Understanding Prejudice and Its Measures

Prejudice Definition

• Prejudice is an attitude.
• It's a hostile, negative attitude towards a group of people.
• Prejudice is based solely on group membership.
• It targets people because of their group affiliation.

Prejudice Measures

• Association Task Measure: Measures implicit bias.
• Skin conductance measures: Measures physiological responses.
• Donations to charity: Measures behavioral responses.
• Self-report questionnaires: Measures explicit bias.

Components of Prejudice

• Cognitive (Stereotypes): Generalizations about a group, assigning specific characteristics to it, forming beliefs and schemas. Example: belief that someone is lazy.
• Affective Bias: Emotional reactions towards a group. Example: hate, feelings of contempt.
• Behavioral: Unjustified negative or harmful behaviors towards group members, based on their group membership. Examples: refusing to hire someone based on their ethnicity, not hiring members of a specific group.

Attitude Object

• Individual members of a group

Common Types of Prejudice

• Homophobia
• Transphobia
• Sexism
• Racism
• Antisemitism (prejudice against Jewish people)

Origins of Prejudice

• Operant conditioning
• Social learning
• War
• Direct experience
• Interpersonal conflict
• Classical conditioning
• Genes
• Media
• Family
• Peers
• Behavior

Social Categorization

• The process of categorizing ourselves and others into different social groups.
• Two types: Ingroups and Outgroups.
• Common social categorizations: Race, religion, social class, gender, sexuality, marital status and more.

Social Identity Theory

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

Categorization that Causes Prejudice

• Examples from studies like Jane Elliot's blue-eye/brown-eye experiment.
• Demonstrates how categorization can lead to prejudice (students changed their behaviour based on categorization).

Minimal Groups Paradigm

• Not a theory, just a model
• Discovered that minimal conditions are needed for prejudices to occur between groups
• Shows one tiny factor is all that is needed for people to feel a part of an ingroup.
• Positive associations grow within the ingroup and negative associations develop for outgroups.
• Example study: Tajfel et al. (1971) - experiments with paintings.
• Minimal conditions for group formation can lead to favouritism towards ingroups and negativity towards outgroups.

Minimal Group Experiment

• Example study: Navarrete et al. (2012) - conditioned fear of ingroup or outgroup members using different coloured shirts to create groups.
• Fear response for outgroup members is faster than response for members of the ingroup.
• People learn to hate and fear outgroups faster than ingroup members

Realistic Conflict Theory

• Conflict between groups over goals or resources leads to prejudice.
• Example study: Sherif & Sherif (1954) Robbers Cave Summer Camp study.
• Hostility can arise from competing goals and limited resources.
• Groups attribute positive attributes to their own groups.

Cognitive Dissonance

• justifying prejudiced behavior to feel consistent with beliefs, attitudes, and values
• example: electric shock study (Berscheid et al., 1968)
• Subconscious justification process
• Outgroup members must be made to seem deserving of their punishment

Individual to Group Generalization

• Observed characteristics of a single group member can influence the perceptions of and generalization about the entire group
• Example of how single negative experiences can generalize to all members of that group

Outgroup Homogeneity Effect

• We perceive outgroup members as more similar than they actually are.
• Outgroup members are all seen as "alike."
• Example study: Quattrone & Jones (1980) - study on Outgroup homogeneity

Research on Outgroup Homogeneity Effect

• Further studies examining this effect (PUHL ET AL., 2013): generalization about Obese People.
• One example of behaviour that affects perceptions in studies.

Common Ingroup Identity Model

• Using a broader, overarching group identity to reduce prejudice between smaller groups.
• Difficult to sustain a superordinate identity.
• Efforts to unite groups can be met with resistance.
• Larger group identity may not represent everyone.

Dual Identity Model

• Larger group identity that spans the two smaller groups but maintains the subgroup differences.
• Subgroup identity activated with the shared group identity simultaneously.
• Favouritism for the outgroup members as well.

Reducing Prejudice- Generalisation With Counter Stereotypical Conditions

• Example studies like Ramasubramanian (2015)

Intergroup Contact Theory

• Interactions between individuals from different groups can reduce prejudice toward those groups.
• Individuals learn that outgroup members don't conform. Example study: Different coloured shirts to create groups
• The more interaction (face-to-face, online, vicarious), the less prejudice.

Criticism Of Intergroup Contact

• Real-world intergroup contact is not always socially normative or stripped of tension.
• Negative real-world interactions can increase prejudice.
• Short term negative interactions can still occur.

Intergroup Contact Criticisms (McKeown & Dixon, 2017):

• Intergroup contact might have a "sedative effect" that can hide inequality and injustice.
• This can lessen actions for the collective.
• Feelings of similarity, expectations of fair treatment and legitimization of hierarchical power relations may happen.

Reducing Prejudice Generalisation Teacher: Rachel Own Study

• (Maunder et al., 2019): Contact and interactions with outgroup members reduce prejudice and generalization.
• Any contact with outgroup members (online or in real life), will help to create less prejudice.
• Exposure to one person can lead to positive feelings about an entire group.

This quiz explores the definition of prejudice, its components, and various measures used to assess it. Delve into cognitive, affective, and behavioral biases, and understand how implicit and explicit attitudes can influence behavior towards different groups.