Welcome Social Psychology PSY 450 Instructor Briana Harvey

Welcome! Social Psychology PSY 450 Instructor: Briana Harvey

Prejudice and Intergroup Relations • Common Prejudices and Targets

Affect, Behavior, & Cognition • Social Psychologists seek to understand how human beings think, act, and feel • ABC Triad – Affect (How people feel inside) – Behavior (What people do) – Cognition (What people think about)

ABC’s of Intergroup Relationships • Affective component – Prejudice (Racism) • Behavioral component – Discrimination • Cognitive component – Stereotyping

Prejudice and Intergroup Relations • Prejudice: a negative feeling toward an individual based solely on his or her membership in a particular group

Prejudice and Intergroup Relations • Racism: prejudiced attitudes toward a particular race – Aversive racism: simultaneously believe in equality and yet still hold negative feelings toward a race

Prejudice and Intergroup Relations • Discrimination – Unequal treatment based on group membership – Prejudice and Racism = attitude – Discrimination = behavior

Sexual Harassment as Gender Discrimination • Fitzgerald (1993) – As many as 50% of women are sexually harassed during their academic or working lives • Faley et al. (1999) – U. S. Army spent $250 million in one year to deal with problems related to sexual harassment

Prejudice and Intergroup Relations • Stereotype – Beliefs that associate groups with certain traits • Subtypes – Categories for people who don’t fit a general stereotype

Stereotypes • What are the characteristics of: • A typical New Yorker? • A typical Californian? • A typical white male? • A typical “career woman” • A typical “stay-at-home” mom

Stereotypes • Stereotypes about racial, ethnic, gender, or sexual orientation groups are schemas. – Generalized belief about members of a group – May or may not be accurate – Most researchers believe it is even possible to have a schema that you don't personally believe – (OTHER PEOPLE think that Group x has qualities y. . . but I don't)…

Three Levels of Stereotypes • Public – What we say to others about a group • Private – What we consciously think about a group, but don’t say to others • Implicit (Implicit association test!) – Unconscious mental associations guiding our judgments and actions without our conscious awareness • Public stereotypes have decreased in North America recently (“political correctness”)

Race of Atheletes • Stone et al. (1997) • Radio broadcast played to participants – They are shown a “photograph” of the player to be analyzed – Participants rated the player better if they thought he was black

Prejudice and Intergroup Relations • Categorization – Natural human tendency to group objects • Social categorization – Sorting people into groups on common characteristics

How Stereotypes Form: Social Categorization • The classification of persons into groups on the basis of common attributes. – Helps us form impressions quickly and use past experiences to guide new interactions. • Serious drawback – By categorizing people, we often: – Overestimate the differences between groups – Underestimate the differences within

Groups Outgroup members (“them”)- people who belong to a different category than we do Ingroup members (“us”)- people who belong to the same group as we do • Outgroup homogeneity bias is “the assumption that outgroup members are more similar to one another than ingroup members are to one another”. • “They are all alike!” “If you have seen one, you have seen all!”

Common Prejudices and Targets • Most prejudice arise from external characteristics – Racial prejudice (Racism) – Gender prejudice (Sexism) • Most people claim not to be prejudiced – Behavior sometimes differs from expressed attitudes – Online dating based on photo…often choose own race – Assume that same race means same interests/opinions/personalities

Common Prejudices and Targets • Arabs and Muslims – Prejudice and discrimination increased tremendously in U. S. after September 11, 2001 – EX: profiling at security gates, “No-Fly” list

Who is more likely History Repeats Itself to get harassed at the airport security check?

Common Prejudices: Homophobia

Percentage Saying “Should” Do you think homosexuals should be hired for the following occupations? 100 Salespersons 50 Doctors Elementary School Teachers Many still believe homosexuals should be excluded from some jobs. 0 1977 1982 1989 YEAR 1992 1996

Social Side of Sex- Roots of Anti-Gay Prejudice • Both men and women are intolerant of homosexuality in their own gender – Perhaps people fear being the target of sexual advances from a homosexual – May fear a positive response to homosexual advances

Prejudice based on your Friends • Stigma – Individual’s characteristics considered socially unappealing • Stigma by association – Discrimination toward people associated with a stigmatized person

Why Prejudice Exists • Tendency to hold stereotypes and prejudices maybe innate – Predisposition to categorize by steroetypes may be natural – Content of stereotypes is learned through socialization – What type/strength of prejudice is based on your environment

Why Prejudice Exists • Ingroup favoritism – Preferential treatment or favorable attitudes toward one’s own group members • Minimal group effect – Ingroup favoritism occurs even when group membership was random – EX: School district, branch of retail store, etc…

Prejudice and Intergroup Relations • Outgroup members: people who belong to a different group or category than we do. – THEM • Ingroup members: people who belong to the same group or category as we do – US

Prejudice and Intergroup Relations • Out-group homogeneity bias: the assumption that outgroup members are more similar to one another than ingroup members are to one another – “They are all alike…. ” – “We are so unique. . . ” • Eyewitnesses are more accurate identifying people of their own racial group

Who has the Weapon? A B

Us Versus Them: Groups in Competition • Intergroup relations at Robber’s Cave (Sherif & Sherif, 1954) – Children’s camp, random camp assignment – All white, middle class, 11 year old boys – Rattlers VS Eagles – After one week of group competition the two groups were intensely hostile

Robber’s Cave Experiment • Realistic conflict theory – Competition over scarce resources leads to intergroup hostility and conflict – trophies • To induce cooperation, researchers introduced superordinate goals: – Goals that can only be

Us Versus Them: Groups in Competition • Discontinuity Effect – Groups are more influenced by competition than individuals are – Motivated by fear and greed

Reducing group competition Can reduce by – Making group members identifiable – Having people think about the long-term effects of their actions

Ignorance? The contact hypothesis • Prejudice stems from ignorance • Contact Hypothesis: idea that regular interaction between members of different groups reduces prejudice, providing that it occurs under favorable conditions – Video: 30 days – Robbers gave state park

Rationalizations for Oppression • Stereotypes used to justify social inequality between races or sexes • People in positions of relative power and wealth use stereotypes to explain their superiority

Stereotypes as Heuristics • Stereotypes as mental shortcuts – Law of least effort (Allport, 1954) – Stereotypes simplify the process of thinking about other people – We conserve energy and effort by using stereotypes – Use information from other people versus direct experience

Why Prejudice Exists • Prejudice and self-esteem – My group (“I”) must be superior, therefore other groups are inferior.

Explanations of why prejudice exists 1. Competition 2. Ignorance 3. Rationalizations for oppression 4. Stereotypes as heuristics 5. Prejudice boosts self esteem

Are stereotypes always wrong, mostly wrong, or mostly right? • Swim (1994) – Found that gender stereotypes were mostly accurate about the traits and the degree of difference • Jussim et al (in press) – Racial and ethnic differences mostly accurate – Gender differences mostly accurate • Judd & Park (1993) – Political stereotypes were consistently

Are stereotypes always negative? • NO! • Asians are good at math and schoolwork • African Americans have superior talent in sports and music • Heavy men are jolly

Stereotyping for Blame • Scapegoat theory – Scapegoating is the practice of blaming an individual or group for a real or perceived failure of others – Blame problems on outgroup, contributing to negative feelings – Self-serving bias: take credit for good, blame for bad – Unemployment, inflation, food shortages, the plague, and crime in the streets are all examples of ills which have been blamed on minority groups.

Motives for Overcoming Prejudice • Plant & Devine’s (1998) measure – Internal Motivation – Based on strong inner belief that prejudice is wrong – External Motivation – Socially unwise to express politically incorrect opinions – Dutton (1971) study of formal wear at restaurant

Impact of Prejudice on Targets • Self-fulfilling prophecy – Prediction that ensures, by the behavior it generates, that it will come true – People would come to act like the stereotypes others hold of them – EX: “babyface” people tend to be more honest

Impact of Prejudice on Targets • Self-defeating prophecy – Prediction that ensures, by the behavior it generates, that it will not come true – EX: “babyface” young, low-social class boys tend to commit more crimes – Trying to go against their stereotype

Stereotype Threat • Fear that one’s behavior may confirm a stereotype that others hold • Spencer, Steele & Quinn (1999) – Told women either: a) this test tends to have gender difference OR b) nothing – Group a) women performed poorly – Group b) women performed better than males