powerpoint_ch5.pptx

Chapter 5 Old-Fashioned and Contemporary Forms of Prejudice The Transformation of Prejudice  Evidence of continuing prejudice comes from: • Bogus pipeline research • Physiological and implicit cognition measures • Assessments of behavior • Self-reports of behavior • Experiences of minority group...

Chapter 5 Old-Fashioned and Contemporary Forms of Prejudice The Transformation of Prejudice  Evidence of continuing prejudice comes from: • Bogus pipeline research • Physiological and implicit cognition measures • Assessments of behavior • Self-reports of behavior • Experiences of minority group members The Transformation of Prejudice  Why do people often express nonprejudiced attitudes but sometimes act in prejudiced ways? • Racial attitudes have changed and • Social norms regarding the expression of prejudice have changed • But people continue to learn prejudiced beliefs through socialization The Transformation of Prejudice 1. Changes in racial attitudes and social norms: • Until the mid-20th century, Jim Crow racism was common:  Belief that White people were inherently superior to other races  Belief in the rightness of keeping minorities at a distance through segregation  Use of laws and government to establish segregated schools and other discrimination The Transformation of Prejudice  After the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Act of 1964: • Racial equality developed as an American norm • Racism changed from being seen as normal to being seen as bad The Transformation of Prejudice 2. People continue to learn prejudiced beliefs through socialization: • Negative stereotypes and negative emotions still exist in American culture:  Such as in media depictions • This process results in contemporary prejudices Contemporary Prejudices  Based on three propositions: • There has been genuine change in social norms in favor of equality • Not everyone has accepted this change to the same degree • Even those people who have not fully accepted the change are motivated to act in non-prejudiced ways Contemporary Prejudices  Characteristics: contemporary prejudices: • Are expressed in ways that can be justified • Are sometimes unconscious • May be coupled with remnants of oldfashioned prejudices Contemporary Prejudice  Three major theories: • Modern-symbolic prejudice • Aversive prejudice • Ambivalent prejudice  All draw on the concept of implicit prejudice Implicit Prejudices  Implicit prejudices: prejudices people are not aware of holding:  Are activated automatically  Are difficult to control  Cannot be assessed through self-report: – Assessed using implicit cognition measures Implicit Prejudices  Can lead to unintended and unwanted: • Emotional responses to outgroups • Behavior toward outgroups Implicit Prejudices  Implicit prejudices contrast with explicit prejudices: • Stereotypes and attitudes that people:  Are aware of holding  Can be intentionally retrieved from memory (e.g., to make self-reports) • Lead to intentional behavior Modern-Symbolic Prejudice Modern-Symbolic Prejudice: • Concept developed in early 1970s • Set of beliefs about Black people as a group rather than as individuals • Black people seen as morally inferior to White people because they supposedly violate traditional American values Modern-Symbolic Prejudice Contrasted with Old-fashioned Prejudice:  Belief in the biological inferiority of Black people and the stereotypes of low intelligence, laziness, etc.  Social change has led most White Americans to reject most aspects of oldfashioned prejudice as an explicit attitude Characteristics of ModernSymbolic Prejudice  Modern-symbolic prejudice is characterized by five interrelated beliefs: 1. Racial prejudice and discrimination no longer exist 2. Any remaining racial differences in outcomes result from Black people’s lack of motivation to work hard Characteristics of ModernSymbolic Prejudice 3. Because Black people are unwilling to work to get what they want, their continuing anger over inequality is unjustified 4. Rather than working to get ahead, Black people seek special favors 5. Relative to White people, Black people have been getting more than they deserve Psychological Bases of ModernSymbolic Prejudice  Five factors: • (1) Mild to moderate anti-Black emotions • (2) Belief in traditional values:  Hard work  Individualism  Self-reliance  Self-restraint Psychological Bases of ModernSymbolic Prejudice  (3) Low outcome-based egalitarianism: • Egalitarianism – value system that reflects the belief that all people are equal and should be treated identically Psychological Bases of ModernSymbolic Prejudice  Aspects of egalitarianism: • Equality of opportunity:  Everyone should have an equal, fair chance at success in life • Equality of outcome:  Society should ensure everyone receives an equal share of its resources  People with modern-symbolic prejudice reject equality of outcome and endorse equality of opportunity Psychological Bases of ModernSymbolic Prejudice  (4) Group self-interest: • People:  promote the interests of groups that are important to them  respond negatively to perceived threats to group welfare • Reflected in belief that social programs designed to benefit minority groups unfairly deprive majority group members Psychological Bases of ModernSymbolic Prejudice  (5) Little personal knowledge of Black people: • Majority group members little opportunity to get to know minority group people as individuals, so stereotypes continue Modern-Symbolic Prejudice and Behavior  Leads to discrimination when the behavior can be justified as based on nonracial grounds: • Results in continued racial inequality Aversive Prejudice  Describes the attitude of people who: • try to ignore the existence of minority group people • try to avoid contact with them • are at most polite, correct, and cold when interactions with minority group members cannot be avoided Aversive Prejudice  Similar to modern-symbolic prejudice in that: • People truly believe in equality but retain implicit negative feelings toward minority groups • Negative feelings are usually low key:  E.g., discomfort and uneasiness rather than hostility or hatred • Majority group members develop implicit implicit prejudices while growing up Aversive Prejudice  Differs from modern-symbolic prejudice in that people: • Reject traditional racialized beliefs (e.g., minority group members are lazy) • Support equality-enhancing social programs • View being unprejudiced as important to their self-concepts • Prefer to avoid interracial contact because it arouses negative affect Aversive Prejudice and Behavior When interracial interaction is unavoidable, people with aversive prejudice: • Experience anxiety and discomfort • Try to disengage from the interaction quickly • Strictly adhere to rules of behavior (e.g., politeness) when they can’t avoid intergroup contact • Express negative feelings in subtle ways that may disadvantage minority group members or unfairly benefit the majority group Three Psychological Underpinnings of Aversive Prejudice 1. People are predisposed to categorize others into ingroups and outgroups 2. People need to control the environment to ensure positive outcomes for themselves and their groups 3. People hold two incompatible sets of values: • Implicit prejudice • Genuine belief in American ideals of fairness, justice, and equality Psychological Bases of Aversive Prejudice  Conflict between these values leads to: • Conflicting feelings about racial issues and members of minority groups • Inconsistent behavior toward members of those groups:  People experiencing aversive prejudice will sometimes discriminate, sometimes not Psychological Bases of Aversive Prejudice  Situational factors determine behavior: • People won’t discriminate in situations in which discrimination would be obvious • Will discriminate when they can rationalize a negative response on the basis of some factor other than race Research on Aversive Prejudice  Has focused on identifying situational conditions that facilitate prejudiced behavior  Until recently, there was no measure of aversive prejudice: • Effects of aversive prejudice were inferred from ways people respond to situations designed to arouse it Aversive Prejudice and Behavior  Avoidance of intergroup contact: • Example: in 2010 survey of White Americans:  20% were opposed in living in a fully integrated neighborhood  22% would oppose a relative marrying a Black person • Motivated by anxiety over interacting with minority group members Aversive Prejudice and Behavior  Overly positive intergroup behavior: • Example: White teachers give more positive feedback to minority students for same level of work • Motivated by concerns overly appearing to be prejudiced Aversive Prejudice and Behavior  Pro-White bias in ambiguous situations: • Example:  Students more likely to recommend hiring a White person with mixed qualification over Black person with mixed qualification  No difference for people with clearly high or low qualifications • Evaluators focus on negative information for minority applicant, positive information for White applicant Aversive Prejudice and Behavior  Discrimination when behavior can be justified as unprejudiced: • Example: Helping behavior  Overall, White people are equally willing to help Black and White people who need help  But are less likely to help people when not helping can be justified on race-neutral grounds: – E.g., not having enough time Aversive Prejudice and Behavior  Derogation of minority group members who hold high status positions: • Examples:  White supervisors get higher performance ratings than Black supervisors; no difference for Black and White subordinates  Black professional football player punished more for “excessive celebration” penalty Ambivalent Prejudice Holds that White Americans:  Genuinely accept the principles of racial equality  Have developed genuinely positive attitudes toward Black people: • But those attitudes coexist with lingering negative attitudes Ambivalent Prejudice  Having both positive and negative beliefs about minority groups results in ambivalent attitudes and behavior Sources of Ambivalent Attitudes  Ambivalent attitudes can arise from: • Value systems • Stereotype content Sources of Ambivalent Attitudes Value Systems: Two sets of American values: 1. Individualism:  Emphasizes personal responsibility, hard work as the means to success, and selfreliance 2. Egalitarianism:  Belief that all people should be treated equally and people have a responsibility to help disadvantaged others Sources of Ambivalent Attitudes  White people generally perceive Black people as both deviant and disadvantaged: • Individualistic value orientation leads to:  a focus on deviance aspect  negative feelings such as aversion • Egalitarian value orientation leads to:  a focus on disadvantage aspect  positive feelings such as sympathy Sources of Ambivalent Attitudes Stereotype content:  Two aspects of stereotypes: warmth and competence  People like groups perceived as warm and respect groups perceived as competent  Stereotypes can have mixed content: • E.g., group is friendly (warm) but lazy (not competent) • leads to mixed, ambivalent emotions Psychological Conflict  Ambivalent attitudes affect behavior only when Whites become aware of inconsistent attitudes  Inconsistency creates conflict between individualist and egalitarian values: • Threatens person’s self-image: following one value system implies rejecting the other • Threat causes negative emotions that person is motivated to reduce Psychological Conflict  Negative emotions and threat are reduced by behaving in a way that makes one value seem more important than the other: • If one value is more important, it takes precedence, which removes the conflict Cognitive Dissonance  Another way of looking at ambivalent attitudes  Holds that: • People prefer their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to be consistent • Inconsistencies lead to negative emotional state called cognitive dissonance • People are motivated to reduce this dissonance  Threats to self-image play no role Dealing with Ambivalence  In both ambivalent prejudice and cognitive dissonance views: • One way to reduce conflict is to emphasize importance of one set of beliefs over the other  Emphasis on: • Egalitarian values leads to overly positive behavior directed toward minority group members • Individualistic values leads to overly negative behavior • Called response amplification Response Amplification  A behavior toward a stigmatized person that is more extreme than behavior toward non-stigmatized person  Situational cues determine direction of the response amplification: • If situation calls for positive behavior, ambivalent prejudices leads to overly positive behavior • If situation calls for negative behavior, ambivalent prejudices leads to overly negative behavior Response Amplification Why is it a problem to be overly positive?  Doing so may: • Seem patronizing • Set minority group members up for failure if they receive incorrect positive feedback • Lead to distrust of future feedback Modern Prejudice  Prejudice can take two forms: hostile and benevolent  Hostile prejudice: • Is what we usually think of as prejudice • Expressed in terms of negative beliefs about and emotional responses to targets of prejudice Benevolent Prejudice  Benevolent prejudice: • Apparently positive beliefs and emotional responses to outgroups • Tone is superficially positive:  But is correlated with endorsement of negative stereotypes and discriminatory behavior • Can have negative consequences for its targets:  E.g., keeping them in subordinate positions Benevolent Prejudice  Benevolent prejudice is especially problematic for three reasons: • It provides prejudiced person with moral credentials:  People who express negative attitudes can defend themselves by pointing to their benevolent beliefs • Targets of the prejudice might buy into it • It may be difficult to change because it is superficially positive Putting the Theories Together  Processes involved in contemporary prejudices are not independent of one another and can work together to affect behavior Lack of Prejudice Contemporary Prejudice Increasing Severity Old-Fashioned Prejudice Unprejudiced People  High acceptance of both equality of opportunity and equality of outcomes  Complex social identifies: • See themselves as members of many different social groups  Focus on similarities among people rather than differences: • See differences as enriching and interesting  Exhibit a broad scope of moral inclusion: • Broadly define who counts as as “one of us”