Prejudice & Discrimination
Prejudice & Discrimination Prejudice and discrimination can begin when we stereotype groups of people. Stereotype: a generalized (sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people.
Stereotypes
Prejudice Prejudice: an unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group and its members. Prejudice generally involves: stereotyped beliefs negative feelings and a predisposition to discriminatory action.
Prejudice & Discrimination Negative thoughts and feelings about a particular group Discrimination: Treating others differently because of prejudice This can result in Jane Elliot demonstration
How Prejudiced Are People? Overt prejudice has decreased over time, but implicit prejudice (automatic, unthinking attitude) continues. Implicit Prejudice
How Prejudiced Are People? Other than race, were else do we see overt, implicit, or even subtle prejudice?
Social Roots of Prejudice: Social Inequalities Just world phenomenon: the tendency for people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get.
Social Inequalities Just world phenomenon: the tendency for people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get. Good is rewarded and evil is punished. If those who have high status are “good,” what does that imply about those who are poor or suffering?
The Robber’s Cave Experiment Us and Them: Ingroup: “Us” – people with whom we share a common social identity. Outgroup: “Them” – those perceived as different or apart from our ingroup. In-group bias: The tendency to favor our own group and predisposes us to prejudice. The Robber’s Cave Experiment
Emotional Roots of Prejudice Prejudice springs not only from divisions in society, but also as an outlet for anger. When things go wrong, we seek a target to blame: A Scapegoat.
Cognitive Roots of Prejudice This grows from our natural ways of processing information: forming categories We categorize everything, including people Despite his mixed-race background and being raised by a White mother & grandparents, Barak Obama is perceived by White Americans as being Black.
Cognitive Roots of Prejudice This grows from our natural ways of processing information: forming categories We categorize everything, including people In categorizing people, we tend to stereotype them.
Cognitive Roots of Prejudice To those in one ethnic group, members of another seem more alike than they really are in attitudes, personality and appearance. Other-race effect: the tendency to recall faces of one’s own race more accurately than those of other races.
Cognitive Roots of Prejudice Remembering vivid cases Because of the availability heuristic, we tend to judge the frequency of events by instances that readily come to mind.