Stereotypes, Prejudice, & Discrimination. True Colors –What are your thoughts? –Does it ring true?

Stereotypes, Prejudice, & Discrimination


• True Colors– What are your thoughts?– Does it ring true?


• True Colors– What are your thoughts?– Does it ring true?

– Can we use social psychological principles to understand what happened?


• stereotypes– a set of beliefs about the personal

attributes of a group of people (Ashmore & Del Boca, 1981)

– a type of schema


• prejudice– a biased evaluation of a group (often

targeted at it’s individual members), based on real or imagined characteristics of the group members (Nelson, 2002)

– a type of attitude


• discrimination– negative act towards a person or

group of people because of their group membership


• ABC’s of social psychology– Affect: prejudice– Behavior: discrimination– Cognition: stereotypes


• What did we see in True Colors?– What stereotypes?– What examples of prejudice?– What examples of discrimination?

Stereotypes

• How stereotypes are formed?– categorization

Stereotypes

• How stereotypes are formed?– categorization– ingroups and outgroups (Social Identity

Theory; Tajfel & Turner, 1986)• ingroup bias (Ostrom & Sedikides, 1992)

• outgroup homogeneity bias (Hamilton, 1976)

Stereotypes

• How stereotypes are formed?– categorization– ingroups and outgroups– social learning

Stereotypes

• stereotypes make information processing more efficient– name and 10 personality characteristics– Nigel: caring, honest, reliable, friendly…– stereotype: Nigel is a doctor– cognitive load task– recall characteristics and facts about

Indonesia

(Macrae, Milne, & Bodenhausen, 1994)

Stereotypes


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Indonesia

LabelNo Label

Stereotypes

• Why do stereotypes persist?– subcategorization

Stereotypes

• Why do stereotypes persist?– subcategorization– illusory correlations

Stereotypes

• Why do stereotypes persist?– subcategorization– illusory correlations– selective attention to stereotype-

relevant information

Stereotypes

• Why do stereotypes persist?– subcategorization– illusory correlations– selective attention to stereotype-

relevant information– once formed, very difficult to change

Stereotypes

• stereotype threat– African American and White

participants– difficult verbal task– IV: intellectual ability (threat) or

verbal task (no threat)– DV: performance on the verbal task

(Steele & Aronson, 1995)

Stereotypes

• stereotype threat– no threat condition: AA and White

participants performed equally– threat condition: AA performed more

poorly than the White participants

– also shown to occur when race is made salient

(Steele & Aronson, 1995)

Prejudice

• Where does prejudice come from?• What can be done about it?

Origins of Prejudice

• cultural/group norms– conformity to the group norm can

influence prejudice


• social dynamics– Realistic Group Conflict Theory (Levine

& Campbell, 1972)



& Campbell, 1972)

– Scapegoat Theory



& Campbell, 1972)

– Scapegoat Theory– Just World Theory


• universal cognitive processes– e.g., minimal group paradigm

What Can Be Done about Prejudice?

• stereotype suppression– 5 minutes writing about a skinhead– IV: suppress negative thoughts or not– 5 minutes writing about the second

skinhead– DV: How stereotypic is the writing?



• stereotype suppression– suppression condition: less

stereotypic thinking the first time, but more stereotypic thinking the second time



• contact hypothesis– increasing exposure to members of

outgroups can increase positive evaluations of the outgroup and decrease prejudice and stereotyping• e.g., Sherif’s Robber’s Cave studies


• contact hypothesis– Allport (1954): “…the effect of

contact will depend on the kind of association that occurs, and on the kinds of persons who are involved.”


• contact hypothesis– four necessary criteria:

• equal status members• common goals• intergroup cooperation• support of a legitimate authority (e.g.,

social norms)

(Allport, 1954)


• contact hypothesis– an additional criterion:

• must be friendship potential

(Pettigrew, 1998)


• Jigsaw Classroom– 6-person learning groups– each responsible for teaching and

learning the material– pay more attention to and respect

each other more

(Aronson, 1979)

Discrimination

• difficult to demonstrate at the individual level– women tend to acknowledge having

been discriminated against as a group, but few report being personally being discriminated against

(Crosby, 1981)

Discrimination

• normally assessed at the aggregate level– Florida homicide cases 1976-77– rate of first degree murder

prosecution based on the race of the victim and defendant

(Radelet, 1981)

Discrimination

• normally assessed at the aggregate level– AA defendant/White victim

90%– White defendant/White victim

50%– White defendant/AA victim

50%– AA defendant/AA victim

40%(Radelet, 1981)

Discrimination

• normally assessed at the aggregate level– White man $11, 362– African American man $11, 783– White woman $11, 504– African American woman$12, 237

(Ayres, 1991)

Conclusion

• stereotypes are cognitive schemas• stereotypes facilitate information

processing, but are resistant to change

• prejudice is a negative evaluation (i.e., an attitude)

• discrimination is a negative action

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Stereotypes, Prejudice, & Discrimination. True Colors –What are your thoughts? –Does it ring true?