Prejudice and the Uncertain Mind

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Lecture 5

• Prejudice and the Uncertain Mind

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Chapter 7 from a UO/CO perspective

• 1. p. 197 Social Identity Theory (Tajfel and
  Turner, 1986). In order to develop a positive
  self-evaluation, we not only have a need to
  develop a personal identity but a social
  identity, or identification with groups.
• Would UOs and COs differ on these two
  identities ?
• Yes definitely, UOs are self-oriented, COs,
  group oriented

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• 2. p. 198. Ingroup Bias and the Minimal Groups
  Paradigm (Tajfel and Turner, 1986)
• Our need for social identity is so strong, we
  show a clear bias towards our own group, even
  when the group membership is trivial (e.g., flip
  of a coin).
• Note Hogg and Abrams (1995) argue that Social
  Identity is due to uncertainty reduction, not a
  need for self-esteem.
• Either Way Should UOs and COs differ on
  ingroup bias?
• Yes, definitely. We in fact have done the study.

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Ingroup Bias and Task UncertaintyHodson
Sorrentino (2000)
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Low Task High Task
Low Task High
Task Uncertainty Uncertainty
Uncertainty Uncertainty
Figure 2-1. Ingroup Bias as a function of
Uncertainty Orientation, Categorization, and Task
Uncertainty. CatCategorized,
UncatUncategorized.
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• 3. p. 200. Authoritarianism and Prejudice. High
  authoritarians are more likely to be racist than
  Low authoritarians.
• Does authoritarianism have anything to do with
  uncertainty orientation?
• Of course. COs are high in authoritarianism and
  low in nUncertainty. UOs are low in
  authoritarianism, and High in nUncertainty.
• By the way, German University Students are
  extremely low in authoritarianism.

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• 4. p. 201. Categorization and Stereotypes.
  Hamilton and Sherman (1994) say that the tendency
  to categorize people into groups has important
  consequences, e.g., we accentuate the differences
  between people belonging to different groups.
• Would UOs and COs differ on this?
• Yup. Roney and Sorrentino (1991) showed that
  COs see a greater differentiation between people
  of different occupational groupings (e.g.,
  students, professors, secretaries) than UOs.
  Should apply to other groupings as well.

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• 5. p. 207. Self-fulfilling Prophecies Our
  behaviour will make us act differently toward a
  target, and may cause the target to act
  differently towards us, in a sense, confirming
  our expectancies. On p. 208, Miller and Turnbull
  (1986) suggest that self-fulfilling prophecies
  are less likely when perceivers have the explicit
  goal of forming accurate impressions.
• Would UOs and COs differ on this?
• We think so. UOs would conform to this, but COs
  would probably look to heuristics, such as the
  group characteristics of the person.

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• 6. pages 208-212. Sexism. Are UOs and COs
  likely to differ on sex-role sterotypes?
• Of course. Clayton (1981) found that whereas UOs
  tend to be androgynous, COs tend to be sex-role
  stereotyped.
• 7. p. 219. Would contact help reduce prejudice
  for COs?
• Probably not.
• 8. How about Cooperative leaning techniques such
  as the jigsaw method (p. 221)?
• Nope. Our research leads us to believe not

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Uncertainty Orientation and Educational
Psychology The Merits of Cooperative Learning
and the Jigsaw Method
Huber, Sorrentino, Davidson, Roth, Epplier
(1992)
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Huber et al (1992, Study 1)
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Huber et al. (1992, Study 3)
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Conclusions

• Current theories of prejudice and attempts at
  resolving prejudice probably apply only to UOs.
  This is probably why they have had limited
  success as most people are COs.
• So what do we do with the COs?
• A. Shoot them?
• B. Behaviour Modification?
• C. Put them in situations where they will process
  information systematically, situations where
  there is no uncertainty.

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Th-th-th-thats all Folks!

• Hope you enjoyed the show.