Prejudice and Discrimination in Society

Prejudice and Discrimination

• Prejudice: feelings of discomfort experienced when interacting or anticipating interaction with members of other groups.
• Concerns about prejudice:
  • Ridicule from ingroup members for associating with outgroup members.
  • Uncertainty about proper interaction with outgroup members.
  • Fear of being perceived as prejudiced by outgroup members.
• Negative consequences of prejudice: Avoidance of outgroup members, hostility towards the outgroup, rejection or ridicule from both ingroup and outgroup members, potential embarrassment from social blunders, and concerns about appearing prejudiced.
• Values: beliefs held about the importance of goals and desired outcomes, influencing actions and decisions.
• Extrinsic religious orientation: Using religion for non-religious goals like security, social interactions, or self-justification.
• Intrinsic religious orientation: Believing in and living by religious teachings, often motivated to avoid appearing prejudiced.
• Individualism: Emphasis on self-reliance and independence from others.
• Aversive racism theory: People with aversive racism hold egalitarian beliefs but subconsciously harbor negative feelings toward minority groups.
• Pro-minority bias resulting from aversive prejudice: People try to avoid appearing prejudiced, which can lead to subtle bias favoring minority groups.
• Empathy: Reduces prejudice by promoting feelings of similarity with members of other groups, leading to the association of positive self-views with others.
• Perspective-taking: Adopting the other person's psychological viewpoint, a key component of empathy that research has focused on.
• Economic threat: Elicits emotions like anger, fear, and disgust, increasing prejudice towards the perceived threat.
• Modern-symbolic prejudice: Reflects subtle, disguised prejudice disguised as support for traditional values.
• Egalitarianism: A value system emphasizing equal opportunity, equal treatment for all, and concern for others' well-being.
• Implicit prejudice: Prejudices people are unaware of holding, activated automatically, difficult to control, and measured using implicit cognition measures.
• Response amplification: Exaggerated responses to stigmatized individuals, often rooted in subconscious biases.
• Ambivalent prejudice: Holding mixed feelings (both positive and negative) towards other groups.
• Unprejudiced individuals: Characterized by low levels of prejudice, high levels of egalitarianism, and a strong commitment to principles of fairness and equality.
• Bogus pipeline technique: A method for assessing attitudes by convincing individuals that their true beliefs are being detected, reducing social desirability bias.
• Hostile sexism: Belief that women and men are opponents in a battle for power, reflecting traditional gender roles and dominance.
• Benevolent sexism: Appearing positive but still reinforces traditional gender roles, ultimately limiting women's opportunities.
• Old-fashioned prejudice: Explicit, outward expressions of prejudice, often based on blatant discrimination and the endorsement of traditional racist beliefs.

Prejudice and Discrimination in Social Settings

• Two categories of values related to prejudice: Individualism and egalitarianism.
• Self-categorization: A process of identifying with a group, often linked to feelings of distinctiveness, need for certainty, and choosing one's identity.
• National identity: The extent to which someone identifies with their country, influencing the relationship between national identity and prejudice. This relationship is shaped by an ethnic versus civic view of national identity and group narcissism.
• Group narcissism: Belief in the superiority of one's country coupled with denial of its negative aspects.
• Relative deprivation theory: Individuals or groups that perceive themselves as lacking resources, despite objective success, may attribute this to perceived injustice.
• Distributive justice: The perceived fairness of how rewards are allocated based on deservingness.
• Procedural justice: The perceived fairness of the rules used to allocate rewards.
• Negative emotions arising from perceived injustice: Resentment and dissatisfaction increase when individuals perceive both distributive and procedural justice to be low.
• Relative gratification: Satisfaction derived from the belief that one's ingroup is better off than others.
• Group membership instability: Hate group membership is often unstable due to factors like disencantment with the group and relationships outside the group.

Forms of Discrimination

• Blatant discrimination: Unequal and harmful treatment that is intentional, visible, and easily documented.
• Subtle discrimination: Unequal and harmful treatment that is less visible and easily documented, often normalized and perceived as customary.
• Micro-aggressions: Everyday behaviors that demean social groups or individuals from those groups, whether verbal or nonverbal.
• Motivation to control prejudice: Reflects internalized beliefs about the wrongfulness of prejudice, a desire to comply with social expectations, and an avoidance of confrontations over prejudiced views.
• Personal stereotypes: Individualized beliefs about groups that may overlap with social stereotypes but contain unique elements. They can influence discriminatory behavior towards outgroup members who fit the personal stereotype.
• Employment discrimination: White applicants are consistently more likely to receive job interviews, positive interview ratings, and job offers.
• Racial/ethnic differences in promotion: Minority managers often face obstacles to career advancement, including supervising predominantly minority employees at lower levels, being tracked in jobs with limited promotion opportunities, having fewer influential mentors, and receiving less favorable performance reviews.
• Psychological processes leading to discrimination:
  • Stereotype fit: Matching characteristics with perceived stereotypes of different roles.
  • Shifting standards: Judgments based on different standards for different groups.
  • Contemporary prejudice: Expressing prejudice in a socially acceptable way.
  • Conformity to perceived norms: Following perceived social norms that reinforce prejudice and discrimination.