3. Bias and discrimination

Question 1

What is prejudice?

Answer 1

An adverse opinion or understanding formed before sufficient knowledge has been acquired

Question 2

What is a stereotype?

Answer 2

A mental picture that is held with members of a group that represent an oversimplified opinion

Question 3

What is the primacy effect? (Asch, 1946)

Answer 3

When we learn information about others, we put more weight on the first thing we hear about them

Question 4

What is the halo effect? (Dion, Bersheid and Walster, 1972)

Answer 4

We assume that physically attractive people are good and possess other positive attributes (more skilled, superior)

Question 5

What are social schemas?

Answer 5

Inter-related cognitions that allow us to make sense of a person, situation, event of place based on limited information

Question 6

What are two types of schemas that relate to ourself?

Answer 6

Scripts- How to behave in a restaurant
Self-schemas- Who we are

Question 7

What are two schemas that relate to other people?

Answer 7

Person schemas- about a person in our lives
Role schemas- Lecturer or pilot, our idea of how they should behave

Question 8

How are stereotypes helpful?

Answer 8

They allow us to function swiftly and effectively in a complex social world

Question 9

What are some effects of prejudice?

Answer 9

• Social stigma
• Devaluation of social identity
• Justifies unjust power systems

Question 10

What is the ‘Looking glass self’?

Answer 10

How we learn things about ourselves by other people’s responses to us
e.g. telling a joke and no-one laughing tells us we aren’t funny

Question 11

What is dehumanisation?

Answer 11

Stripping people of their dignity and humanity

Question 12

What did Stone et al find about prejudice in their golf study?

Answer 12

Stereotype threat: Being aware of a negative stereotype, inspires anxiety which then worsens performance

Question 13

What did Walton and Cohen find was the opposite of sterotype threat?

Answer 13

Stereotype lift:
Being aware of a positive stereotype about the group means we will perform better but effects are a lot smaller

Question 14

What is attributional ambiguity?

Answer 14

The suspicion and mistrust of those often discriminated against for the origins of this hate.
e.g. Women received poor performance reviews from males and more often than not reported that it was due to their work not the obvious prejudice of the male confederate

Question 15

What are some explanations for prejudice?

Answer 15

Fear of the unfamiliar (neophilic and neophobic)
Learnt behaviour
(modelling and conditioning)

Question 16

What is the mere exposure effect? (Zajonic, 1968)

Answer 16

People’s attitudes to stimuli improve through repeated exposure or familiarity (reverse can be said to be a cause of prejudice- lack of exposure)

Question 17

What is the Authoritarian personality? (Adorno et al, 1950)

Answer 17

Arose from the holocaust
Proposes that harsh child-rearing techniques are responsible for the emergence of various beliefs e.g. ethnocentrisism, cynical views of the world, conservative politial views

Question 18

What is a critique of the authoritarian personaliity?

Answer 18

Pettigrew
Found no difference in authoritarian personality factors between South Africans, Southern US and Northern US despite the first two being more racist

Question 19

What is dogmatism?

Answer 19

A cognitive style that is rigid and intolerant which may predispose people to prejudice

Question 20

What is a critique of dogmatism?

Answer 20

It reduces prejudice to an individual level (reductionist) and ignores socio-cultural factors that can have an impact on people’s prejudices

Question 21

What is right-wing authoritarianism?

Answer 21

Prejudice arises from a set of attitudes
which allow for the defence of the status quo
- adhere to social norms endorsed by established authorities
- support aggression towards social deviants
- submission to authority

Question 22

What is social dominance theory?

Answer 22

People support unjust social and power hierarchies using
group orientated myths or people supporting fairness and equality (individual differences)
- Someone with high social dominance is more likely to be prejudice as they value superiorority of their group

Question 23

What is a critique of social dominance theory?

Answer 23

Its dependant on context factors
e.g.
Schmitt et al found that its a person’s group orientation (where they stand in the hierarchy and their group salience) that drives their orientation for inequality

Question 24

What is system justification theory?

Answer 24

Some people whose social group is low,
support the status quo to the human desire to stability

Question 25

What is social identity theory?

Answer 25

An in-group bias to enhance self-esteem

Question 26

What are some of De Beauvoir's ideas about femininity?

Answer 26

It's a social construct of 'the other' constructed by males - Women are the second sex - Men have been able to transcend and control their environment - Women's otherness is related to anatomy and physiology

Question 27

What is optimal distinctiveness?

Answer 27

We seek to be distinctive from and superior to outgroups to enhance our self-esteem

Question 28

What is structural misogyny?

Answer 28

Established norms of male empowerment and female marginalisation

Question 29

What is the cycle of control?

Answer 29

Women are denied education Only men qualify for positions of authority Men control institutions Men shape society Men define male and female norms

Question 30

What is orientalism? (Edward Said 1978)

Answer 30

Racist stereotypes are formed allowing a contrary of western positive stereotypes and these are established and maintained by colonial rule

Question 31

What did okonofua et al, 2016 find about black students?

Answer 31

They are more likely to be expelled from school as white students are seen as more compliant

Question 32

How does racism affect healthcare?

Answer 32

-POC's in the US have a lower life expectancy -Black children were less likely to be classified as requiring emergency care - Black mothers have a higher change of complications in pregnancy and birth

Question 33

What did Hoffman et al find about pain medication in the US?

Answer 33

Black people are less likely to be prescribed pain meds when reporting pain to a doctor on a false belief about their biology.