Factors affecting prejudice: Situation and culture Flashcards
what are the 2 features included in situation?
- social norms
2. competition and resource stress
what are social norms and why are they important?
Unwritten rules about what is socially acceptable and desirable within specific social groups
Part of SIT is that people follow norms created by their ingroup because it could lead to rejection and low self esteem
SO, powerful as situational influence
how do social norms affect levels of prejudice?
Cantril suggested group identity is key in formation of prejudiced views - individuals become more prejudiced as they internalise with groups ‘frame of reference’
EG. BLACK AND WHITE MINERS
Below ground (identified as miner) = friendly and worked together
Above (identified with social groups)= held negative views towards each other
how does limited limited resources result in prejudice?
ESSES- resource stress
Prejudice arises if and when ingroup perceive themselves to be in direct competition for scarce resources with immigrants
Heightened if situation is seen as zero-sum: supplying one group comes at cost indigenous pop
SO, ingroup try to demonstrate outgroups lack of ‘worthiness’ due to threat they pose
what are the 2 cultural factors that affect prejudice?
- the norm of intolerance
2. the norm of fairness
who developed the norm of intolerance and what does it mean?
BALDWIN
States all cultures are ethnocentric to some extent >believe their culture is superior
In some cultures norm is to be accepting of diversity but discrimination still exists in covert ways
> calls this MICRO-AGGRESSION to hide BENEVOLENT INTOLERANCE : ig behave differently to og but justifies as attempt to support people with lower status
Other cultures outward expression of prejudice is encouraged and accepted
EG. apartheid where it was legal to discriminate
what is the norm of fairness?
Some cultures more concerned with fairness than competition
EG. Wetherell replication of Tajfel’s exp in NZ
FOUND,
indigenous Polynesian children more generous is allocation of points to og than white
NZ= individualist culture
Polynesia/ Fiji= collectivist
supporting evidence for situational factors?
AKRAMI- Swedish study where they manipulated social norms
-Ptcps heard confederate express doubts anyone could agree with statement ‘discrimination of women is no longer a problem in Sweden’
-Mean levels of sexism were lower in group who heard statement than control group who hadn’t
SHOWS,
prejudice can be affected by SF such as perceived social norms
competing argument?
Although mean levels of prejudice differed, Akrami also reports that personality variables (RWA and SDO) had influence
SO,
both SF and individual factors important determinants of prejudice because rank order of ptcps levels of prejudice were related to personality
application?
COMBAT PREJUDICE
Esses suggests targeting zero-sum beliefs.
In their study, found this to be effective
BUT, unpleasant reactions from ptcps high in SDO created more negative attitudes > more indirect approach might be needed to address prejudice in some
CRITICAL IF,
we want to move to ‘harmonious global village’
supporting evidence for culture?
ORPEN- notes F-scale scores were not correlated with prejudice in group of white South Africans BUT, commitment to culturally approved norms showed correlation with prejudice towards black South Africans
give a weakness of the research
HOWEVER,
they were 16 year olds and young people have strong desire to fit in with their social group
ISUUES AND DEBATES
PRACTICAL ISSUES relating to cross cultural research
Not possible to randomly allocate ptcps to groups > internal validity
AND,
if same exp works with 2 cultural groups, it’s likely one group will be from same group and one won’t
SO, theres likely to be many confounding variables
