Stereotypes, prejudice & discrimination

Prejudice: preconceived opinion that's not based on reason or actual experience. It's an affective feeling towards a person or group member based solely on that person's group membership. 3 components of prejudice: stereotypes (cognitive), emotions (affective), discrimination (behavioural).

Stereotype: socially shared, simplified, generalised, evaluative image of a social group and its members; may arise from normal and adaptive cognitive processes but distorts reality because it ignores real diversity within groups. They are adaptive when they accurately identify attributes of a group well. Maladaptive when they blind us to individual differences.

Discrimination: differential, negative treatment of a person based on the group, class, or category to which the person is perceived to belong, rather than on individual attributes.

What's wrong with positive stereotypes? Denies the individuality of the person.

Self-fulfilling prophecy: the mere expectation of being stereotyped can create stereotype threat. Word, Zanna & Cooper (1974): white college students interviewed white and African American job candidates. White students displayed discomfort and lack of interest when interviewing African American candidates, e.g sitting further away and ending the interview sooner. When confederates acted as interviewers in the same displeased interview style as before, white interviewees were rated as more nervous and less effective; interviewees confirmed low expectations.

If a society believes that a particular group is stupid, and unable to be educated, they will act in accordance with beliefs. Educational resources will then not be provided to that group, thus the group will not attain adequate education. The result: the society's original belief will be confirmed.

Stereotype threat: apprehension experienced by members of a group that their behaviour might confirm a cultural stereotype. Asian women do worse on maths tests when they see themselves as "women" (stereotyped as being bad at maths), rather than as "Asians" (stereotyped as being good at math) (Shih, Pittinsky, & Ambady, 1999).

Discrimination can be subtle or blatant

• subtle: comfort within own group, discomfort with out-group, exclusion and avoidance of the out-group
• blatant: open expression of negative emotions, hate, contempt, disgust, hostility, aggression, actions aimed at harming out-groups

Racial discrimination: racial and ethnic discrimination differentiates individuals on the basis of real and perceived racial and ethnic differences and leads to various forms of the ethnic penalty. Example: blacks and whites not treated equally in the "war against drugs". African Americans disproportionately arrested, convicted, and incarcerated for drug charges.

Social distance: person's reluctance to get "too close" to another group. Unwilling to work with, marry, or live next to members of a particular group. e.g straight student not wanting to sit next to or work with a gay student

Prejudice as an attitude: ABC

• Prejudice (Affective): negative affect toward members of a specific social group
• Stereotypes (Cognitive): beliefs about social groups in terms of shared traits and characteristics
• Discrimination (Behavioural): negative behaviours directed toward members of different social groups

Stereotype example: gender stereotypes - socially shared beliefs about men and women and their characteristics and social roles and behaviours. Gender stereotypes are so influential that people even tend to take less seriously the risks posed by hurricanes given female names (Jung, Shavitt, Viswanathan & Hilbe, 2014).

Hostile sexism (Glicke & Fiske, 1996): negative emotions directed towards women stemming from dominant paternalism (a need to control women), competitive gender differentiation (devaluation of women) and hostile heterosexuality (seeing women and controlling sex as a resource).

Benevolent sexism: subjectively favourable emotions towards women related to a belief that men are dominant providers and women are their dependent; related to chivalrous ideology that offers protection and affection to women who embrace conventional roles

Implicit bias and activation of prejudice: fatal shootings of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown continued a tragic pattern of unarmed black men being killed because their shooters claimed to have perceived them as dangerous.

Emotions toward different groups (Cottrel & Neuberg, 2005): towards gay men = disgust, native americans = pity, african americans = fear, asian americans = envy.

Evidence that prejudice towards gay people is associated with disgust and that eliciting disgust increases prejudice towards homosexuals (Dasgupta et al, 2009). Evidence that prejudice towards homeless people is associated with disgust (Fiske & Harris, 2006).

Modern racism: denial that racial discrimination exists and a belief that ethnic minorities are seeking and receiving more benefits than they deserve, and denial that discrimination affects their outcomes.

Explicit prejudice refers to having a negative affect towards a social group available to introspection. Implicit prejudice refers to having a negative affect towards a social group not available to introspection. Uncontrolled assocation of social group with positive or negative evaluation

Children often learn prejudice from parents and grandparents

Institutional discrimination: practices that discriminate, legally or illegally, against a minroity group by virtue of its ethnicity, gender, culture, age, sexual orientation, or other target of societal or company prejudice

Normative conformity: strong tendency to go along with the group in order to fulfill the group's expectation and gain acceptance.

Presenting people with information to counter stereotypes does not change beliefs. It can actually strengthen stereotypical beliefs. Disconfirming evidence challenges them to come up with additional reasons for holding on to that belief.

Contact hypothesis: mere contact between groups is not sufficient to reduce prejudice. It can create opportunities for conflict that may increase it. Prejudice will decrease when 2 conditions are met: both groups are of equal status and both share a common goal. Sherif et al (1961) found that interdependence is key: the need to depend on each other to accomplish a goal that is important to each group.