Lecture 11: Prejudice

Question 1

Where does prejudice stem from?

Answer 1

• It’s very very easy for us to form groups
• We’re very quick to divide the world up into groups and assign categories to people
• It’s easy to think that your group is better than other people’s groups

Question 2

What is Jane Elliot’s class?

Answer 2

• She told children that have blue eyes are better than brown eyed children
• By evoking this rule, the children were happy to pick up those roles
• The next week she swapped the roles over

Question 3

What is the Robbers Cave Experiment?

Answer 3

• Put into different teams, came up with the different names
• Groups competed and children got angry and abusive to each other
• Tried different techniques to reduce the tension (didn’t work particularly well)
• Raiding each other’s cabins etc.

Question 4

What is the Realistic Conflict Theory?

Answer 4

• Groups are formed and conflict emerges

- More noticeable when there are limited resources because you really have to compete for it

Question 5

What is the minimal group paradigm?

Answer 5

• People are divided for completely arbitrary reasons
• Even when people are aware that they are put together based on random procedures (white chip + black chip pulled out of bag) they still prefer the people that have the white chips
• Doesn’t matter how small

Question 6

Illusory correlation is when…

Answer 6

• Co-occurence of distinctive events are especially available
• Show pair of words that stick together in your mind more than other pairs
• People tend to overestimate their frequency

Question 7

How does the illusory correlation paradigm affect prejudice?

Answer 7

• Minority / negative behaviour is especially distinctive

- More likely to think that minorities will exhibit negative behaviour

Question 8

Give an illusory correlation example:

Answer 8

• Minority’s negative behaviour had a higher estimation than majority although both showed same pattern

Question 9

The attention theory (Kruschke)….

Answer 9

• Cognitively you focus on things that aren’t the same
• This is how we learn social groups, learn about your own group, later learn about new people, when you learn about those people you just learn the distinctive things
• Overweigh the colour of people’s skin because it’s what people focus on

Question 10

What is the social identity theory?

Answer 10

• People have both personal and group identities (when the All Blacks win, feel more like a kiwi)
• Links to self esteem
• Low self-esteem produces more prejudice
• Prejudice increases self-esteem
• Multiple groups that you belong to, fluid identity, reduce prejudice by changing the groups you belong to

Question 11

Automatic attitude activation:

Answer 11

• Object —–> Evaluation

Question 12

Two-Stage Theory of Prejudice (Devine 1998)

Answer 12

• 1: Stereotypes are automatically activated in the presence of a member or symbol of a stigmatised group
• 2: If the person becomes aware of these thoughts and is motivated, he or she will feel “compunction” (guilt) and actively inhibit discriminatory behaviour
• Subliminal priming about Donald

Question 13

Sherman and Gorkin’s Doctor study…

Answer 13

• Mother was the doctor
• Low prejudice people that realised they were being sexist felt guilty (motivated)
• High prejudice people didn’t

Question 14

How can we reduce prejudice?

Answer 14

• Schema Change
  They’re self sustaining, perseverance effect - even after telling you they lied you still believe the lie, self-fulfilling prophecy, bias against change
• Sub-typing
  Incrementing modelling, dramatic modelling, create a subgroup, don’t change stereotype but realise that some are ok