Test 3 Material Flashcards
(87 cards)
Information Processing
Focusing on everything all at once would cause our brain to get all jumbled up
Automatic processing
- Seek patterns to help us process things
- Can be helpful (saves cognitive resources) and unhelpful (sometimes “often right” is not always right
Stereotyping + what componenent is it
The COGNITIVE component
- Generalization about a group of people in which identical characteristics are assigned to virtually everyone regardless of variation among them
- can be good or bad
- being aware of a stereotype does not mean that you believe it
Prejudice + what component is it
The AFFECTIVE component
- neg or pos opinion abot a group without ever having interaacted with them (preconceived opinion)
Individual vs. institutional discrimination
- Individual : discriminating based on your self beliefs
- institutional : embedded in a institution - not just one person who is discriminating but an entire group)
What is the root of prejudice and discrimination
STEREOTYPING
Stereotyping Developement
cognitive mechanism
- categorization and illusory correlation
why do we so readily categorize
- cognitive benefits
- self evaluative beliefs (social identity theory)
Social Identity Theory
People identify with their group and compare their group to other groups. They start to feel that their group is better and they get self esteem kickback
Number of Dots Study - Tajfel and Turner
- Come in lab and shown slides with a bunch of dots and you were told to estimate how many dots there were on each slide
- Collect info and tell you that you are either an underestimator or overestimator (made up)
- have the two groups play a game together and find that stereotypes started to develop almost immediately
- two groups started to reward their own group and take away points from the other groups
Why is explicit prejudice higher today
- more fake news
- increased use of social media
- group status threat (racial shift - by 2042 racial minorities will make up more than 50% of the US)
- Normative context regarding prejudice (elite political leaders will create the norm - after trump, more hate crimes against groups he hated)
Implicit bias
- in contrast to explicit bias, implicit bias operates outside of your awareness - grew up in a cultural where certain messages are said through your life
Characteristics of implicit beliefs and attitudes
- unaware
- unintentional - not trying to be prejudicial but it happens
- uncontrollable - happens quickly
How do we measure implicit bias?
- IAT
- Response latencies
- must be indirect
Perceptions of Anger Study - Implicit bias
- show people strips of faces, each with either black or white men
- you would be asked where you see the anger beginning in the faces
- when white participants: saw anger in black faces way earlier than in white face
- shows implicit bias bc they are literally the same pic, you just feel like white people have friendlier faces
Shooter Bias Studies (Implicit bias)
- bunch of slides that have either man of color or white holding something in their hand (weapon or random object)
- Told to look at slide and click “shoot” if you see someone with a weapon
- People more likely to shoot the man of color even if they don’t have a weapon
- took people longer to hit not shoot when black man came on the screen
Implicit Association Test
- Usually taken on a computer
- Measure reaction time to each item
- easier for you to associate certain words rather than other (black names and good words vs. white names and bad words)
Black/white names study
- easier for people to do white names and good words rather than black names and good words
Stereotyping and implicit bias are normal cognitive processes but…
This is not an excuse - we are responsible for controlling our bias.
- having the self awareness to recognize when you have bias makes it easier to fight
How to fight bias
- Devine wrote about breaking the prejudice habit :
- need to be aware of our biases and override automatically activated stereotypic responses
Concrete Strategies for reducing bias
- stay away from “gut feelings” and focus on what actually happened
- Expose yourself to minorities you admire
- think about people who violate expected stereotypes
Hidden/Concealable Stigma
- Identities that can be hidden from others and are socially devalued and negatively stereotyped
- ex of concealable stigmas (eating disorders, sexual orientation, abortions, criminal records…)
Inhibition
- keeping a secret
- requires a lot of work to keep a secret
- end up thinking about it more than you would if you just said the secret
What are the two theory of ironic processes of mental control?
- Intentional Operating Process
- Ironic Monitoring Process
Intentional Operating Process
- conscious and effortful
- serves to keep unwanted thoughts out of mind my distraction
- want to feel a certain way so you are controlling your thoughts