Chapter 12 Prejudice and Intergroup Relations

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Chapter 12 - Prejudice and Intergroup Relations

• Common Prejudices and Targets
• Why Prejudice Exists
• Content of Prejudice and Stereotypes
• Inner Processes
• Overcoming Stereotypes, Reducing Prejudice
• Impact of Prejudice on Targets

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Prejudice and Intergroup Relations

• Treatment of aboriginal and half-caste children
  in Australia
• Rabbit-Proof Fence
• Prejudice
• Racism
• Aversive racism

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Prejudice and Intergroup Relations

• Discrimination
• Unequal treatment based on group membership
• Stereotype
• Beliefs that associate groups with traits
• Subtypes
• Categories for people who dont fit a general
  stereotype

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ABCs of Intergroup Relationships

• Affective component
• Prejudice
• Behavioral component
• Discrimination
• Cognitive component
• Stereotyping

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Prejudice and Intergroup Relations

• Categorization
• Natural human tendency to group objects
• Social categorization
• Sorting people into groups on common
  characteristics

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Prejudice and Intergroup Relations

• Outgroup members (Them)
• Ingroup members (Us)
• Out-group homogeneity bias
• Eyewitnesses are more accurate identifying people
  of their own racial group
• Angry outgroup members are easier to identify
  than angry ingroup members

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Common Prejudices and Targets

• Most prejudice arise from external
  characteristics
• Racial prejudice (Racism)
• Gender prejudice (Sexism)
• Most people claim not to be prejudiced
• Behavior sometimes differs from expressed
  attitudes

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Common Prejudices and Targets

• Arabs
• Prejudice and discrimination increased in US
  after September 11, 2001
• People who are overweight
• Homosexuals
• Homophobia

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Food for Thought Prejudice Against the Obese

• Anti-fat attitudes begin as early as preschool
• Stigma
• Individuals characteristics considered socially
  unappealing
• Stigma by association
• Discrimination toward people associated with a
  stigmatized person

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Social Side of Sex- Roots of Anti-Gay Prejudice

• Both men and women are intolerant of
  homosexuality in their own gender
• Perhaps people fear being the target of a sexual
  advances from a homosexual
• May fear a positive response to homosexual
  advances

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Why Prejudice Exists

• Tendency to hold stereotypes and prejudices may
  be innate
• Content of stereotypes is learned though
  socialization
• People automatically know stereotypes and have to
  work to override them

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Why Prejudice Exists

• Ingroup favoritism
• Preferential treatment or favorable attitudes
  toward ones own group members
• Minimal group effect
• Ingroup favoritism occurs even when group
  membership was random

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Us Versus Them Groups in Competition

• Intergroup relations at Robbers Cave (Sherif
  Sherif, 1954)
• After one week of group competition the two
  groups were intensely hostile
• To induce cooperation, introduced superordinate
  goals

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Us Versus Them Groups in Competition

• Realistic conflict theory
• Competition over scarce resources leads to
  intergroup hostility and conflict
• Competition
• Cooperation

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Tradeoffs - Competition Versus Cooperation

• Some societies have little or no competition
• Typically peaceful, economically undeveloped
  groups
• Competition has both costs and gains
• May produce prejudice, hostility, aggression
• May also produce progress, advancement

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Evolution and Groups in Competition

• Group who readily formed prejudices and acted to
  drive out others was more likely to survive
• Doing favorable deeds for ingroup members aids in
  their survival

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Us Versus Them Groups in Competition

• Discontinuity Effect
• Groups are more competitive than individuals are
• Motivated by fear and greed
• Reduce intergroup competitiveness
• Have people consider long-term effects of their
  actions
• Make group members identifiable

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Contact Hypothesis

• Under favorable conditions, regular interaction
  between members of different groups reduces
  prejudice
• Negative stereotypes arise because groups dont
  have contact with each other

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Contact Hypothesis

• Problems with contact hypothesis
• Students of different racial backgrounds do not
  interact with each other
• When they do, the interactions are generally
  negative

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Contact Hypothesis

• Contact only works
• Among people of equal status
• When positive
• When outgroup members are perceived as typical of
  their group

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Why Prejudice Exists

• Rationalization for Oppression
• Powerful group retains power through use of
  stereotypes and prejudices
• Prejudice and self-esteem
• Can be self-affirming
• If other groups are inferior, my group (I) must
  be superior

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Stereotypes as Heuristics

• Stereotypes as mental shortcuts
• Law of least effort (Allport, 1954)
• Stereotypes simplify the process of thinking
  about other people
• We conserve energy and effort by using
  stereotypes
• Use information from other people versus direct
  experience

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Content of Prejudice and Stereotypes
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Accuracy of Stereotypes

• Many stereotypes may be based on genuine
  difference, but then overgeneralized
• Accuracy may be based on roots
• Heuristics may be fairly accurate
• Exaggerated with little factual basis
• Used to boost self-esteem, oppression, or
  rationalize status quo

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Is Bad Stronger Than Good?Why Arent There More
Good Stereotypes?

• Stereotypes could be positive or negative
• Most seem to be unfavorable
• Negative stereotypes
• Are more durable
• Takes more exceptions to disconfirm a bad
  stereotype

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Inner Processes

• Stereotypes can form on the basis of salience
• Scapegoat theory
• Blame problems on outgroup, contributing to
  negative feelings
• Self-serving bias
• People make internal attributions for success but
  refuse external attributions for failure

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Inner Processes

• Difficult times cause people to behave
  aggressively toward outgroups
• Conflict and stress bring out stereotypes
• People use their stereotypes as hypotheses to be
  tested rather than rules applicable to all
• Confirmation bias

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Overcoming Stereotypes, Reducing Prejudice

• Modern Americans have come far in overcoming many
  prejudice and stereotypes
• Must consciously override prejudice feelings
• Automatic system may sustain prejudice
• Implicit prejudices are strong predictors of
  behaviors

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Overcoming Stereotypes, Reducing Prejudice

• People exert themselves consciously to overcome
  and hide prejudices
• Extra effort leaves people less able to self
  regulate
• Internal and external motivations to overcome
  prejudice are not mutually exclusive
• Internal morally wrong
• External avoid social disapproval

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Mental Processes of Nonprejudiced People

• Which mental processes underlay prejudice
  (Devine, 1989)
• Both groups had equal knowledge of stereotypes
• Both groups thought of the stereotype when they
  encountered a member of that group
• Nonprejudiced people consciously override the
  stereotype

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Discrimination in Reverse

• People accused of prejudice, often exert
  themselves to prove the opposite
• People overcome prejudice by making conscious
  efforts to be fair and equal in their treatment
  of others

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Motives for Overcoming Prejudice

• Plant Devines (1998) measure
• Internal Motivation to Respond Without Prejudice
• Based on strong inner belief that prejudice is
  wrong
• External Motivation to Respond Without Prejudice
• Socially unwise to express politically incorrect
  opinions

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Overcoming Stereotypes, Reducing Prejudices

• Contact
• Under specific conditions, intergroup contact
  does reduce prejudice to outgroup
• Vicarious contact can also influence
• Covert expressions of prejudice can be reduced
  through contact

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Overcoming Stereotypes, Reducing Prejudices

• Superordinate Goals
• Jig-saw classroom
• Symbols as superordinate goals
• Patriotism and the flag (Plant, Butz Doerr,
  2005)

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Impact of Prejudice on Targets

• Self-fulfilling prophecy
• Prediction that ensures, by the behavior it
  generates, that it will come true
• People would come to act like the stereotypes
  others hold of them
• Self-defeating prophecy
• Prediction that ensures, by the behavior it
  generates, that it will not come true

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Stigma and Self-Protection

• Cultures may label a group inferior, but those
  groups members may reject those messages
• African Americans generally have higher levels of
  self-esteem than European Americans
• Social comparison
• Criteria of self worth
• Attribution theory

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Stereotype Threat

• Fear that ones behavior may confirm a stereotype
  that others hold
• Most powerful when it is difficult to contradict
• Creates anxiety in interracial interactions for
  both races

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Stereotype Threat
PLAYVIDEO
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What Makes Us Human?

• Humans create stereotypes about other groups
• Culture increases importance of prejudices
• Stereotypes help people deal with the social
  world
• Humans can rise above prejudices
• Only humans create societies with people from
  different groups can live together in peace