what is prejudice
a hostile or negative attitude toward people in a distinguishable group based solely on their membership in that group
what are the three components of prejudice
cognitive = ie stereotype
affective = ie emotion
behavioural = ie discrimination
what is stereotype
a generalisation about a group where traits are assigned to all members, regardless of variation among the members
what is emotion
a complex, subjective experience that involves physiological, cognitive and behavioural components
what is discrimination
a negative action toward a member of a group solely because of their membership in that group
what is the law of least effort
Alport, 1954
we have limited capacity to process information
stereotyping allows us to act as “cognitive misers” - to adopt certain rules of thumb in our attempt to understand other people
what is institutionalised discrimination
discrimination within an organisation, society or institution
what are examples of institutionalised discrimination
overweight ppl are hired and promoted less often
in US, African Americans are disproportionately arrested, convicted, and incarcerated
what did correl et al 2002 find about discrimination in policing
“shooting” people in a video game
ppts played a video game in which they were supposed to “shoot” a man if he was holding a gun, and withhold fire if he was holding a harmless object ie a cell phone
if the person in the photo was black and unarmed, they were a lot more likely to be “shot” rather than white
what causes prejudice
social identity theory
realistic conflict
how does social identity theory explain prejudice
us versus them
social identity stems from our membership in groups
sensitive to group membership, even for groups that are arbitrary and meaningless
in-group bias
ethnocentrism
what is in-group bias
tendency to favour members of one’s own group and give them special preference over people who belong to other groups
the group can be temporary and trivial, or it can be significant
researchers have created entities that they refer to as ‘minimal groups’
strangers are formed into groups using the most trivial criteria ie klee or kandinsky
what is ethnocentrism
the belief that your own culture, nation or religion is superior to all others
what is realistic conflict theory
limited resources leads to conflict among groups
this leads to prejudice and discrimination
when times are tough and resources are scarce: in-group member feel more threatened by the out-group - incidents of prejudice, discrimination and violence toward out-group members will increase
what did crandall et al 2002 find about the acceptability of different prejudices in early 2000s university students in Kansas
least acceptable to have neg thoughts about = rapists
most acceptable to have neg thoughts about = blind people
what did billig 1988 find about a racist member of the National Front
national front = a fascist group that endorses explicitly racist policies
argues their position wasn’t prejudice because it takes into account the “relative facts” - our definition of prejudice focuses on the psychological phenomenon
which expressions of prejudice do people suppress
modern racism (Mconahay, 1986)
justification-suppression model (Crandall and Eshleman, 2003)
what is modern racism
Mconahay, 1986
people hold prejudiced attitudes, but avoid expressing them directly because prejudice violates norms against racism - people express prejudice in subtle ways
what is the justification-suppression model
Crandall and Eshleman, 2003
ppl hold prejudices, but they suppress them to maintain a non-prejudiced self-image
when ppl find justifications (often in the form of stereotypes), these justifications give them a good excuse to express prejudice
do justifications make prejudice seem more acceptable
we showed US participants descriptions of someone who dislikes different groups ie “X doesnt like Jewish Americans”
we asked ppts how much they liked the person described in the profile
we were interested in whether liberals or conservatives would like prejudiced individuals more, and whether different justifications would appeal more to them
how do people feel about other subgroups described as prejudice
lots of dislike generally
conservative ppts liked them more than liberal ppts
anti-jew and anti-muslim rated higher than anti-black or anti-chinese for conservatives, pretty similar for liberals (quite low)
people were likely to say they disliked anti-muslims and anti-russians if told the person disapproves because of the human rights violations by the country/ies associated with that group - this increased liberals favouritism towards all groups and slightly increased favouritism of conservatives opinions towards all groups except anti-jews
^^BUT if their justification was because of american values there was less consistent improvements on liking
are justifications effective
people who justify prejudice are viewed somewhat more positively
even if justifications weren’t directly relevant to the disliked group
but the given reasons for prejudice matter
how does self-fulfilling prophecy relate word et al’s 1974 prejudice study 1
word et al., 1974
white students interviewed white and african american job candidates
white students displayed discomfort and lack of interest when interviewing african american candidates, but not white candidates
