterns of social identity orientations among men and
women.

The Social Roots of Prejudice

- The research on authoritarian personality and gender provides an important piece of the puzzle of prejudice and
discrimination. However, it is only one piece. Prejudice and discrimination are far too complex and prevalent to be
explained by a single, personality-based cause. Prejudice occurs in a social context, and another piece of the
puzzle can be found in the evolution of feelings that form the basis of relations between dominant and other
groups in a particular society.
Modern Racism
(Although racist beliefs and prejudicial attitudes still exist, they have certainly become less prevalent than they once
were.)
1) Aversive Racist - Person who believes he or she is unprejudiced, but feels uneasy and uncomfortable in the
presence of someone from a different racial group.
2) Modern Racism - Subtle racial prejudice, expressed in a less open manner than is traditional overt racial
prejudice and characterized by an uncertainty in feeling and action toward minorities.

Changing Social Norms

- Social norms have increasingly dictated the acceptance of members of different racial and ethnic groups into
mainstream society.
- Overt racism has become socially unacceptable. But for many individuals, deeply held racist sentiments remain
unchanged. Their racism has been driven underground by society's expectations and standards.
- societal norms have been altered, allowing racial and ethnic animosities and prejudices to be expressed.
- One good example of these shifting norms is the proliferation of hate on the Internet.
The Cognitive Roots of Prejudice: From Categories to Stereotypes
- Human beings tend to be cognitive misers, preferring the least effortful means of processing social information.
We have a limited capacity to deal with social information and therefore can deal with only relatively small
amounts at any one time.
- It is easier to pay attention to the group to which someone belongs than to the individual traits of the person. It
takes less effort and less time for someone to use category-based (group-based) information than to try to deal
with people on an individual basis.

Identification with the In-Group

In-group bias - The powerful tendency of humans to favor over other groups the group to which they belong.
- Our tendency to favor the in-group and vilify the out-group is related to the type of emotions we experience about
those groups.
- When we feel good about something that the ingroup does or is associated with and feel anger over what the out-
group does, then we are most likely to strongly identify with the in-group.
BIRG - we are likely to bask in reflected glory when the in-group does something good.
CORF - cut off reflected failure when the in-group does something bad.

Social identity theory (SIT) - An assumption that we all need to have a positive self-concept, part of which is conferred
on us through identification with certain groups.
- Fundamental to SIT Is the notion of categorizing the other groups, pigeonholing them, by the use of stereotypes—
those general beliefs that most people have about members of particular social groups (Turner, 1987)
- People are motivated to hold negative stereotypes of outgroups; by doing so, they can maintain the superiority of
their own group and thereby maintain their positive social (and self) identity.

“One series of experiments showed that when people were alone, they were likely to judge an out-group member on
an individual basis, but when they were made aware of their in-group membership by the presence of other
members of their group, they were likely to judge the out-group person solely on the basis of stereotypes of the
out-group. “

Self-Categorization Theory (SCT) - A theory suggesting that people need to reduce uncertainty about whether their
perceptions of the world are “correct” and seek affirmation of their beliefs from fellow group members.
A Biological Perspective on the In-Group Bias
(Tajfel's research has shown us that the formation of an in-group bias serves basic social and self needs primarily by
maintaining personal self esteem)

Ethnocentrism (the increased valuation of the ingroup and the devaluation of out-groups)
Xenophobia - or fear of strangers.
- Early populations were isolated from one another, people may have used similar physical appearance as a
marker of blood relationship (Tonnesmann, 1987)
- there was always the possibility that people who looked different could be a threat to the food supply or other
necessities of survival. Sociobiologists argue that it is reasonable to expect that people would be willing to
cooperate only with humans of similar appearance and biological heritage and that they would distrust strangers
(Barkow, 1980).
- In modern times, as Tajfel showed, we still derive much of our identity from group membership; we fear
being excluded from groups. High respect for our own groups often means a devaluing of other groups.
This is not necessarily a big problem until groups have to compete for resources. Because the world does not
appear to offer a surplus of resources, competition among groups is inevitable.

The Role of Language in Maintaining Bias

(Charles Perdue and his colleagues tested the hypothesis that the use of words describing in-groups and out-groups
unconsciously forms our biases and stereotypes.)
- Suggest that we have a nonconscious tendency to connect in-group labels with positive attributes rather than
negative ones and out-group labels with negative attributes rather than positive ones.

Illusory correlation - An error in judgment about the relationship between two variables in which two unrelated events are
believed to covary.

The Confirmation Bias - Stereotypes are both self-confirming and resistant to change. Numerous studies show that
stereotypes can influence social interactions in ways that lead to their confirmation.
The Out-Group Homogeneity Bias - The predisposition to see members of an out-group as having similar
characteristics or being all alike.

Ultimate attribution error - The tendency to give in-group, but not out-group, members the benefit of the doubt for
negative behaviors.

The Difference between Prejudiced and Non prejudiced Individuals - Devineʼs (1989)
- First, prejudiced individuals are less inhibited about expressing their prejudice than non prejudiced individuals.
- Second, no differences exist between prejudiced and non prejudiced individuals when stereotype activation is
beyond conscious control.
- Third, non prejudiced people work hard to inhibit the expression of negative stereotypes when they have the
opportunity to monitor behavior and bring stereotypes under conscious control.
- Fourth, non prejudiced individuals realize that there is a gap between their stereotypes and their general beliefs
about equality, and they work continually to change their stereotyped thinking.

Ways Prejudice Can Be Expressed [Gordon Allport (1954)]

a) Antilocution - talking in terms of prejudice or making jokes about an out-group.
b) Avoidance - avoiding contact with members of an out-group.
c) Discrimination - actively doing something to deny members of an out-group something they desire.
d) Physical Attack - beatings, lynchings, and the like.
e) Extermination - an attempt to eliminate an entire group

Stereotype threat - The condition that exists when a person is asked to perform a task for which there is a negative
stereotype attached to their group and performs poorly because the task is threatening.

Collective threat - The awareness that the poor performance of a member of one’s group may be evaluated with a
stereotype and may be generalized into a negative judgment of one’s entire group

Expecting to Be a Target of Prejudice - Another way that being the target of prejudice can affect behavior occurs
when people enter into a situation in which they expect to find prejudice.

Coping with Prejudice

- Raising the Value of a Stigmatized Group - One method of coping with prejudice when your group is
stigmatized, oppressed, or less valued than other groups is to raise its value. This is done by first convincing
group members of their own self-worth and then convincing the rest of society of the group's worth.
- Making In-Group Comparisons - Members of less-favored groups can maintain self esteem by comparing
themselves with members of their own group, rather than with members of the more favored or fortunate groups.
In-group comparisons may be less painful and more rewarding for members of stigmatized groups.
- Anticipating and Confronting Prejudice - Another strategy for individuals from a stigmatized group is to try to
anticipate situations in which prejudice will be encountered. By doing this, the individual can decide how to best
react or to minimize the impact of prejudice. The individual may decide to alter his or her demeanor, manner of
dress, or even where he or she goes to school or lives in an effort to minimize the likelihood of encountering
prejudice.

Compensating for Prejudice

1) Secondary compensation - A method of handling prejudice involving attempts to change one’s mode of thinking
about situations to psychologically protect oneself against the outcomes of prejudice.
2) Primary compensation - A method by targets of prejudice that reduces threats posed by using coping strategies
that allow the targets of prejudice to achieve their goals

Reducing Prejudice
- Contact between Groups (contact hypothesis) - A hypothesis that contact between groups will reduce hostility,
which is most effective when members of different groups have equal status and a mutual goal.
- Personalizing Out-Group Members - If dehumanizing people makes it easier to be prejudiced, even to carry out
the worst atrocities, then perhaps humanizing people, personalizing them, can reduce stereotyping and prejudice.
- Reducing the Expression of Prejudice through Social Norms - Attack the behaviors—the acts of hatred
themselves—not peopleʼs feelings about racial issues.
- Reducing Prejudice through Training - strategy employed to reduce prejudice is training individuals to
associate positive characteristics to out-group members or to dissociate negative traits from those members