Theories of Prejudice 8 June 2004

Today’s Lecture Cultural Theories of Prejudice Realistic Conflict Theory (Sherif) Social Identity Theory –Minimal Groups (Tajfel) Cognitive Theories of Prejudice Development and maintenance of stereotypes –Illusory correlations –Encoding and recall biases

Realistic Conflict Theory Conflict over material goods leads to –ethnocentrism –hostility towards the outgroup

Realistic Conflict Theory If you place two groups into conflict, they will: –Adopt a hierarchical internal structure –Show heightened loyalty to the ingroup –Show heightened hostility to the outgroup –Develop stereotypes about the outgroup –Overvalue the performance of the ingroup relative to the outgroup –This can be overcome by giving the conflicting groups a superordinate goal

Robber’s Cave Experiment Sherif et al., 1961 Summer camp, 20 boys, randomly assigned to one of 2 groups (“Eagles” or “Rattlers”) who don’t know about each other Stage 1: no contact but THEN “discovery” Stage 2: Competition for a Reward Stage 3: Reducing the Hostility –superordinate goals

Social Identity Theory 1: Tajfel’s Minimal Groups Competition isn’t necessary for prejudice to occur Tajfel (1970) –IV: “overestimators” vs “underestimators” –DV: rewards assigned by Ss to ingroup and outgroup (no chance of personal gain) –Results show that the goal is to outdo the outgroup

Results, Tajfel (1970) Top row = what your group gets Bottom row = what “their” group gets

Social Identity Theory 2 Why do people care about their minimal groups? Social Identity Theory: –We derive our self-esteem from the group we’re in –We over-reward our own group in order to enhance our group’s status, and, by extension, our own status Experiment IVs: –Minimal group assignments –Assign points vs. read irrelevant newspaper article DVs: –Ingroup bias in “assign points” group –self esteem in both groups

Cognitive Theories of Prejudice Two types: 1.Development of stereotypes Illusory correlation Outgroup homogeneity 2.Maintenance of stereotypes Encoding bias Recall bias

Development of Stereotypes 1: Illusory Correlation Also known as Shared Distinctiveness Hamilton & Gifford (1976) expt –IVs: distinctiveness of groups (A vs B) Distinctiveness of behaviors (pos vs neg) –DV: Ss identify which acts come from which groups

Development of Stereotypes 2: Outgroup Homogeneity Quattrone & Jones (1980) –IV: Ss told confed goes to Rutgers or Princeton –DV: % of other students Ss think would make the same decision as the confed Rutgers Princeton Confed goes to… Example: Subject goes to Rutgers

Cognitive Theories 2: Maintenance of Stereotypes Illusory Correlation and Differential Remembering –Expect a correlation = see one Encoding bias: Rothbart et al. (1979) –IV: before being given 50 (standard) descriptions of behaviors, Ss are told that the person being described belongs to “an extremely friendly” vs. “an extremely intelligent” group –DV: recall of the 50 behavior descriptions Recall bias: Snyder (1978)

More on Prejudice I’ll lecture on this only if we have sufficient time.

Are Stereotypes Accurate? LaPierre (1936) –Stereotypes about Armenians are inaccurate McCauley & Stitt (1978) –Stereotypes about African Americans are somewhat accurate “grain of truth”

Knowing vs. Using Stereotypes: Devine, 1989 IVs: –White Ss divided into hi vs lo prejudice groups (based on pretest survey) –Ss shown (tachistoscopically) a list of either neutral or black-stereotyped words THEN read stories about a man who engages in ambiguously hostile behaviors –DV: how hostile is the man? THEN asked to list labels associated with “black Americans” –DV: number of negative labels Implications?

How to Reduce Prejudice? Stephan (1978) review of contact hypothesis Aronson’s jigsaw classroom