Class 10 Flashcards
What is a social category?
A mental representation of a group of people based on features that characterize that class of people
- Efficient, helpful for navigating social world
- People can be perceived by many social categories, but they’re not all active in any given moment
Give an example of a visible and non visible category?
Physical
*Black
*20s or younger
*Woman
Not directly visible
*Personality
*Stranger
*Canadian
Stereotypes
What is Social Categorization?
Classifying a person based on features you can infer
Stereotypes
What is Stereotype Activation?
The extent to which a stereotype becomes accessible in one’s mind
Stereotypes
What is Stereotype Application?
The extent to which a stereotype is used in judging/acting toward members of a target group
What are the most basic social categories within North America?
Gender, race, and age
Why are Gender, race, and age the big categories?
▪These groups have lots of social meaning and are easily observable
▪They’re inferred first, quickly, effortlessly, and spontaneously
▪Among adults, we encode race + gender within 300 ms
Explain: Study - Efficiency of Social Categorization
(how quickly do we recognize social categories)
White participants passively viewed images of male and female Black and White people. Some categorized the images based on gender, others categorized based on race.
ERPs (event-related potentials) were also tracked during the judgment process.
ERPs revealed differences in processing of race within 100 milliseconds and based on gender within 200 milliseconds
What is the mechanism behind categorization?
(how do we determine who ends up in a category)
We categorize by deciding whether a new stimulus resembles known exemplars from a category
Ex. comparing racially ambiguous person with examples of:
Black actors you know
Asian actors you know
etc
When people are difficult to categorize, they will cause:
(ex. Gender Neutral Pam)
- A motivation to socially categorize
- Discomfort for the perceiver
Why is it upsetting when we get miscategorized?
Social identity is important to our sense of self, and being mis-categorized can be painful
What is Prototypicality?
The extent to which a person fits the observer’s concept of the essential characteristics of a social category
When someone is higher in prototypicality, we…
- Easier, faster, and more frequent social categorization
-Increased stereotyping
(Can place them in a group easier)
How does Prototypicality impact black prison sentences?
Less prototypical (lightskinned) = Death penalty: 24%
More prototypical (darkskinned) = Death penalty: 56%
What do lab studies find on: Prototypicality and ‘Shooter Bias’
(first person shooter task)
Less likely to shoot white passing people
- And more likely to see them as not having a gun
High prototypicality: most often targeted when unarmed
Fast decisions like this are being subjected to prototypicality
Which types of identities are more likely to be socially categorized & stereotyped?
Visible!
Visible:
*Black
*20s or younger
*Woman
Invisible: (probably)
*Lesbian
*Conservative
*Canadian
Visible identities are not just about what we see with our eyes!
*Visibility is based on all our senses –vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell
*Visibility is based on cues in the situation
Explain one example:
Who Sounds Gay?
(more feminine voices, often causes assumptions)
How does our situation and goals impact what we look for?
*The situation determines what social categories are most salient.
- Ex. at pride event sexual orientation might be most salient
*Our goals determine what we’re looking for
What is an example of Situation impacting what categories you look for?
Situation: Football Game
- Focus: What sports team a person supports
*Race + gender less easily categorized
What is an example of personal goals impacting what categories you look for?
Goal: Looking for directions in a foreign city
- Focus: People who look like they know the directions (e.g., locals vs. tourists)
What is a Subtype?
Sub-categories within a social category
EX:
Old people = warm
Grandmothers = very warm
Old men = crotchety
What is an exception to subtyping:
“Re-Fencing”
When counter-stereotypical information is focused on one outgroup member, person may be perceived to be an isolated exception
“When a fact cannot fit into a mental field, the exception is acknowledged, but the field is fenced in again and not allowed to remain dangerously open” - Allport
“Re-Fencing”
For Differing stereotypes for “Black people” vs. “Black politicians
People assume black politicians are more
- Charismatic, educated etc then black people
(like a different category)
What is the Stereotype Content Model?
All stereotypes form along two dimensions: warmth and competence
*These dimensions are fundamental to person perception with evolutionarily adaptive benefits
- Warmth: “Will they harm or help me?”
- Competence: “Can they act on their intentions?”
