77 1 Define prejudice and identify its social

77. 1 – Define prejudice, and identify its social and emotional roots. Prejudice and Stereotypes • Prejudice, a positive or negative belief about a category of people, refers to prejudging a person because he or she belongs to a specific group. The components of prejudice include beliefs (stereotypes), emotions (hostility, envy, fear), and predisposition to act (to discriminate). Stereotyping refers to the generalization of a particular group of people based on a preexisting concept or image; stereotyping involves generalizing an attitude toward a larger segment of the population. Discrimination is differing treatment toward a category of people. Discrimination may involve preferential treatment of some good or service to a group of people, typically people of a different ethnicity, religion, or gender. It is important to note that both stereotyping and discrimination can occur in either a positive or negative manner. The psychology behind prejudice, discrimination, and stereotyping is based on three main factors: motivational, cognitive, and behavioral.

77. 1 – Define prejudice, and identify its social and emotional roots. • Prejudice • An unjustifiable and negative attitude toward a group; based on stereotypes • Generally involves beliefs, emotions & behavioral dispositions • Explicit Prejudice v. Implicit Prejudice • Discrimination • Unjustifiable & negative behavior toward the members of a group • Do prejudice and discrimination always go hand-in-hand?

77. 1 – Define prejudice, and identify its social and emotional roots. • Prejudice Examples • In one study, most white participants perceived a white man shoving a black man as “horsing around; ” however, when they saw a black man shoving a white man, they interpreted it as “violence” • A black New Jersey dentist who drove a gold BMW was stopped more than 75 times within a year • People tend to perceive fathers as being more intelligent than mothers • Female circumcision in some African countries

77. 1 – Define prejudice, and identify its social and emotional roots. • Prejudice Examples • In Los Angeles, 1115 landlords received identically worded emails from a would-be tenant (actually a researcher) expressing interest in vacant apartments advertised online • Encouraging replies came back to: • 56% of emails signed “Tyrell Jackson” • 66% signed “Said Al-Rahman” • 89% of those signed “Patrick Mc. Dougall”

77. 1 – Define prejudice, and identify its social and emotional roots. Prejudice and Stereotypes 1) Motivational • Definition: the belief that prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination are the result of an underlying reason, such as self-preservation, self-identity, or in-group bias. • Example – Jackie and her friends ridicule a fellow classmate in order to increase their own self-esteem and sense of self-importance. 2) Cognitive • Definition: the use of mental shortcuts (heuristics) to form an impression about a group of people. • Example – Hank’s brother wears glasses and reads; therefore, Hank believes that all people who wear glasses like to read. 3) Behavioral • Definition: A person models the behaviors he sees and hears at home, on television, or from his peers. • Example – Max’s parents often talk negatively about people who are of a different race. One day at school Max began calling all such students names.

77. 1 – Define prejudice, and identify its social and emotional roots. Subtle Prejudice • despite decreases in overt prejudices, subtle prejudice still lingers. • for example, many people verbally support interracial marriage, but admit that in socially intimate settings they would feel uncomfortable with someone of another race.

77. 1 – Define prejudice, and identify its social and emotional roots. Subtle Prejudice • Gender • more women still live in poverty than men. • about 100, 000 women are missing in the world. • there is a preference for male children in China and India, even with sex-selected abortion outlawed. • although prejudice prevails against women, more people fell positively toward women than men.

77. 1 – Define prejudice, and identify its social and emotional roots. Subtle Prejudice • The Just-World Phenomenon • the tendency of people to believe the world is just, and people get what they deserve and deserve what they get. • from here it is a short leap to assume that those who suffer must be bad.

77. 1 – Define prejudice, and identify its social and emotional roots. Subtle Prejudice • Us and Them • In-Group – people with whom one shares a common identity. • Out-Group – those perceived as different from one’s in-group. • In-Group Bias – the tendency to favor one’s own group.

77. 1 – Define prejudice, and identify its social and emotional roots. Subtle Prejudice • Scapegoat Theory • prejudice provides an emotional outlet for anger by providing someone to blame. • after 9/11 many people lashed out against innocent Arab. Americans.

77. 2 – Identify the cognitive roots of prejudice. Forming Categories • one way we simplify our world is to categorize. • in categorizing people into groups, however, we often stereotype them and overestimate their homogeneity.