Stereotypes
- Beliefs that certain attributes are characteristic of members of a particular group
Prejudice
- attitude or affective response toward a group and its members
Discrimination
- favorable/unfavourable treatment of individuals based on their group membership
Contemporary prejudice
- traditional: prejudice against a racial group that is explicitly acknowledged and expressed but the individual
- modern: directed at groups that exist simultaneously to rejection of explicit beliefs
Gaertner & Dovidio (1977) description
White participants were told they would be interacting with
•1 person or a group (all confederates)
•All were seated in individual rooms and spoke through an intercom system
•Suddenly, one of the confederates indicated he was having a medical emergency; the confederate was either
•White or Black
Gaertner and Dovidio (1977) results
How many participants left their cubicles to go help?
•1 person: Most helped, whether Black or White
•Group: Most help the White victim (75%), but not the Black victim (38%)
Explaination of Gaertner & Dovidio (1977)
1 person: If you do not help, you are clearly racist
•Group: You can refuse to help, because there are others who will
Ambivalent sexism/racism
- theoretical framework suggested that there are 2 components:
- hostile
- benevolent
- both, esp in sexism may coexist (Glick and Fiske)
How to measure predjudice
- Implcit association test
- priming - mental activation of associated concepts
- affect miss-attribution procedure - how people evaluate a stimulus after a prime
Realistic group conflict theory
- when groups compete for limited resources (e.g., territory, jobs, power), these groups experience conflict, prejudice, and discrimination
- prejudice and discrimination shoudl be strongest among groups that stand to lose the most if another succeeds
- predicts that groups become ethnocentric - one group is vilified, own group is glorified
Robbers Cave experiment
Sherif et al. (1961)
•Phase 1: Groups independently engaged in activities designed to foster unity (Eg. prepare meals, pitch tents)
•Phase 2: Five-day tournament; winners got medals and pocket knives.
→ conflict
•Phase 3: Researchers attempted to “reverse” prejudice + reduce conflict
