LECTURE 8 Stereotyping and Prejudice

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LECTURE 8Stereotyping and Prejudice

• July 4th, 2005
• PSYC 2120 (A) 3.0 Social Psychology

It is human nature to hate those whom we have
injured Tacitus, Agricola
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Before we begin

• Midterm 2 grades will be posted by Wednesday
  (average about 72)
• Final exam This Friday July 8th
• More information on the handout

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Road Map

• What is prejudice?
• Sources of prejudice
• Social
• Emotional
• Cognitive
• Consequences and solutions
• For Targets
• For Perceivers

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Defining Prejudice

• Stereotypes a belief about the personal
  attributes of a group of people. They can be
  overgeneralizations, inaccurate, and resistant to
  change.
• Prejudice an negative attitude or prejudgment of
  a group or its individual members.
• Discrimination unjustifiable negative behaviour
  toward a group or its members

Cognition
French-Canadians are snobs
Affect
I dont like French Canadians
Behaviour
I dont hire French Canadians
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Types of Prejudice

• Heterosexism prejudice against gays, lesbians,
  bisexuals, etc. (aka homophobia)
• Ageism Prejudice against people of different
  ages
• Weightism prejudice against individuals of
  different weights

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Prejudice affects us all..

• In Germany, they came first for the communists,
  and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a
  communist.
• Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak
  up because I wasn't a Jew.
• Then they came for the trade unionists but I
  didn't speak up because I was not a trade
  unionist.
• Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't
  speak up because I was a Protestant.
• Then they came for me, and by that time nobody
  was left to speak up.
• Pastor Martin Niemoeller, Dachau, 1944

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Racism

• An individuals prejudicial attitudes and
  discriminatory behavior toward people of a given
  race.
• Institutional practices that subordinate people
  of a given race.

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Old-Fashioned (Blatant) Racism

• Doctrine of white racial superiority
• Racial segregation
• Intentional racial discrimination

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Modern Racism

• Definition Prejudice revealed in subtle,
  indirect ways because people have learned to hide
  prejudiced attitudes in order to avoid being
  labeled as racist.
• Over the past few years the government and the
  media have shown more respect to Blacks than they
  deserve.
• It is easy to understand the anger of Black
  people in America. (R)
• Blacks are getting too demanding in their push
  for equal rights.
• Over the years Blacks have gotten more
  economically than they deserve.
• Discrimination against Blacks is no longer a
  problem in Canada. (R)
• Blacks should not push themselves where they are
  not wanted

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Sexism

• An individuals prejudicial attitudes and
  discriminatory behavior toward people of a given
  sex.
• Institutional practices that subordinate people
  of a given sex.

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Types of Sexism

• Old-Fashioned Sexism
• Endorsement of traditional sex roles
• Differential treatment
• Stereotypes about lesser female competence
• Modern Sexism
• Denial that gender discrimination still exists
• Feeling that women have received more than they
  deserve
• Ambivalent Sexism
• Paternalism women are nice, but need to be
  protected

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Road Map

• What is prejudice?
• Sources of prejudice
• Social
• Emotional
• Cognitive
• Consequences and solutions
• For Targets
• For Perceivers

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Social Sources of Prejudice

• Social inequalities
• Unequal status breeds prejudice
• Justifies the economic and social inequalities
• Reduces dissonance associated with the disparity
• Realistic conflict theory
• Competition for scarce resources

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Social Sources of Prejudice

• Social identity theory
• We categorize people into groups
• We identify with our ingroup (the we aspect of
  the self-concept is our social identity)
• We compare our ingroup with outgroups
• Driven to have a positive and distinct social
  identity
• Like to see us as being better than them
• Will show ingroup bias even in minimal groups
  (Tajfel Billing, 1974).

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Which picture do you prefer?
B.
A.
Joe like this painting best
Jack like this painting best
You need to split 15 (loonies) between Joe and
Jack. What split do you favor? Amount must be in
(no cents).
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Social Sources of Prejudice

• 3. Social learning
• How do we learn prejudice?
• by watching others, behaving as they do, and by
  being reinforced for our behaviour
• Where do we learn our stereotypes/prejudices
• Parental influence
• Media
• Peer group

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Emotional Sources of Prejudice

• Frustration
• Mood and prejudice
• Esses and Zanna (1995)
• Music used to induce mood
• Students rated Pakistanis, Arabs, and Native
  Indians much more negatively when in a negative
  mood

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Cognitive Sources of Prejudice

• Dual-Process Models of Prejudice
• focuses on stereotypes as well as the automatic
  and controlled processing of information
• External versus Internal Motivation to Control
  Prejudice
• Facing exceptions to the rule
• Other cognitive sources

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Motivations to Control Prejudice

• External Motivation
• Social motivation for not responding, behaving,
  or speaking in a prejudiced manner
• I attempt to appear nonprejudiced toward Black
  people in order to avoid disapproval from others
• Internal Motivation
• Personal motivation for not responding, behaving,
  or speaking in a prejudiced manner
• Because of my personal values, I believe that
  using stereotypes about Black people is wrong

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Dual Process Theory

• Automatic Process our immediate, unconscious,
  negative reaction to a group or individual
  members of a group
• Controlled is our conscious ability to prevent
  those immediate negative reactions from informing
  our expressed attitudes

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Stereotype Activation
(Devine, 1989)

• Controllability of prejudice
• Study 1 awareness of culture stereotypes
• Study 2 people influenced by the activation of
  stereotypes
• Study 3 low-prejudice inhibit
  stereotype-congruent thoughts when controllable

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Devine 1989

• STUDY 1
• People high and low in prejudice are equally
  aware of stereotypes about African-Americans
  (poor, lazy, uneducated, criminal, athletic,
  rhythmic)
• Aggressive listed by most respondents

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Devine 1989

• STUDY 3
• People high in prejudice listed more negative
  than positive thoughts about Black Americans
• People low in prejudice listed more positive than
  negative thought about Black Americans
• Despite equal awareness of the stereotypes,
  people low in prejudice use a controlled
  cognitive process to override the stereotypes

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Devine 1989 Study 2

• Can high- and low-prejudiced people be similarly
  affected when a stereotype is activated outside
  of conscious awareness?
• Priming Activating particular associations in
  memory.
• Subliminally primed participants with stereotypes
  about Black Americans or with neutral words
  (except for hostile)
• Rate the hostility of ambiguously hostile
  character named Donald

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Dual Process Model

• High Prejudiced Person
• Black stereotypes Prejudice
• activated

Low Prejudiced Person Black stereotypes STOP!
No Prejudice Activated
Prejudice
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Devine 1989 Study 2

• Priming Black stereotypes led to higher
  hostility ratings for Donalds behaviour by both
  low- and high-prejudiced participants.

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Criticisms of this model

• In some case may not process race (if
  cognitively busy at the activation stage
  Gilbert Hixon, 1991)
• Not everyone has this implicit racial bias
  (Kawakami Dion Moskowitz chronic
  egalitarianism diversity)
• Activated stereotypes, not the category (Lepore
  and Brown)

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Cognitive Sources of Prejudice

• 2. Facing exceptions to the rule
• How might we challenge these stereotypes?
• Women are weak
• Provide counterstereotypical examplars?
• BUTSubtyping
• accomodating individuals who deviate from ones
  stereotypes by splitting off a subgroup
  stereotype (middle class Blacks or feminist
  women)
• Althletic women are strong most women are weak

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Cognitive Sources

• 3a. Perceived similarities (them) and
  differences (us)
• Outgroup homogeneity effect outgroup members are
  more similar to one another than ingroup members.
• 3b. Distinctiveness can influence perceptions
• Can accentuate the positive and negative aspects
  of a person (Langer studypaid more attention to
  detail when the person was distinct)

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Road Map

• What is prejudice?
• Sources of prejudice
• Social
• Emotional
• Cognitive
• Consequences and solutions
• For Targets
• For Perceivers

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Stereotypes as Self-fulfilling Prophecies

• Word, Zanna, Cooper (1974)
• Study 1
• Interviewer 1 (Participant) White Confederate
• Interviewer 2 (Participant) Black Confederate
• DV Examine Interviewers Behaviour
• Study 2
• Mimics Interviewer 1 White Applicant
• Mimics Interviewer 2 White Applicant
• DV Examine Applicants Behaviour

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Prejudice as self-protection

• Attributional Ambiguity (Crocker Major)
• Uncertainty faced by members of negatively
  stereotyped groups who receive criticism (was it
  due to my negative performance or to a biased
  evaluator?)
• May protect self-esteem by attributing negative
  feedback to discrimination
• Personal/Group Discrimination Discrepancy
• Tendency to admit group based discrimination but
  not feel that it affects you personally.
• I.e., Do women face discrimination YES
• Have you faced discrimination well, No

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Prejudice and Ego-Depletion

• Richeson Shelton (2003)
• Prejudice might lead people to feel anxious
  during interracial interactions
• This might leave them feeling drained (depleted
  from self-control)
• Might decrease ability on a test of cognitive
  functioning (Stroop task)

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Prejudice and Ego-Depletion

• Richeson Shelton (2003)
• White participants complete a race IAT
• Had an interracial interaction with a Black or
  White experimenter
• Completed a stroop task

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Stroop Task
yellow white pink grey black orange yellow
purple orange green tan red green purple
grey orange pink black orange white yellow
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Prejudice and Ego-Depletion

• Richeson Shelton (2003)
• RESULTS
• High prejudiced participants who interacted with
  a Black experimenter performed worse on a
  subsequent Stroop task than high prejudiced
  participants with a White experimenter or low
  prejudiced participants
• Being prejudiced and engaging in an interracial
  interaction leaves you feeling depleted

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Combating Prejudice

• Education
• High and Low prejudiced peers (Aboud)
• Media
• Womens attitudes and media (Davies et al.)
• Contact Hypothesis (Allport, 1954)
• Can work, but need specific conditions
• Equal status contact
• Cooperation
• Common external threats
• Superordinate goals

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Questions?