Chapter 12 Flashcards
(30 cards)
What is prejudice?
Prejudice is a negative or hostile attitude toward others based on group membership, often without considering individual characteristics.
What are the three components of prejudice?
- Affective (emotional response)
- Behavioral (discrimination)
- Cognitive (stereotypes)
What is a stereotype?
A stereotype is a generalization about a group where identical traits are assigned to all members, regardless of individual differences.
EX. all people who are Christian are lazy
Why are stereotypes resistant to change?
Stereotypes simplify the world by organizing information (so not always negative), making them easy to recall and difficult to alter.
What is gender stereotyping?
Exaggerates differences between the sexes, and ignores differences in personality traits and abilities within each gender
What is the difference between hostile and benevolent sexism?
- Hostile sexism: negative stereotypes of women. (e.g., weaker, less intelligent)
- Benevolent sexism: positive stereotypes of women. (e.g., more empathetic, more nurturing)
What is discrimination?
- Unjustified negative or harmful action toward a member of a group simply because of his or her membership in that group.
- Any group that is stigmatized in a society will experience discrimination, both blatant and subtle.
-Basically prejudice in action
What is reverse discrimination?
occurs when preferential treatment is given to individuals from disadvantaged or stereotyped groups.
What is social categorization?
process of grouping people based on shared traits (e.g., gender, ethnicity) to make sense of the social world.
What are the consequences of social categorization?
In-group bias: Favoring one’s own group.
Out-group homogeneity effect: Assuming out-group members are all the same.
—>Cross-ethnic identification bias: Difficulty distinguishing faces in out-groups.
- Our tendency to favor our in-group and denigrate the out-group occurs even when people are randomly assigned to groups.
- tendency to discriminate the out-group is stronger when individuals choose their groups.
Why do people show in-group bias?
Strengthens social identity.
Boosts self-esteem.
More pronounced when individuals choose their group.
Use prejudice to…
…help us feel better in time of distress
How can social categorization be reduced?
By promoting a common identity or emphasizing shared goals between in-group and out-group members.
In order to increase prejudice, stereotypes must become activated. When does this occur?
- Seeing photos of individuals is enough to activate stereotypes about race and weapons.
- The physical environment can also trigger automatic thinking about race and crime.
What is Devine’s Two-Step Model of stereotype processing?
- Automatic processes: trigger stereotypes under certain conditions and without conscious control.
- Spontaneous action in response to stimuli
- Bring forth information on stereotypes
- Controlled process: a conscious decision to suppress the stereotype.
- Takes place within awareness and chose to not pay attention to it
- Disregards the information
EX. Someone believes to not be prejudice but comes across people with different ethnical background, automatically stereotypes associated come to mind but thru controlled processing the individual can consciously choose to challenge or ignore those stereotypes and engage with them based on their individual characteristics rather then preconceived notions
What factors influence the automatic activation of stereotypes?
- Motivation to control prejudice.
- Self-esteem needs.
->People may activate stereotypes when they boost self-esteem and suppress them when they threaten self-esteem.
EX. Non-Black participants who received praise from a black manager were less inclined to activate racial stereotypes compared to when they were criticized by the same manager
The level of prejudice does not solely depend on stereotypes about a group, but also depends on…
…meta-stereotypes
What are meta-stereotypes?
beliefs about what out-group members think of one’s own group.
EX: Group A assumes Group B views them as incompetent, so Group A may behave defensively in conversations.
What is the most important determinant of prejudice toward a group?
How the group makes us feel.
When are we likely to feel negatively toward a group?
When the group promotes or hinders values we cherish
EX. promoting violence
When we anticipate that interacting with the group will be unpleasant.
What is the Ultimate Attribution Error?
The tendency to attribute:
->Negative behaviors of in-group members to situational causes.
->Negative behaviors of out-group members to dispositional causes.
->Positive behaviors of out-group members to situational causes.
Why does the Ultimate Attribution Error occur?
It provides a sense of security
What is an Illusory Correlation?
The tendency to exaggerate a correlation between two variables that are not actually related.
What is the Confirmation Bias?
The tendency to seek out information that confirms our existing beliefs.
