Chapter 7: Prejudice

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Chapter 7Prejudice
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Prejudice (definition)

• A hostile or negative attitude toward a
  distinguishable group based on generalizations
  derived from faulty or incomplete information

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Stereotype (definition)

• Assign identical characteristics to any person in
  a group, regardless of the actual variation among
  members of that group

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Subtyping (definition)

• Convince oneself that what youve learned, while
  probably true, is a rare exception to the
  stereotype

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Stereotype threat (definition)

• Apprehensiveness about confirming a negative
  stereotype

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Attribution

• Our need to find a cause for another persons
  behavior
• Stereotypes are a special form of attribution

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Ultimate attribution error

• In an ambiguous situation, people tend to make
  attributions consistent with their prejudices

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Gender stereotypes

• Almost universal perception of women as more
  nurturing and less assertive than men
• Raises questions of nature vs. nurture

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Gender stereotypes

• Whether the underpinnings of stereotypes are
  social or biological, it deprives individuals of
  the right to be treated as individuals
• Self-attributions can be negatively impacted by
  stereotypes

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Gender stereotypes (research)

• Girls attribute math success to luck, boys
  attribute it to skill
• Male tennis players try harder after losing a
  set, female players give up
• Women did not try as hard on a difficult task if
  they thought their selection was influenced by
  affirmative action

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Blaming the victim

• Often the perception is that a group deserves its
  reputation
• Implies that the group must conform to higher
  standards than others

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Hindsight bias

• After we know the outcome of an event, the often
  complex circumstances surrounding it seem
  suddenly clear
• Once we know the outcome, we (erroneously)
  believe we could have predicted it accurately

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Prejudice and science

• Scientific data is often used to support
  prejudiced concepts
• We tend not to critically examine scientific data
  or conclusions because of their aura of
  objectivity

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Subtle effects of prejudice

• Belief creates reality our stereotypes elicit
  responses that validate our beliefs
• Strategies that we use to test our hypotheses
  about the world often produce confirming evidence
  of our erroneous beliefs

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Subtle gender stereotyping

• Hostile sexism the belief that women are
  inferior to men
• Benevolent sexism the assumption that women are
  the weaker sex and need protecting

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Subtle gender stereotyping(continued)

• Nonconscious ideology a set of beliefs accepted
  because alternative conceptions of the world are
  inconceivable
• In the case of gender, this may include assuming
  that women cannot handle mens work, like being
  an astronaut

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Consequences ofnonconscious ideology

• Women raised with traditional views are less
  likely to pursue higher education
• Female leaders who display female
  characteristics are seen as weak leaders, while
  female leaders who display male characteristics
  are still evaluated negatively

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Prejudice and the media

• George Gerbners exhaustive surveys of media
  representations routinely show that women and
  minorities appear in television far less often
  than in reality
• Similar examinations of magazine and newspaper
  comics show women and minorities significantly
  under- or mis-represented

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Consequences of prejudiced portrayals in the media

• We tend to accept or believe things we see with
  great frequency
• We cannot account for what we never see
  represented (e.g. women arent or cant be
  leaders since we never see them portrayed as
  leaders)
• Debilitating impact on the self-concept of those
  who are not represented

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Causes of prejudice

• Economic or political competition
• Displaced aggression
• Maintenance of self-image
• Dispositional prejudice (personality)
• Conformity to social norms

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Competition

• Discrimination, prejudice and stereotyping tend
  to increase when there is competition over
  mutually-exclusive goals
• Prejudice pays off for select people in
  competitive situations

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Displaced aggression

• Aggression is partly caused by frustration or
  aversive conditions
• Aggression is typically directed at the cause of
  the frustration
• If the cause is too powerful, or if the cause is
  vague, another target is usually selected

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Scapegoating

• The process of blaming a relatively powerless
  person or group for something that is not their
  fault
• The word comes from the ancient Hebrew tradition
  of placing the communitys sins on a goat and
  banishing the goat to the wilderness, thus
  cleansing the community

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Scapegoating targets

• Groups that are disliked
• Groups that are visible
• Groups that are relatively powerless
• Aggression generally escalates as far as societal
  norms allow (e.g., individual attacks, lynching,
  ethnic cleansing, genocide)

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Maintenance of self-image or status

• Powerful determinant of prejudice is to justify
  our behavior and our self-concept
• Self-justification intensifies subsequent
  brutality
• Strong predictor of prejudice is individuals low
  or declining status

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Prejudiced personality(Dispositional prejudice)

• Authoritarian personality
• Rigid in beliefs
• Possess conventional values
• Intolerant of weakness in self or others
• Highly punitive
• Suspicious
• Highly respectful of authority

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Authoritarian personality

• Developed by Adorno and colleagues
• Measured by questionnaire called the F scale
• Data are correlational these peoples parents
  also tend to be highly prejudiced

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Conformity

• Individuals tend to reflect the norms of their
  community
• Demonstrated repeatedly by measuring change in
  attitudes of people who move into areas more or
  less prejudiced than the ones they came from

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Changing prejudiced attitudes

• Sixteen millimeter approach education
  campaigns are not generally very effective
• Information contrary to firmly-held beliefs is
  ignored, distorted or rejected

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Changing prejudiced attitudes

• Equal status contact
• Mutual interdependence

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Desegregation

• Desegregation by itself does not change attitudes
• Authority figures must overtly support the change
• Some attitude change seems to result if
  individuals accept the inevitability of the change

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Equal status contact

• Equal status contact can result in attitude
  change
• Under ideal conditions, where the individuals
  status is really equal
• Competition, especially economic, makes attitude
  change much less likely

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Mutual interdependence

• One of the best ways to diminish competition and
  hostility between groups
• The situation must require that the groups work
  together to accomplish a shared goal

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Jigsaw classroom

• Technique developed by Aronson and students to
  address difficulties in recently desegregated
  Texas school
• Requires students to learn material from each
  other rather than the teacher
• Very successful in reducing tensions after just a
  few days

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Jigsaw classroom (continued)

• The interdependence inherent in the technique
  results in students getting to know each other as
  individuals
• Once the students really pay attention to each
  other, their stereotypes subside
• The process enhances empathy among the students

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Jigsaw classroom (continued)

• The technique has been used successfully in many
  countries
• The technique has been used with students of all
  ages, elementary through university
• The results are higher tests scores, as well as
  more positive interactions among students