Psychology Chapter on Prejudice and Bias

Prejudice Definition

• Prejudice is a hostile, negative attitude
• It targets a distinct group based solely on their group membership
• Prejudice is directed at individuals because of their group affiliation.

Prejudice Measures

• Association Task Measure: Measures implicit bias
• Skin conductance measures: Assess physiological responses
• Donations to charity measure: Assesses behavioural measures
• Self-report questionnaires: Measure explicit bias

Components of Prejudice

• Cognitive: Stereotypes. Stereotypes are generalizations about a group that ascribe specific traits. It includes the beliefs and schemas, for example, the idea that someone is lazy.
• Affective Bias: Emotional reactions towards a group. Examples include hate or contempt.
• Behavioral: Acts of discrimination. Examples include refusing to hire someone based on their group membership (e.g., not hiring someone Indian).

Attitude Object

• Individual members of a group

Common Types of Prejudices

• Homophobia
• Transphobia
• Sexism
• Racism
• Antisemitism (Directed at Jewish people)

Prejudice Origins

• Operant conditioning
• Social learning
• War
• Direct experience
• Interpersonal conflict
• Classical conditioning
• Genes

Social Categorisation

• Process where people categorize themselves and others into distinct social groups.
• Two types:
  • Ingroups
  • Outgroups
• Common social categorizations include:
  • Race
  • Religion
  • Social class/status
  • Gender
  • Sexuality
  • Marital status

Social Identity Theory

• Individuals derive self-esteem from group memberships
• A person's sense of self is based on their group memberships
• People need their in-groups to view themselves positively

Categorisation that Causes Prejudices

• School Teacher Jane Elliot study: Students with blue eyes were treated differently than students with brown eyes. The experimental manipulations influenced behaviors, personalities and academic performance.

Minimal Groups Paradigm

• Not a theory, just a model
• Discovered that minimal conditions are needed for prejudice to occur between groups
• Shows that a tiny factor can create ingroups and outgroups
• This creates self-esteem and positive associations for the ingroup and negativity for the outgroup

Minimal Group Experiment

• Navarrete et al. (2012): Demonstrated conditioned fear of ingroup/outgroup members
• Used psychology students and different coloured shirts to separate participants into different groups
• Participants experienced electric shocks
• Participants were faster to fear outgroup members than ingroup members

Realistic Conflict Theory

• Conflict over goals/resources produces prejudice
• Sherif & Sherif (1954): Robbers Cave Summer Camp study explored this by creating conflict through limited resources

Cognitive Dissonance

• Justifying prejudiced behavior
• Berscheid et al. (1968): Electric shock study. Participants justified prejudiced behavior when faced with cognitive dissonance (feeling bad after acting in a way that contradicts one's beliefs)
• Subconscious process people engage in when harming the outgroup, justify their behaviors, and feel better

Individual to Group Generalization

• Single member's characteristic influences the perception of the entire group

Outgroup Homogeneity Effect

• Perceiving outgroup members as more similar than they actually are
• Outgroup members: "they are all alike"
• We perceive ingroup members as individuals

Research Outgroup Homogeneity Effect

• Quattrone & Jones (1980): Outgroup Homogeneity and Generalization
• Puhl et al. (2013): Generalization about obese people

Common Ingroup Identity Model

• A larger shared identity can reduce prejudice.
• The inclusion of outgroup members into a larger group.
• Limitations: The superordinate identity is hard to maintain and can meet with resistance. May not represent everybody

Dual Identity Model

• Encompasses both groups but maintains identities
• Subgroup identity is simultaneously activated with a shared group identity, extending ingroup favouritism to outgroup members.

Research With the Dual Identity Model Manipulation

• Shi et al. (2017): Examined the effects of dual identity in China: differences between urban and rural residents & Chinese immigrants

Reducing Prejudice- Generalisation With Counter Stereotypical Conditions

• Ramasubramanian (2015) used counter-stereotypical conditions
• Used positive stories about outgroup members (e.g. Morgan Freeman and Beyonce Knowles) to change negative stereotypes toward African Americans

Intergroup Contact Theory

• Interactions reduce prejudice
• Reducing prejudice by putting people from different groups together.
• Contact can also be indirect (i.e., vicarious).

Research Own Study

• Maunder et al. (2019): Examined online interactions and prejudice reduction
• Contact, like using virtual reality (VR), chat-rooms or online interaction are all effective.

Criticism of Intergroup Contact

• Experiments are not always realistic.
• Realistically, positive and negative interactions occur, social norms and prejudice are not always disrupted by contact alone

Intergroup Contact Criticisms

• McKeown & Dixon (2017): Contact may have a sedative effect, masking inequality, and reducing participation in social change.

Explore key concepts related to prejudice and implicit bias in this comprehensive quiz based on psychology theories. Delve into the origins, components, and psychological principles that explain discrimination and social identity. Perfect for students looking to deepen their understanding of group behavior and biases.