Prejudice

A Class Divided Recap What did we learn from the Documentary? What scenes do you think are the most significant, and will remember a month from now? How was the exercise that Elliot designed a response to the question “Why would anyone want to murder Martin Luther King?” Did the film provide and answer to the question?

Definitions Prejudice: An unjustifiable (and usually negative) attitude towards a group and it’s members. Prejudice generally involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory action. Discrimination: Involves behaving differently, usually unfairly, towards the members of the group.

Prejudice and Discrimination Prejudice and Discrimination usually go hand in hand, but there are times when prejudice can exists without discrimination, and discrimination without prejudice. Can you think of any examples?

Difference Between Prejudice and Discrimination Prejudice: Involves an unjustifiable attitude towards a group Discrimination: Different or unjust behaviour towards a group.

Origins of Prejudice One of the oldest and simplest explanations for prejudice is that competition between groups can fuel animosity. The need to quickly separate friend from foe “Us versus them” – Ingroups versus Outgroups

Ingroups vs Outgroups Evolutionary theorists assert that humans are programmed by evolution to immediately classify people as members of either: Ingroup – a group that one belongs to and identifies with. Or Outgroup – a group that one does not belong to or identify with. Ingroups tend to viewed in a more favourable light while outgroup members are viewed in a negative.

Talk to the person next to you about the ingroups and outgroups that you associate and don’t associate with. What makes them part of your ingroup/outgroup

Prejudice beliefs Write a couple of sentences about a group that you have the most difficulty with because of their ethnic background, religious beliefs, gender orientation, economic status etc.

Modern prejudice Although studies suggest that negative racial stereotypes have diminished over the last 50 years, they’re not a thing of the past, racism still remains a problem today. Modern racism has merely become more subtle. Instead of resorting to attacks, (whether be physical, verbal, etc.) the choice tactic in modern day is to condemn cultural values, or to ignore contact altogether (Wright & Taylor, 2003). Many people today avoid overt expressions of prejudical attitudes, though these same people covertly harbor negative views of racial minorities

Modern Prejudice In groups, or the person next to you find some examples of modern prejudice that can be seen today in the work place, media, etc. Write down your answers so they can be shared with the class

Implicit and Explicit attitudes Explicit attitudes are attitudes that we hold consciously and can readily describe. For the most part, these overt attitudes are what social psychologists have always studied until fairly recently. Implicit attitudes are covert attitudes that are expressed in subtle automatic responses that people have little conscious control People can have implicit attitudes about anything. However, implicit attitudes were discovered from research on prejudice. Implicit attitudes are what a lot of studies on prejudice focus on today

IAT testing activity Go onto the Project Implicit Harvard website. Select the Race IAT and complete the activity and the survey.

How did you feel about the activity? What aspects of the activity do you think were good? What aspects do you think were bad? Do you think the test is reliable? What about it’s validity? Why do you think implicit attitudes are a central focus for studies today?

Prejudical attitudes today These days, the vast majority of people reject racial prejudice as well as prejudice against women, the elderly, homosexuals, and those who are disabled. At the same time we’ve grown up in a culture where negative stereotypes about these groups have been widely disseminated. So we’re taught to reject prejudice, yet prejudice is still wide spread in society. WHY?

Forming and preserving prejudice Many prejudices appear to be handed down as a legacy from parents (Killen, Richardson, & Kelly, 2010). Prejudical attitudes can be found in children as young as 4 or 5. Research suggests that parents’ racial attitudes often influence their children’s racial attitudes (Sinclair, Dunn, & Lowery, 2004). The transmission of prejudice across generations presumably depends to some extent on observational learning.

Stereotypes Stereotypes: Are widely held beliefs that people have certain characteristics because of their membership in a particular group. Person perception: the process of forming impressions of others. Perhaps no factor plays a larger role in prejudice than stereotypes.

Stereotypes and physical appearance The most common stereotypes in our society are those based on gender, age, and membership in ethnic or occupational groups. Why do you think this is the case? Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes Through Advertising

Reinforcing stereotypes Stereotypes are highly resistant to change. Even when people encounter members of a group that they view with prejudice who deviate from the stereotype of that group, they often find ways to discount the evidence. Stereotypes are persistent because the subjectivity of a persons perception makes it likely that people will see what they expect to see when they actually come into contact with groups that they view prejudice with Confirmation Bias – The tendency to only seek information that is likely to support one’s decisions and beliefs

Threats to social identity In the social identity perspective, self-esteem depends on both one’s personal identity and one’s social identity. Social identity refers to the pride individuals derive from their membership in various groups, such as ethnic groups, occupation, religion, etc. The theory proposes that self esteem can be undermined by either threats to personal identity or social identity.

Threats to social identity Threats to both personal and social identity may motivate efforts to restore self-esteem. However, threats to social identity are more likely to provoke responses that foster prejudice and discrimination. When social identity is threatened individuals may react in two key ways. One common response is ingroup favourtism, rating those from the ingroup higher than that of an outgroup member. Another common response is outgroup derogation – simply the action of “trashing” outgroups that are perceived as threatning.

Why are social identity threats more likely to provoke prejudice and discrimination.

Scape goating Scapegoating: Is the tendency for individuals, when frustrated or unhappy, to displace aggression onto groups that are disliked, visible, and relatively powerless, may occur when people are frustrated but there is no clear target to blame the frustration on.

Self-fulfilling prophecy Self-fulfilling prophecy: A prediction made about some future behaviour or event that modifies interaction so as to produce what is expected.

Self-fulfilling prophecy Can you think of any examples of this that occur today in modern society?

Prejudice, stereotypes and schemas in action Reproduction of Kenneth and Mamie Clark Doll experiment: A Girl Like Me Article on Kenneth and Mamie Clark Doll Experiment

How can prejudice be reduced The contact hypothesis: Is the idea that merely bringing members of different groups into contact with each other will erode prejudice. Allport suggested that six conditions are necessary for intergroup contact to reduce prejudice: 1. Mutual interdependence 2. A common goal 3. Equal status of group members 4. Having informal interpersonal contact 5. Having multiple contacts with several members of the outgroup 6. When social norms are in place that promote equality

A jigsaw classroom is a classroom setting designed to reduce prejudice and raise the self-esteem of children by placing them in small desegregated groups and making each child dependent on the other children in his or her group to learn the course material and do well in the class.