Stereotypes, Prejudice and Discrimination

1954 (Roberts-Cave): assigned boys on summer camp to two groups (with same composition
in terms of age/ability). Hierarchy and structure developed within the groups. Boys
developing closeness with one another in the same group. Created a sense of bias for ones
allied group. Started to become hostile towards the other group. Losing team disrupted the
celebrations of the other team. Conflict subsided when asked to work together on solving
tasks i.e. fixing ice cream truck became more integrated.

Stereotypes help us manage information that were presented with faster. They influence
social thought:
Process information consistent with stereotype quicker
Focus on information consistent with stereotype
Use tacit inferences to make inconsistent information appear consistent
e.g. altering behaviour when conversing with older people.

This has two main effects:
Out-group homogeneity: out-group members are seen as more alike: we have less
knowledge of their groups so are less able to make distinctions between members
of that group.
In-group differentiation: in-group members are seen as more diverse
(heterogeneous).

Discrimination can have subtle forms:
Tokenism: perform trivial actions for minorities (consciously hiring a woman for a
predominantly male job).
Reverse discrimination: bending over backwards to treat targets of prejudice
favourably.
Modern racism/sexism: prejudice directed at other racial groups that exists
alongside a rejection of explicitly racist beliefs.

Fairly high rates of discrimination despite self-report rates falling.

Implicit Association Test technique for revealing unconscious prejudices towards
particular groups. Priming procedure used to increase the accessibility of a concept or
schema (for example, a stereotype). Talk to subjects about aging: those who were primed
walk more slowly to the other end of the hall to participate in a different experiment.
Borrows from idea of interference: association between unpleasant words and
tattooed faces.

Implicit attitudes automatically activated evaluations outside of a persons awareness.

Relationship between implicit and explicit measures is often low or non-existent.
Convergence between different implicit measures of the same constructs is weak. Meta-
analysis of IAT criterion studies showed little convergence between studies.

Where do stereotypes come from?
Do children associate traits and abilities as a function of social status? When groups are
not created equal (Bigler). Gave schoolchildren coloured t-shirts several conditions:
Teachers not allowed to make any reference to groups
Teachers not allowed to make any reference to groups but pictures of success in
previous years
Teachers allowed to make explicit reference to groups i.e. not assigning value to
membership of groups but highlighting its existence

Very small differences in the rating of the children of others in the no posters/posters only
environment, but with functional use there were differences in the rating of others (high
status).

What are the consequences?
Racial minorities have higher dropout rate/lower GPA/test scores. Women less likely to
pursue maths/lower test scores. In school, difference in maths ability in tests is small but
becomes exemplified over time.

Sociological/socialization/biological/situational explanations.

Stereotype threat (Steele, 1997). Participants either told: take this test as a measure of
mathematical ability, or take this test as a measure of mathematical ability, alongside
reporting their race. Black participants reminded of their race (told it was diagnostic)
performed much worse than those who were not. Fear that they might conform to the
stereotype.
Schmader/Johns converging evidence that stereotype threat reduces working
memory capacity. Working memory capacity the ability to focus attention on a task while
inhibiting irrelevant information. Recounting nouns.