Understanding Prejudice and Its Measures

Prejudice Definition

• Prejudice is an attitude
• It's a hostile, negative attitude towards a specific group
• Based solely on their membership in that group
• It targets people due to their group affiliation

Prejudice Measures

• Association Task Measure: Measures implicit bias
• Skin conductance measures: Physiological measures
• Donations to charity measure: Behavioral measures
• Self-report questionnaires: Measure explicit bias

Components of Prejudice

• Cognitive: Stereotypes are generalizations about a group, assigning specific characteristics. These are beliefs and schemas about how we think about that group (e.g., belief that someone is lazy)
• Affective Bias: Emotional reactions to a group, (e.g., hate, feelings of contempt)
• Behavioral: Acts of discrimination are unjustified, negative, or harmful behaviors towards a group member based on their group membership (e.g., refusing to hire someone based on their ethnicity)

Attitude Object

• Individual members of a group

Common Types of Prejudices

• Homophobia
• Transphobia
• Sexism
• Racism
• Antisemitism (Jewish religion)

Prejudices Come From

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

Social Categorisation

• The process of categorizing people and oneself into different social groups.
• Two types:
  • Ingroups
  • Outgroups
• Common categorizations include:
  • Race
  • Religion
  • Social class
  • Gender
  • Sexuality
  • Marital status

Social Identity Theory

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

Categorisation that Causes Prejudices

• Jane Elliot's experiment (blue eyes vs brown eyes) showed how categorization can lead to prejudice
• Ingroup students changed their behavior, personalities, and improved academic performance

Minimal Groups Paradigm

• Not a theory, but a model
• Discovered that only minimal conditions are needed to foster prejudice between groups
• Shows one tiny factor can be enough to create an ingroup and cause people to favor that group. This also leads to negative impacts and discrimination against those in the other group.

Minimal Group Experiment

• Navarrete et al. (2012): Conditioned fear in ingroups and outgroups (different colored shirts) led to quicker fear responses toward outgroup members who administered electric shocks versus ingroup members.

Realistic Conflict Theory

• Conflict between groups over resources and goals creates prejudice
• Sherif & Sherif (1954) Robbers Cave experiment demonstrated that competition over limited resources (e.g., prizes) leads to hostility between groups

Cognitive Dissonance

• We justify our prejudiced behavior to feel congruent (consistent).
• Berscheid et al. (1968) electric shock experiment- when people hurt outgroup members they justify the behavior to feel better about themselves

Individual to Group Generalisation

• Observed characteristics of a single group member can lead to generalizations about the entire group.

Outgroup Homogeneity Effect

• We perceive individuals in an outgroup as more similar to each other than they actually are
• Quattrone & Jones (1980)—research on outgroup homogeneity effect and generalizations (people assume all outgroup members are the same).
• Puhl et al. (2013)—research on generalizations about obese people.

Common Ingroup Identity Model

• A larger group identity can reduce prejudice
• A larger groups identity can overshadow smaller ones, lessening prejudice between groups
• Dovidio et al. (2009)—study suggesting limitations of the common ingroup identity model

Dual Identity Model

• A larger identity encompasses smaller groups, reducing prejudice
• The dual identity model activates both subgroup and shared identity simultaneously
• Subgroup identity helps to understand the differences between groups and the shared identity allows for an understanding of the commonalities within the groups.

Reducing Prejudice- Generalisation With Counter Stereotypical Conditions

• Ramasubramanian (2015)—Study on using counter-stereotypical examples to reduce prejudice

Intergroup Contact Theory

• Interactions between individuals from different groups reduce prejudice.
• Maunder et al. (2019) found contact with an outgroup reduces prejudice and generalizations, regardless of how it occurs (in-person, virtual, etc.)
• Contact doesn't always have to be face-to-face, it can be vicarious

Criticism of Intergroup Contact

• Experiments sometimes present an incomplete view of real-world intergroup contact, as relationships can be complex
• Sometimes negative interactions increase prejudice more than positive interactions do.
• Intergroup contact may not eliminate prejudice or tension between groups due to social norms.

Intergroup Contact Criticisms

• Intergroup contact may have a "sedative effect" and potentially cause a lack of recognition of inequalities and injustice
• This can decrease participation in collective action to address these issues.