Ch. 11 - Prejudice

Question 1

Define stereotype
Define prejudice
Define discrimination

Answer 1

Mental representations/schemas about attributes possessed by members of a group, can be positive or negative
Negative attitude toward members of a group
Differential negative treatment of people based on group membership

Question 2

Define old fashioned prejudice

Define modern prejudice

Answer 2

Direct and personally endorsed negative attitudes towards a group

Held by people who do not consider themselves prejudiced yet hold implicit or sometimes explicit negative feelings/beliefs towards groups

• deny existence of current discrimination, think traditionally disadvantaged groups are demanding too much
• are opposed to affirmative action programs

Question 3

Define hostile sexism

Define benevolent sexism

Answer 3

Negative attitudes toward women who violate traditional roles/take power away from men
Paternalistic attitudes that women are delicate and need protection
Many women in leadership are faced with double bind (perceived negatively regardless of their conform or don’t conform to traditional gender roles)

Question 4

Measuring attitudes about groups (4)

Answer 4

Surveys: can’t always be trusted because people may not express what they really think, or their beliefs are subconscious
Implicit association test
Priming procedures
Affect misattribution procedure (how people evaluate the stimulus after a given prime)

Question 5

Social identity theory

• minimal group paradigm
• basking in reflected glory

Answer 5

Motivational perspective
Prejudice develops from need to feel good about oneself and take price in in-group successes and out-group failures
Minimal group paradigm = people show favouritism toward their own groups (even if groups are novel/arbitrary)
Basking in reflected glory = taking price in accomplishments of other people in one’s group
Denigrating out-group members boosts self esteem

Question 6

Realistic group conflict theory

• ethnocentrism
• study example

Answer 6

Economic perspective
Prejudice develops as a result of perceived conflict over resources
Predicts that intergroup prejudice will increase in periods of economic difficulty and that prejudice will be strongest among groups that stand to lose the most from another group’s economic advance
Ethnocentrism = glorifying one’s own group while vilifying other groups
Robber’s cave study

Question 7

Cognitive perspective

Answer 7

Stereotyping is inevitable because it comes from the necessity of categorization in humans
Categorization simplifies information processing and conserves cognitive resources
More inclined to use stereotypes when we are mentally tired
Study showed that using stereotypes freed up cognitive energy for other tasks

Question 8

Costs of stereotypes (5)

Answer 8

Oversimplification: causes inaccurate assessments, why stereotypes are self reinforcing
Distorted information processing: stereotypes are influenced by confirmation bias
- paired distinctiveness can lead to illusory correlations
- ambiguous actions tend to be interpreted consistent with expectations
Self perpetuation of stereotypes: subtyping exceptions to the stereotype reinforces the stereotype as a whole
- self serving attributional bias present when people attribute behaviour of a stereotyped group
Self fulfilling prophecies: people act toward members of certain groups in ways that encourage the very behaviour they expect to see from those groups
Outgroup homogeneity effect: people tend to overestimate the extent to which people in out groups are alike, is stronger for disliked and little known out groups
- own race identification bias

Question 9

Automatic v.s. controlled processing (study example)

Answer 9

Subtyping is controlled, illusory correlations from paired distinctiveness if automatic
Study where white participants were faster to correctly identify a gun when primed with a black face –> results were more due to automatic stereotyping (black people using guns) than automatic prejudice (negative attitude about both black people and guns)

Question 10

Costs to the stereotyped group (5)

Answer 10

Attributional ambiguity: members of stigmatized groups can’t always tell whether their experiences have the same causes as those of members of the majority or if their experiences are a result of prejudice
Material costs
Stereotype threat: fear of confirming others’ negative stereotypes about one’s own group, inhibits performance
Cost of concealment
Hesitancy to report prejudice
- personal group discrimination discrepancy = tendency for people to report less personal discrimination than average member of their group
- occurs because people are motivated to feel in control of your life, people don’t want to be labelled as complainers, and it justifies inaction

Question 11

Reducing prejudice - what doesn’t work (1) and what works (6)

Answer 11

Colour blind approach doesn’t work

Individual approaches to prejudice reduction (e.g. school programs)
Making discrimination illegal could induce people to change their attitudes to be consistent with their behaviour
Role play/education
Achieving subordinate goals
Contact hypothesis = contact between members of different groups should result in increasingly favourable attitudes)
Striving to be actively anti ___