Stereotypes and prejudice;1

Question 1

What is the difference between stereotype, prejudice, and discrimination?

Answer 1

A stereotype is a cognitive belief about a group (e.g., “all elderly people are forgetful”).

Prejudice is an emotional attitude (often negative) toward a group (e.g., disliking someone for their ethnicity).

Discrimination is the behavioral component — acting on prejudice (e.g., not hiring someone due to their religion).

Question 2

hat is Social Identity Theory (Tajfel) and how does it explain prejudice?

Answer 2

Henri Tajfel’s theory states that individuals define themselves by group memberships (e.g., nationality, gender).
We naturally create in-groups (us) and out-groups (them), leading to in-group favoritism and out-group bias, which can cause prejudice and discrimination.

Question 3

What is stereotype threat and who proposed it?

Answer 3

Stereotype threat (Steele & Aronson, 1995) is when people underperform in situations where they feel at risk of confirming a negative stereotype about their group.
✅ Example: Women performing worse in math tests after being reminded of the stereotype that “women are bad at math.”