What are social categories?
defined over number of dimensions that differ in different properties, incl. where one is born, person’s belief system, person’s biological properties
function:
- reasoning: evaluation/attitudes & stereotypes
- facilitates social interaction: helping, friendships
What is implicit processing?
what’s uncontrollable & not accessible via introspection
- processing: automatic, unconscious, uncontrollable
What is explicit processing?
controllable & accessible via conscious thought
- processing: deliberate, intentional, consciously accessible
What is the developmental trajectory of explicit bias and the paradox therein?
developmental decrease in negative attitudes toward outgroup:
- race bias:
- emerges by age 3/4
- peaks near age 7
- declines thru adolescence
developmental increase in negative behaviour toward outgroup:
- fewer interracial interactions & friendships
- discrimination: housing, employment, healthcare, education
What is the paradox of the development of explicit bias?
why is there an increase in negative behaviours toward outgroup w/ age when developmentally there is a decrease in negative attitudes toward outgroup?
- w/ age, explicit intergroup preferences changes
What is the Implicit Association Test (IAT):?
- reaction time measure
- measures strength of association b/w concepts
- stronger association = faster, more accurate responses
- the more implicit bias we have, predicts:
- friendliness
- hiring
- voting
- medical treatment
What is the developmental trajectory of implicit bias?
- early acquisition & automatic:
- ingroup preference
- innate preference to familiarity
- influence of group membership
- stable across development
- formed prior to age 6
- early life experiences important for acquisition
What is the developmental trajectory of implicit bias? (by age)
- age 6: formed detectable implicit attitudes toward social groups
- age 10:
- early & strong preference for members of own social group subsides
- split b/w mean levels of conscious & less conscious race attitudes emerges
- adulthood: equal preference for in- & out-group
What is the developmental trajectory of implicit bias? (childhood)
- implicit preferences for high-status over lower status racial groups emerge early at levels that remain stable across development
- biases stronger in ethnically homogenous communities
What is the developmental trajectory of implicit bias? (older children)
- cognitive flexibility increases w/ age & better allow them to shift evaluations of racial group after being presented w/ counter-stereotypical info about group
- children from majority groups: lower explicit prejudice against out-groups, potentially due to motivational processes
- may form novel associations
What is the developmental trajectory of implicit bias? (adults)
- implicit racial biases reduce after brief interventions
- due to shift in social context that places emphasis on individuals who contrast w/ stereotypes
- shift prime subtypes rather than lead them to revise prior beliefs
What are the 4 factors that influence implicit attitudes?
- early experiences
- affective experiences
- cultural biases
- cognitive consistency principles
How do early experiences influence implicit attitudes?
- stem from past experiences
- developmental events inform implicit attitudes:
- early in life: learning preverbal & taught indirectly
- form foundation for later learning and may serve as nonconscious source of related evaluations & actions
- developmental events inform automatic mental habits
How do affective experiences influence implicit attitudes?
- more sensitive to affective experiences:
- attitudes positively covaried w/ activation of amygdala
- attitudes stem from automatic emotional reactions to stimuli
- attitudes may depend on emotional reconditioning
- sensitive to priming effects, due to feelings aroused by stimuli
How do cultural biases influence implicit attitudes?
- influenced by one’s cultural milieu
- societal evaluations have assimilative effect on automatic attitudes
- influence of cultural biases may be reconcilable w/ influence of early & affective experiences
How do cognitive consistency principles influence implicit attitudes? (1)
- ppl prefer consonant evaluations of related attitude objects
- observed among self-esteem, gender identity & gender attitude
- automatic & controlled evaluations stem from different causes
- implicit attitudes, identity, self-esteem, stereotypes & self-concept conformed to cognitive consistency principles
How do cognitive consistency principles influence implicit attitudes? (2)
- automatic & controlled evaluations best predict spontaneous & deliberative actions, respectively
- attitudes influence deliberative actions
- controlled responses covary w/ attitudes
- implicit & explicit attitudes sometimes converge
What are key findings in terms of what we see implicitly if in culturally high status group vs. culturally low status group? (E.A.)
- European Americans: culturally high status
- age 6 & 10: levels of implicit bias same as adults
- suggests when age 6, acquire implicit race bias at adult like levels
What are key findings in terms of what we see implicitly if in culturally high status group vs. culturally low status group? (A.A.)
- African Americans: culturally low status
- no evidence of implicit preference for own group
- both EA & AA: children show same level of bias that adults do
What are key findings in terms of what we see implicitly if in culturally high status group vs. culturally low status group? (L.A.)
- compare own group to culturally higher status: no implicit preference for ingroup
- compare ingroup to culturally lower status: show implicit preference for ingroup
- implicit attitudes sensitive to whether comparison group is of higher/lower cultural standing
- reinforce that implicit bias is stable across development
