Stereotypes, Prejudice, Discrimination, Causes and Consequences Flashcards
(39 cards)
prejudice
a negative ATITUDE toward a group of people
- cognition
Stereotype
a general BELIEF about a group of people
- differs from prejudice in that it can have a positive or negative connotation
- runs the risk of becoming prejudicial and leading to discrimination
- schema
discrimination
negative BEHAVIOUR directed at a specific group of people
- you can show the behaviour but not have the attitude
positive stereotypes
- beliefs that attribute favourable characteristics to group (eg. “women are more patient than men”)
- downside: validate thinking about others in terms of group membership, not as individuals
Czopp et al (2015)
- participants who hear and have stereotype about their social group assume speaker also holds negative stereotypes
- endorsers view that group membership is meaningful characteristic for being good at something
is prejudice on the decline
- attitudes have clearly changed in recent decades
- many forms of prejudice still exist, however, in more subtle forms
aversive racism
- people who openly endorse egalitarian views, but discriminate in subtle ways
- avoidance of interaction with those in other racial group
types of prejudice and discrimination
racism: belief in superiority of one race over another
sexism: prejudice and discrimination directed at a specific gender
heterosexism: discrimination directed at non-heterosexual individuals
- “homophobia”
- “don’t ass don’t tell” (1994-2011) was an institutionalized form of heterosexism (military policy - no gays allowed so “don’t ask don’t tell”)
racial prejudice
- holding a hostile attitude toward a person due to their race (though progress has been made, racism remains a significant problem)
- prejudice is dynamic and can change over time
- current events influence peoples thinking
old fashioned racism
- overt prejudice and discrimination
- involves oppressive acts and feelings
modern racism
- covert, subtle feelings directed toward a racial group
- includes the belief that racism and discrimination no longer exist
old fashioned sexism
- overt sexism based on the belief that women are less competent
- promotion traditional gender roles and different of men and women
modern sexism
- more covert and subtle, typified by resisting policies that support women
- denial that sexism still exists, and overt antagonism toward women
gender prejudice
treating people unequally due to their gender
- has to do with gender roles, not gender identity
gender stereotypes
- peoples ideas about how men and women should behave
- based on socially and culturally defined beliefs
- parent actively shape children’s gender roles
- play patterns and toy preference reinforced
not an American phenomenon:
- many cultures place very different values and expectations on men and women
ambivalent sexism
framework suggests there are 2 types of sexism:
1) hostile sexism: feeling resentful and openly derogatory toward the abilities of women
2) benevolent sexism: when men behave in ways that appear chivalrous, but can also communicate negative female stereotypes (eg. idea that men need to protect women)
how do we measure stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination
- stereotypes seem to be a function of automatic processing
- sometimes we’re not consciously aware of negative attitudes and stereotypes (need to use covert measures)
implicit associations test:
- measures reaction times related to stereotypes
- slower reaction to pairs that don’t “fit” stereotype
- people tend to have implicit negative stereotypes about those who are different than themselves
implicit associations test
consistent categories:
- positive adjective OR pleasant thing = press “1” key
- negative adjective OR gross thing = press “9” key
- FAST reaction time
inconsistent categories:
- positive adjective OR gross thing = press “1” key
- negative adjective OR pleasant thing = press “9” key
- SLOW reaction times
criticisms of IAT
- meaning of scores is somewhat arbitrary
(how do you establish cut-off where someone is/isn’t racist - reliability: results can be quite variable from one testing to the next
(poor test/retest reliability) - validity: weal relationship to real world behaviours - cant predict how someone will behave in a single scenario
(low external validity)
social learning theory
many of our attitudes are formed in the home
- parents are an enormous source of information and influence
- peers (classmates, friends) also shape our attitudes
- authoritarian personality - favours obedience, eschews lower status people
(is contributes to by our upbringing)
social categorization
- dividing people into categories based on common attributes
- race, gender, other common features
(ex: do you speak “loudly” to elderly person without even thinking about it?)
(ex: are we instinctively drawn to categorizing based on differences) - simplification of social world
- automatic processing - cognitive efficacy
outgroup homogeneity
- the belief that “all of them are the same”
- seeing outgroup as being very similar
- seeing ingroup members as very diverse
- studies how that this can occur very early in life, even in infancy
- research: children are more likely to recognize faces from within their own racial group
- may be contributed to by a lack of familiarity of the outgroup
- anyone not part of our group we see as all the same
ingroup favouritism
- the “we/us” vs. “they/them” mentality
- can lead to discriminatory behaviour
Robber’s Cave
- the groups started with heavy ingroup favouritism, over time with cooperation this dissipated
minimum ingroup paradigm:
- people who are put together randomly will still form an “ingroup” mentality
- Jane Elliot: brown eyes vs. blue eyes study
Robber’s Cave study
- boys summer camp
- assigned to teams randomly (eagles + rattlers)
- pinned against each other in sports and activities - awarded prizes for winning
- inner groups became close - outsiders were seen as enemies
- got aggressive
Jane Elliot: brown eyes vs. blue eyes
- teacher told her class that all around blued eyes students are better
- blue eyed students ended up doing better than brown eyed students
- example of self fulfilling prophecy
