1. David Myers 11e Chapter 9 Prejudice
Social Psychology
David Myers
11e
Chapter 9 Prejudice

2. Racism / Racist (definition)
1. a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human racial groups determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to dominate others or that a particular racial group is inferior to the others.
2. a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.
3.hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.

3. Discrimination (defined)
1. an act or instance of discriminating, or of making a distinction.
2. treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit: racial and religious intolerance and discrimination.
3. the power of making fine distinctions; discriminating judgment:
She chose the colors with great discrimination.
4. Archaic. something that serves to differentiate.

4. Chapter Nine
Prejudice: Disliking Others
Defined:
1. an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason.
2. any preconceived opinion or feeling, either favorable or unfavorable.
3. unreasonable feelings, opinions, or attitudes, especially of a hostile nature, regarding an ethnic, racial, social, or religious group

5. What Is the Nature and Power of Prejudice?
Defining Prejudice
Discrimination
Unjustified negative behavior toward a group or its members
Racism
Prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory behavior toward people of a given race
Sexism
Prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory behavior toward people of a given sex

6. What Is the Nature and Power of Prejudice? (an attitude)
Defining Prejudice
Preconceived negative judgment of a group and its individual members
Supported by stereotypes
Beliefs about the personal attributes of a group of people
Could a stereotype be accurate?
What are some? Give examples
Some examples of groups that may experience prejudice:
Gender, racial, religion/atheists, overweight, sexual orientation, elderly, immigrants,
Occupations?
Others?

7. Attitude components (3)
Prejudice – affect
positive or negative
Stereotype – belief
Attributing characteristics of an individual based on their group membership
Positive or negative / accurate or inaccurate
What are some positive stereotypes?
We need them to negotiate a complex world
Why?
“accuracy dominates bias” (90 % correct)
Discrimination – behavior –acting on a belief/affect

8. What Is the Nature and Power of Prejudice?
Prejudice: Implicit and Explicit
Dual attitude system
Explicit
Conscious (central channel)
Implicit
Automatic (peripheral channel)
Implicit Associations Test (IAT)
Try it out – (click here)

9. What Is the Nature and Power of Prejudice?
Racial Prejudice
Is racial prejudice disappearing?

10. Racial prejudice Is there a difference between? A preference for
Will always vote for
A preference not for
Will always vote against
What percent of Blacks voted for Obama in 2012?
95% - report most exit polls
What percent of women will vote for Hillary?

11. What Is the Nature and Power of Prejudice?
Racial Prejudice and discrimination
Subtle forms of prejudice
Labor market discrimination
Patronization
Avoiding criticisms
Overpraising accomplishments

12. What Is the Nature and Power of Prejudice?
Racial Prejudice
Automatic prejudice
Involves primitive regions of the brain associated with fear (amygdala)
Critics note that unconscious associations may only indicate cultural assumptions, perhaps without prejudice

13. What Is the Nature and Power of Prejudice?
Gender Prejudice
Gender stereotypes
Strong gender stereotypes exist
Members of the stereotyped group accept the stereotypes
Most believe that men and women are different yet equal
Over time prejudice toward women has decreased as much as with blacks
A favorable stereotype (most people like women more)
Women’s work is not devalued

14. What Is the Nature and Power of Prejudice?
Gender Prejudice
Sexism: Benevolent and hostile
Attitudes toward women have changed rapidly
Most see women as understanding, kind, and helpful
Gender discrimination
Disappearing in democratic Western countries
Non-Western countries gender bias is still strong

15. What Are the Social Sources of Prejudice?
Social Inequalities: Unequal Status and Prejudice
Social dominance orientation
Motivation to have one’s group dominate other social groups
Being in a dominant high-status position tends to promote this orientation and justification

16. What Are the Social Sources of Prejudice?
Socialization
Authoritarian personality
Personality that is disposed to favor obedience to authority and intolerance of outgroups and those lower in status
Ethnocentricity
Believing in the superiority of one’s own ethnic and cultural group, and having a corresponding disdain for all other groups
Dogmatic authoritarianism – on the left
See “Vision of the Anointed” – by T. Sowell

17. What Are the Social Sources of Prejudice?
Socialization
Religion and prejudice
In almost every country, leaders invoke religion to sanctify the present order
Use of religion to support injustice helps explain a pair of findings concerning North American Christianity
White church members express more racial prejudice than nonmembers
Those professing traditional or fundamentalist Christian beliefs express more prejudice than those professing more progressive beliefs

18. What Are the Social Sources of Prejudice?
Socialization
Conformity
If prejudice is socially accepted, many people will follow the path of least resistance and conform to the fashion
If prejudice is not deeply ingrained in personality, then as fashions change and new norms evolve, prejudice can diminish

19. What Are the Social Sources of Prejudice?
Institutional Supports
Government
Schools
Magazines and newspapers
Face-ism
Films and television

20. What Are the Motivational Sources of Prejudice?
Frustration and Aggression: The Scapegoat Theory
Displaced aggression
Hate crimes
Realistic group conflict theory
Prejudice arises from competition between groups for scarce resources

21. What Are the Motivational Sources of Prejudice?
Social Identity Theory: Feeling Superior to Others
The “we” aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to “Who am I?” that comes from our group memberships
We categorize
We identify
We compare

22. What Are the Motivational Sources of Prejudice?
Social Identity Theory: Feeling Superior to Others
Ingroup bias
Tendency to favor one’s own group
Because of our social identifications, we conform to our group norms
When our group succeeds, we feel better by identifying strongly with it
More ingroup bias if part of a small group
What does this say about school integration
Racial mix levels?

23. What Are the Motivational Sources of Prejudice?
Social Identity Theory: Feeling Superior to Others
Need for status, self-regard, and belonging
Terror management
People’s self-protective emotional and cognitive responses when confronted with reminders of their mortality

24. What Are the Motivational Sources of Prejudice?
Motivation to Avoid Prejudice
Motivation to avoid prejudice can lead people to modify their thoughts an actions
Self-conscious people will feel guilt and try to inhibit their prejudicial response

25. What Are the Cognitive Sources of Prejudice?
Categorization: Classifying People into Groups
Spontaneous categorization
Social identity theory implies that those who feel their social identity keenly will concern themselves with correctly categorizing people as us or them
Necessary for prejudice

26. What Are the Cognitive Sources of Prejudice?
Categorization: Classifying People into Groups
Perceived similarities and differences
Outgroup homogeneity effect
Perception of outgroup members as more similar to one another than are ingroup members
Own-race bias
Tendency for people to more accurately recognize faces of their own race

27. What Are the Cognitive Sources of Prejudice?
Distinctiveness: Perceiving People Who Stand Out
Distinctive people
Feeds on self-consciousness
Dartmouth women with “disfigured faces”
- (Kleck & Strenta, ‘80)
- What did they believe about others reactions?
Majority beliefs about what minorities stereotypes of them are “meta stereotypes”
Stigma consciousness
Person’s expectation of being victimized by prejudice or discrimination
Double edged sword
Live with the stress but use it as a buffer (don’t take it personally

28. What Are the Cognitive Sources of Prejudice?
Distinctiveness: Perceiving People Who Stand Out
Vivid cases
Given limited experience with a particular social group, we recall examples of it and generalize
Can prime the stereotype

29. What Are the Cognitive Sources of Prejudice?
Distinctiveness: Perceiving People Who Stand Out
Distinctive events foster illusory correlations
Stereotypes assume a correlation between group membership and individuals’ presumed characteristics
Attentiveness to unusual occurrences can create illusory correlations

30. What Are the Cognitive Sources of Prejudice?
Attribution: Is It a Just World?
Group-serving bias
Explaining away outgroup members’ positive behaviors; also attributing negative behaviors to their dispositions
Just-world phenomenon
Tendency of people to believe that the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get

31. What Are the Consequences of Prejudice?
Self-Perpetuating Prejudgments
Whenever a member of a group behaves as expected, we duly note the fact; our prior belief is confirmed
When a member of a group behaves inconsistently with our expectation, we may interpret or explain away the behavior as due to special circumstances

32. What Are the Consequences of Prejudice?
Self-Perpetuating Prejudgments
Subtyping
Accommodating individuals who deviate from one’s stereotype by thinking of them as “exceptions to the rule”
Subgrouping
Accommodating individuals who deviate from one's stereotype by forming a new stereotype about this subset of the group

33. What Are the Consequences of Prejudice?
Discrimination’s Impact: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Social beliefs can be self-confirming
Prejudice affects its targets

34. What Are the Consequences of Prejudice?
Stereotype Threat
Disruptive concern, when facing a negative stereotype, that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype

35. What Are the Consequences of Prejudice?
Do Stereotypes Bias Judgments of Individuals?
Yes, but people often evaluate individuals more positively than the groups they compose
Strong Stereotypes Matter
Stereotypes Bias Interpretations
Affect how events are interpreted
We evaluate people more extremely when their behavior violates our stereotypes