1. Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination: Causes and Consequences10
Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination: Causes and Consequences

2. What are Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination?
Prejudice – a negative learned attitude toward a group of people
Discrimination – negative behaviors directed at a specific group of people

3. What are Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination?
Stereotype – a general belief about a group of people
Differs from prejudice in that it can have positive or negative connotations
Runs the risk of becoming prejudicial and leading to discrimination

4. What are Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination? (continued)
Racism – discrimination directed at a specific racial group
Sexism – discrimination directed at a specific gender
Ageism – discrimination directed at various age groups

5. Until the 1950s, the United States maintained a policy of racial segregation in schools and public places.

6. Racism Has a long and unpleasant history in the United States
Racial prejudice – holding a hostile attitude toward a person due to their race

7. Racism (continued)
Though progress has been made, racism remains a significant problem
Many people still use racist humor and "laugh it off" as a joke.
Do you make such jokes? Do your friends do? Is it okay with you?

8. Hate Groups in America. There are 932 hate groups currently operating in the United States.

9. Sexism
Gender prejudice – treating people unequally due to their gender
Gender stereotypes – people’s ideas about how men and women should behave
Based on socially and culturally defined beliefs
Can be formed very early in life
What messages do children get about "boy" and "girl" activities?

10. Studies suggest that children learn traditional gender roles from a young age.

11. Sexism (continued)
How have attitudes changed in the past 70+ years?

12. Sexism (continued) Sexism is not an "American" phenomenon
Many cultures place very different values and expectations on men and women
Ambivalent sexism – the contradiction between hostile and benevolent sexism
Hostile sexism – feeling resentful and openly derogatory toward the abilities of women
Benevolent sexism – when men behave in ways that appear chivalrous, but can also communicate to negative female stereotypes

13. How do We Measure Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination?
Do we have to agree with a stereotype in order to be affected by it?
Stereotypes seem to be a function of automatic processing
Environment plays a role
Even automatic processes can be overcome with controlled processing

14. How do We Measure Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination
How do We Measure Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination? (continued)
Old-fashioned racism
Overt prejudice and discrimination
Involves oppressive acts and feelings
Modern racism
Covert, subtle feelings directed toward a racial group
Includes the belief that racism and discrimination no longer exist

15. How do We Measure Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination
How do We Measure Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination? (continued)
Old-fashioned sexism
Overt sexism based on the belief that women are less competent
Promoting traditional gender roles and different treatment of men and women
Modern sexism
More covert and subtle, typified by resisting policies that support women
Denial that sexism still exists, and overt antagonism toward women

16. Covert Measures The Implicit Association Test (IAT)
Students are shown pictures of different faces
Positive or negative words are presented
The time it takes to pair word with faces is measured
Findings – people tend to have implicit negative stereotypes about those who are different than themselves

17. Is Prejudice on the Decline?
Attitudes have clearly changed in recent decades
Many forms of prejudice still exist, however, in more subtle forms
Aversive racism
Whites who show support for equality, but who discriminate in subtle ways
They may rationalize their subtle racism

18. What are the Sources of Stereotyping and Prejudice?
What do you think of the "Compton Cookout?"
Color-blindness – is this a desirable attitude?
Do we claim one belief in public and another in private?

19. Social Learning Many of our attitudes are formed in the home
Parents are an enormous source of information and influence

20. Social Learning (continued)
Peers (classmates, friends) also shape our attitudes
Authoritarian personality – favors obedience, eschews lower status people
Is contributed to by our upbringing

21. Cognitive Sources Social categorization
Dividing people into categories based on common attributes
Race, gender, other common features
Do you speak "loudly" to elderly person without even thinking about it?
Are we instinctively drawn to categorizing based on differences?

22. Cognitive Sources (continued)
Social categorization
Outgroup homogeneity
The belief that "all of them are the same."
Seeing outgroup as being very similar
Seeing ingroup members as very diverse
Studies show that this can occur very early in life, even in infancy
May be contributed to by a lack of familiarity of the outgroup

23. Ingroup Favoritism The "we/us versus they/them" mentality
Can lead to discriminatory behavior
Robber’s Cave – the groups started with heavy ingroup favoritism
Over time (with cooperation) this dissipated
Social dominance orientation – group should be ordered according to worth

24. Attributional Biases Ultimate attribution error
Explaining group behaviors in terms of internal, dispositional factors
Disregarding situation constraints
A more global form of the fundamental attribution error
Negative outgroup behavior is used to support prejudice toward the entire group

25. Attributional Biases (continued)
Just-world hypothesis
The belief that victims of misfortune deserve what they got
Allows us to see the world as predictable and fair
“Blame the victim" mentality
10-20% believe rape victims are at least partially responsible for being attacked
Do we do this to create the illusion that we have control of our fate?

26. Motivational Factors Realistic group conflict theory
Groups compete for resources
Ingroup favoritism and outgroup discrimination increase
Robber’s Cave
The groups became possessive of common areas (baseball diamond, campground)

27. Motivational Factors (continued)
Relative deprivation
Feeling unhappy because we think those in an outgroup will fare better than we will
Could this be why affirmative action has so many opponents?
Minimum ingroup paradigm
People who are put together randomly will still form an "ingroup" mentality

28. Motivational Factors (continued)
Being part of a minority group
Can lead to greater ingroup favoritism due to a feeling of uniqueness
Might explain why larger "groups" do not have their own clubs on campus
It is harder to distinguish them from everyone else
Status within a group can affect how we treat outgroup members
Feeling a threat to the whole group can lead to enjoying another group’s failure

29. Moods and Emotions
What kinds of emotions bring out prejudice? You might be surprised!
Both good and bad moods!
Good moods – we think less carefully
Bad moods – we may pay too much attention to details around us
Negative emotions can interfere with proper cognitive processing

30. Sources of Stereotyping and Prejudice
Sources of Stereotyping and Prejudice. Stereotyping and prejudice originate from several different sources.

31. What are the Consequences of Stereotyping?
The dangers of stereotyping are many
Influences our perception of others
Affects our behaviors
Affects the behaviors of the stereotyped group
Confirmation bias – remember this?

32. What are the Consequences of Stereotyping? (continued)
Self-fulfilling prophecy
“A belief that causes itself to be true"
Can lead to positive or negative behaviors
How might a student perform who is told that she is "excellent?"
How might that same student perform if she is told she is "average?"
We may inadvertently promote such outcomes based on how we interact with people

33. Stereotype Threat
The risk of confirming a negative stereotype about oneself
Similar to the self-fulfilling prophecy
When we are aware of stereotypes, we might live down to them

34. How can We Combat Stereotyping and Prejudice?
Children with Williams syndrome do not demonstrate racial bias
This may be due to unusual activity in the amygdala
There are four techniques that can be used to reduce stereotypes and prejudice

35. How can We Combat Stereotyping and Prejudice? (continued)
Contact Hypothesis
Increased communication between groups reduces prejudice/discrimination
Equal contact between the groups is also essential

36. Group Interdependence
Gordon Allport proposed 4 conditions to decrease prejudice
Equal status between groups
Institutional support for both groups
Intergroup cooperation
Common goals for both groups

37. Group Interdependence (continued)
The Jigsaw Classroom (Aronson, et al., 1978)
Each student serves a necessary purpose
A common goal can’t be completed without each purpose being present
Fosters cooperation
Leads to a decrease in negativity

38. Group Interdependence (continued)
Education
It is not enough to just talk about it
People have to participate in order to reduce prejudice and discrimination
Motivation
Motivation can reduce automatic processing that leads to prejudice
It is important to make people aware of their own prejudices to create positive change
Action learning: The jigsaw classroom

39. The Jigsaw Classroom. The jigsaw classroom technique fosters cooperation and reduces stereotyping and prejudice.