Lecture 6- Social categorisation and prejudice Flashcards
(50 cards)
What is a category?
Collections of instances that have a family resemblance organised around a prototype.
What is a prototype?
Cognitive representation of typical defining features of a category eg standards against which family resemblance is assessed and membership decided.
What does Rosch (1978) say about categorisation?
Categories not rigid but fuzzy as depends on prototype and that categorisation of less typical members is more difficult
What are the 3 reasons why we categorise?
Save cognitive energy
Clarifies perception of world
Maintains pos self esteem
What is saving cognitive energy in terms of categorisation?
Saves time and cognitive processing so simplifies how individuals think about the world.
What is clarifying perception of world in terms of categorisation?
Once a category is activated, all members tend to possess all traits of stereotype which reduces uncertainty so we can predict social world.
What is maintaining pos self esteem in categorising?
Motivational function for social identity and self-concept.
What is the illusory correlation of stereotypes?
-Negative stereotypes may occur when people inaccurately pair minority groups with negative events/behaviours because they are both distinct.
What does Hamilton + Sherman (1996) study say about illusory correlations of stereotypes?
Asked white Americans to estimate arrest rate of various types of Americans and found African American were estimated to have higher levels despite being the minority.
What are the 3 effects of stereotyping?
Behavioural assimilation
Stereotype threat
Prejudice and discrimination.
What is behavioural assimilation regarding effects of stereotyping?
Stereotypes don’t just influence our perceptions of others; they can influence our own behaviour
What is stereotype threat regarding effects of stereotyping?
The threat of negative evaluations can actually lead to poor performance, e.g., sinking to the level expected of you when expectations are low.
How does Bargh et al (1996) study behavioural assimilation?
- ‘Scrambled sentence’ task, making sentences out of randomly ordered words.
IV: word types (2 conditions): -‘Elderly’: task used words associated with elderly stereotypes eg grey
-Neutral: words unrelated to age (e.g. thirsty, clean).
DV= Participants directed to the exit and hidden confederate timed how long it took them to leave room.
What were the results of Bargh et al (1996) study on behavioural assimilation?
Ppts primed with ‘elderly’ words behaved in a way relating to elderly stereotype eg slower to leave room.
What is a negative of studies priming stereotypes?
Often don’t replicate as effects might not be universal
What did Papies (2015) study say about priming stereotypes in behavioural assimilation?
Found that people who want to become thinner are likelier to make healthy food choices if they are primed, say, with words on a menu such as ‘diet’, ‘thin’ and ‘trim figure but only in those with a healthy diet as a central goal.
What did Steele + Aronson (1995) say about stereotype threat?
When negative stereotypes define our own groups, and we behave in line with them eg elderly people and memory. -This negative impact is not inevitable; reframing low expectations as a challenge instead of a threat can eliminate the effect
How did Tan + Barber (2020) test replication of stereotype threat across groups?
Examined whether age-based stereotypes impacted older Chinese adults by testing memory recall under a stereotype threat condition and results found poorer memory recall in stereotype threat condition compared to control
What was a downside of Tan + Barber (2020) study on replication of stereotype threat?
The ppts were immigrants in the US so stereotype threat may not be seen by Asian ppts still in an Asian country
What is prejudice?
Strong, highly accessible negative attitude which is dominated by cognitive bias and negative stereotypes.
What is discrimination?
Behaviour based on untrust treatment of certain groups such as reluctance to help and tokenism.
What is reluctance to help regarding discrimination?
Participants were more reluctant to help a minority member (than their own group) when faced with an emergency, but only when others were present.
What is tokenism regarding discrimination?
Process of favouring a member of a minority group in isolated episodes.
What did Monin and Miller (2001) find about discrimination?
Found that participants who were given the opportunity to hire a well-qualified minority candidate were willing to discriminate against other minorities in future hiring, as they had already “proved” that they were not prejudiced.
