Week 8: Prejudice Exam Notes PDF

**Week 8: Prejudice and How to Reduce It - Exam Notes** **Prejudice Definition** - **Prejudice**: A hostile or negative attitude towards a distinguishable group of people based solely on their membership in that group. - Example: Holding negative beliefs about someone just because...

**Week 8: Prejudice and How to Reduce It - Exam Notes** **Prejudice Definition** - **Prejudice**: A hostile or negative attitude towards a distinguishable group of people based solely on their membership in that group. - Example: Holding negative beliefs about someone just because they are part of a particular racial, gender, or religious group. **Measuring Prejudice** 1. **Association Task Measure**: Measures implicit bias (automatic associations). 2. **Skin Conductance**: Physiological measure of emotional response. 3. **Donations to Charity**: Behavioral measure of prejudice (e.g., how much money people donate to different groups). 4. **Self-Report Questionnaires**: Explicit measures of bias (e.g., survey questions about attitudes towards certain groups). **Three Components of Prejudice** 1. **Cognitive**: Stereotypes---generalizations about a group that assign specific characteristics to its members. - Example: Believing that all members of a particular race are lazy. 2. **Affective**: Emotional reactions towards a group, such as hatred, anger, or contempt. - Example: Feeling disgusted or angry toward members of a particular group. 3. **Behavioral**: Acts of **discrimination**---unjustified negative actions towards members of a group based on their membership. - Example: Refusing to hire someone because of their ethnicity. **Common Types of Prejudices** - **Homophobia**: Prejudice against LGBTQ+ individuals. - **Transphobia**: Prejudice against transgender individuals. - **Sexism**: Prejudice based on gender. - **Racism**: Prejudice based on race. - **Antisemitism**: Prejudice against Jewish people. **Origins of Prejudice** - **Operant Conditioning**: Reinforcement of prejudiced attitudes through rewards and punishments. - **Social Learning**: Learning prejudices from others, especially family and peers. - **War and Conflict**: Hostility and prejudice can arise from intergroup conflicts. - **Direct Experience**: Personal negative experiences with a group can lead to prejudice. - **Classical Conditioning**: Associating negative experiences with specific groups. - **Media**: Exposure to negative stereotypes in media can contribute to prejudice. - **Genes**: Evolutionary factors that may predispose individuals to ingroup bias. **Social Categorization and Ingroup/Outgroup Bias** - **Social Categorization**: The process of classifying people into groups based on shared characteristics (e.g., race, gender, age). - **Ingroup**: The group you belong to. - **Outgroup**: Groups to which you do not belong. - **Social Identity Theory**: People derive part of their self-esteem from the groups they belong to. Prejudices often arise when individuals favor their ingroup to boost self-esteem. **Minimal Group Paradigm** - **Tajfel et al. (1971)**: Found that even trivial group distinctions (e.g., favorite paintings) lead to **ingroup favoritism** and prejudice against outgroups. - **Navarrete et al. (2012)**: Showed that people develop **fear** and hostility towards outgroup members faster than towards ingroup members. **Realistic Conflict Theory** - **Sherif & Sherif (1954)**: Robbers Cave Study - Prejudice arises from competition for limited resources or goals (e.g., conflict between groups competing for prizes). - **Cognitive Dissonance**: When we act prejudiced, we justify our actions to reduce internal conflict (e.g., \"they deserve it\"). **Outgroup Homogeneity Effect** - The tendency to see members of an outgroup as more similar to each other than they actually are. - **Example**: Believing that all members of a racial outgroup are the same. - **Quattrone & Jones (1980)**: Found that people tend to generalize the behavior of one outgroup member to the entire group. - **Puhl et al. (2013)**: When one member of an outgroup is portrayed negatively, it affects how we view the entire group. **Reducing Prejudice** 1. **Common Ingroup Identity Model**: Reduces prejudice by encouraging people from different groups to see themselves as part of a larger, inclusive group. - **Limitations**: Difficult to sustain, resistance to superordinate identity formation. 2. **Dual Identity Model**: Encourages both the recognition of subgroup identity (e.g., ethnicity, gender) and a shared larger group identity. - **Example**: Urban and rural residents in China can maintain their subgroups but also identify as part of the larger \"Chinese\" group. 3. **Intergroup Contact Theory**: Prejudice can be reduced when members of different groups interact and learn that individuals do not conform to the stereotypes of their group. - **Maunder et al. (2019)**: Interactions in any form (face-to-face, online, virtual reality) reduce prejudice and generalizations. - **Criticism**: Real-world intergroup contact often does not match idealized experimental conditions and may sometimes increase prejudice, especially when negative interactions occur. 4. **Counter-Stereotypical Conditions**: Exposure to positive examples of outgroup members can reduce prejudice. - **Ramasubramanian (2015)**: Positive media portrayals of outgroups (e.g., Morgan Freeman, Beyonce) can reduce negative stereotypes. **Criticism of Intergroup Contact** - **Real-World Issues**: Contact is often not socially normative, positive, or long-lasting. Negative interactions can strengthen prejudice. - **McKeown & Dixon (2017)**: Contact may reduce awareness of inequality and legitimize existing power structures. - **Key Issues**: Contact can lead to a feeling of similarity with the majority group, reducing the motivation for collective action among minorities. **Key Terms and Theories:** - **Prejudice**: Negative attitude towards a group based on membership. - **Discrimination**: Negative actions towards a group based on prejudice. - **Social Identity Theory**: Our self-esteem is linked to our group memberships. - **Minimal Group Paradigm**: Small, meaningless distinctions can lead to prejudice. - **Realistic Conflict Theory**: Competition for resources causes prejudice. - **Outgroup Homogeneity Effect**: Perception that outgroup members are all alike. - **Common Ingroup Identity Model**: Encourages seeing different groups as part of one larger group to reduce prejudice. - **Dual Identity Model**: Recognizing both subgroup and superordinate identities reduces prejudice. - **Intergroup Contact Theory**: Interacting with outgroup members reduces prejudice. **Study Tips:** - Focus on understanding the **three components of prejudice** (Cognitive, Affective, Behavioral) and examples. - Be familiar with **research studies** like Tajfel\'s Minimal Group Paradigm, Sherif\'s Robbers Cave study, and Quattrone & Jones\'s Outgroup Homogeneity Effect. - Understand **theories** like Social Identity Theory, Realistic Conflict Theory, and Intergroup Contact Theory. - Pay attention to **methods for reducing prejudice**, especially the Common Ingroup Identity Model, Dual Identity Model, and Intergroup Contact Theory.