Stereotypes, Prejudice, & Discrimination  Stereotypes A set of beliefs about the personal attributes of a group of people Stereotypes make information processing more efficient Human brains look for ways to categorize data to make life easier

Stereotypes, Prejudice, & Discrimination  Prejudice A biased evaluation of a group, based on real or imagined characteristics of the group members (stereotypes)  Discrimination Negative act towards a person or group of people because of their group membership

Stereotypes Billy Bob McCrackenHeinrich Schliemann  

Stereotypes – Girls versus Boys  Better at math  Emotional  Good communicators  Better at sports  Better at listening  Better at school  More successful  Nurturing  Shouldn’t cry  Overactive sex drive 

Discrimination  Difficult to demonstrate at the individual level Women tend to acknowledge having been discriminated against as a group, but few report being personally being discriminated against

Discrimination  Normally assessed at the aggregate level Example, the rate of first degree murder prosecutions in Florida based on the race of the victim and defendant DefendantVictimProsecution Rate African American 40% White 50% African AmericanWhite90% WhiteAfrican American50%

Implicit stereotypes and attitudes  Implicit stereotypes A stereotype that is powerful enough to operate without conscious control Powerful attitudes that are sometimes hidden from conscious awareness  Today we’ll take an Implicit Association Test, developed by Harvard researchers, to discover our own potential implicit stereotypes

Go to Labs 2 & 3  Google “harvard implicit”  Click on the first option  Click on “Go to demo tests”  Pick a test and follow the instructions