Stereotype, prejudice and discrimination

Stereotype Definition: A stereotype is “...a fixed, over generalized belief about a particular group or class of people.” (Cardwell, 1996).  Identical characteristics are assigned to virtually all members of the group, regardless of actual variation among the members The cognitive component is our beliefs and thoughts (cognitions) about the target of prejudice.

© 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc. Prejudice Prejudice is an attitude. Prejudice is an attitude toward a distinguishable group of people, based solely on their membership in that group. The affective component is the emotion (e.g., anger, warmth) associated with the attitude object. Although prejudice refers to either positive or negative affect, people usually reserve the word ‘prejudice’ for use only when it refers to negative attitudes about others. © 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

© 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc. Discrimination: The behavioural component The behavioural component of prejudice refers to the actions, or behaviour, associated with the prejudiced object, such as discrimination. Discrimination is an unjustified, negative, or harmful action towards a member of a group, simply because of his or her membership in that group. Stereotypic beliefs (prejudice) can result in unfair treatment (see Bond et al, 1988, mental hospital study; Fig. 13.1; also Page, 1998, 1999). © 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

Heaven and Hell Heaven is where the police are British, the cooks are French, the mechanics are German, the lovers are Italian and it is all organised by the Swiss. Hell is where the police are German, the cooks are English, the mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss, and it is all organised by the Italians.

Other-stereotypes Other-stereotypes Stereotypes we have of others How do our own stereotypes influence our performance in interaction with the stereotyped group Are whites with high implicit racism more likely to perform better or worse in cognitive tasks after interacting with blacks? In experiments they were more likely to perform worse. This is because they find interacting with blacks exhausting because they are trying to hard not to appear racist

Meta-stereotypes and the Stereotype Threat – Social stigmas Meta-stereotypes Being aware of the stereotypes others hold of us Stereotype threat -The experience of concern about being evaluated based on negative stereotypes about one's group; affects intellectual performance (Aronson et al 1999)

Exercise Think of stereotypes for the different categories Culture, Age, Gender, Profession, Religion, Village/City etc. Be aware that this is an exercise that shall increase awareness which stereotypes exist already in order to then be aware to control those labels defined by socialization. It shall not serve to create new rigid schemes Where do those stereotypes come from? Do they affect the way you have dealt with people in the past? Did you share stories with others about experiences with people from these groups? Give examples?

Types of Stereotypes Racial e.g. Red Indians in cowboy films are seen as bloodthirsty savages Gender e.g. women are bad drivers Age e.g. old people are said to be very forgetful Religion e.g. Catholics families have a lot of children Profession e.g. all lawyers are greedy

What Causes Prejudice? What makes people prejudiced? Is it inherited, or is it learned? Possibly both. Prejudice could be an essential part of our biological survival mechanism inducing us to favour our own family, tribe, or race and to express hostility toward outsiders. Our culture (parents, community, media) might intentionally, or unintentionally, instruct us to assign negative qualities and attributes to people who are different from us. What is known is that the specifics of prejudice must be learned. How does this happen? © 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

What Causes Prejudice? The Way We Think: Social Cognition Memory Schemas (stereotypes) we hold about certain groups influence the way we process information about them. -eg, information consistent with our schemas will be given more attention, will be recalled more often, and will be remembered better than inconsistent information. -eg, we also tend to fill in the blanks with schema-consistent information © 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

What Causes Prejudice? The Way We Think: Social Cognition Subtyping Schemas (stereotypes) are highly resistant to change even in the face of contradictory evidence. -eg, we explain away disconfirming evidence and thereby maintain our stereotypes, ‘Oh he’s an exception.’ Subtyping: We create a new subcategory of exceptions to the rule (eg, homosexuals who are accountants are not promiscuous), so that the original stereotype remains intact (eg, in general, homosexuals are promiscuous). © 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

Devine and colleagues have developed a theory about how stereotypical beliefs affect cognitive processing. © 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

The Way We Feel: Affect and Mood What Causes Prejudice? The Way We Feel: Affect and Mood Esses and Dovidio (2002) found that when white students were shown a videotape of a black man experiencing discrimination in several situations and asked to focus on their feelings about each situation, They felt more positive toward blacks and were more willing to interact with blacks in the future than students who were told to pay attention to their thoughts in this regard. An important implication of this research for reducing prejudice is that intervention programs should focus on how people feel, rather than how they think about discriminatory situations. © 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

What Causes Prejudice? The Way We Conform: Normative Rules Conformity to normative standards in the society. Normative conformity is the tendency to go along with the group in order to fulfill its expectations and gain acceptance. Pettigrew argues that although economic competition, frustration, and social cognition processes do account for some prejudice, by far the greatest determinant of prejudice is conformity to social norms. © 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

Class experiment

What Causes Prejudice? Social identity and Social Categorization: Us vs. Them Why do we show this tendency to favour the in-group while denigrating the out-group? Because, Belonging to a group gives us social identity, Having a social identity contributes to feelings of positive self-esteem. As predicted from in-group bias theory, research shows that: i) the greater the identification with one’s own group, the greater the discrimination against an out-group. ii) when people’s self-esteem is threatened, they are especially likely to denigrate the out-group. © 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

What Causes Prejudice? Social identity theory and Social Categorization: Henri Tajfel and John Turner Another way prejudice is encouraged is through the in-group bias (us-vs.-them). An in-group is a group with which a person identifies and feels he/she is a member of; an out-group is a group with which a person does not identify. In-group bias is the especially positive feelings and special treatment we reserve for people we have defined as part of our in-group. Out-group members are seen as possessing negative traits and are often disliked. Examples of ingroups based on shared characteristics? © 2004 Pearson Education Canada Inc.

Social identity theory, experiment Henri Tajfel and John Turner Boys were shown 12 slides of paintings: 6 by Paul Klee and 6 by Wassily Kandinsky & asked to express their preference.  The paintings were shown without any signatures so that the boys could be assigned at random to the Klee or Kandinsky group.  After they had judged the paintings they were then told that they were being divided into groups and classified as the 'Klee group' or the 'Kandinsky group'. But really this was random Tajfel and colleagues found that randomly formed groups showed in- group favouritism bias. Research at the University of Alberta shows that an in-group can be created simply by photographing people together (Burgess et al, 2000).

Video discussion Brown eyed, blue eyed experiment

Collectivism and ingroup bias Individualists or collectivists more likely to show ingroup bias in order to boost their self esteem

Outgroup homogeneity effect Outgroup homogeneity effect subtle differences among "us" but "they" are all alike. When people join an ingroup they initiall see homogeneity Occurs most strongly in minority groups Where was the activity in the brain noticed when people viewed an outgroup member Orbitofrontal cortex

Discrimination Dehumanization and discrimination We are more likely to dehumanize outgroups Example: Less attribution of complex emotions to outgroups

Emotions and outgroup members What emotion are people likely to misperceive the outgroup member as having when the outgroup member is watching a scary scene? Anger Do they do this with ingroup members as well? Why? No, because they feel threatened by the outgroup member

Illusory correlation Illusory correlation What does Illusory correlation result in? 1) people tend to overestimate the association between variables that are distinctive: variables that capture attention simply because they are novel or deviant 2) relatively unusual events happen together, that combination may stick in people's minds, and this can lead people to overestimate an association between the two events 3)people tend to overestimate the association between variables that already expect to go together

Examples: Illusory correlation You get two times ripped off in a country. You believe that is what people do in that country If people see a story on the news about a person who was recently released from a mental hospital (rare) committing a brutal murder (rare), they remember the link between the two better than if a more commonly encountered type of person committed the murder or than if a former mental patient did something more common

Social dominance orientation and system justification What do disadvantaged groups who show system justification believe? They show outgroup favoritism and believe the system is fair even though they're disadvantaged