MAKARISIRA

UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE
PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT
CONTEMPORARY AND APPLIED
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY PSY 115.
PREJUDICE,DISCRIMINATION AND
STEREOTYPES
Characterizing Intergroup Bias
 Characterizing Intergroup Bias
• Stereotypes(cognition)
• Prejudice(affect) and
• Discrimination(behavior)
 Characterizing Intergroup Bias
• Prejudice - a negative attitude or affective
response toward a certain group and its
individual members.
• Prejudice is an attitude(usually negative)
toward members of some group, based solely
on their membership in that group.
• Prejudice is a generalised attitude towards
members of a group.
 Characterizing Intergroup Bias
Stereotypes - beliefs about attributes that are
thought to be characteristic of members of
particular groups.
Stereotypes- general beliefs about members of a
group that may or may not be accurate and
might be positive or negative.
 Stereotype
• Stereotype – a general belief about a
group of people

– Differs from prejudice in that it can have

positive or negative connotations

– Runs the risk of becoming prejudicial and

leading to discrimination
• Someone who is prejudiced holds certain
attitudes and beliefs - commonly known as
stereotypes - about a person, group of people
or a thing.
• This attitude, often negative, is usually fixed in
a way that the person is reluctant to change.
 Characterizing Intergroup Bias
• Discrimination - unfair treatment of members of
a particular group based on their membership in
that group.
• Discrimination- negative behaviors directed
towards people based primarily on their group
membership, eg denied a job or promotion,
insulted or harassed, ignored or poorly served in
business, denied organizational resources etc.
 Direct Discrimination
Direct Discrimination occurs when an individual is treated lesser than
those belonging to other groups.
 For example, the use of the following words and/or terms in a job
adverts is direct discrimination:
• Gender specific job titles eg “male teacher”, “female cleaner”

• Age specific words eg “mature”, “young and energetic”

• Specifying preference for able-bodied applicants eg “must be

physically fit”
• Note: In certain circumstances, it is legal to ask for certain
requirements for certain jobs. For example, it may be legal to
specify “female care worker” when advertising for a job in a
women’s refuge.
• Indirect Discrimination can be when certain
requirements or conditions can only be met
by a certain group because of age, gender,
ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation:
• For example, if a supermarket chain had a policy that states that all
female operators have to wear dresses, this would exclude certain
groups of females, such as Muslim women whose dress code
includes wearing a shalwar (trousers) and kameez (top), from
competing for employment.
Discrimination/Forms of Prejudice
• Racism – discrimination directed at a
specific racial group.

• Sexism – discrimination directed at a

specific gender

• Ageism – discrimination directed at

various age groups.
• Tribalism
Discrimination/Forms of Prejudice
• Sectarianism : prejudice based on a person’s religious
background and/or political beliefs
• Homophobia : prejudice based on a person’s sexual
orientation
• Disability Prejudice: Prejudice based on a person’s
physical or mental abilities
• Ageism: prejudice based on a person’s age
 Racism
• Racial prejudice – holding a hostile
attitude toward a person due to their race
 Sexism
• Gender prejudice – treating people unequally
due to their gender

• Gender stereotypes – people’s ideas about how

men and women should behave
– Based on socially and culturally defined
beliefs
– Can be formed very early in life
– What messages do children get about "boy"
and "girl" activities?
 Sexism
• Meta-analysis suggest that children learn
traditional gender roles from a young age.
 Sexism
• Many cultures place very different values
and expectations on men and women
– Ambivalent sexism – the contradiction
between hostile and benevolent sexism
– Hostile sexism – feeling resentful and openly
derogatory toward the abilities of women
– Benevolent sexism – when men behave in
ways that appear chivalrous, but can also
communicate to negative female stereotypes
 Measuring stereotype, prejudice
and discrimination
• Old-fashioned racism
– Overt prejudice and discrimination. Overt
sexism based on the belief that women are
less competent eg in science subjects and
leadership roles
– Involves oppressive acts and feelings.
– Promoting traditional gender roles and
different treatment of men and women
 Measuring stereotype, prejudice
and discrimination
• Modern sexism
-Covert, subtle feelings directed toward a racial
group.
- More covert and subtle, typified by resisting
policies that support women.
- Includes the belief that racism and discrimination
no longer exist
Denial that sexism still exists, and overt
antagonism toward women
 Is Prejudice on the Decrease?
• Attitudes have clearly changed in recent
decades
• Many forms of prejudice still exist,
however, in more subtle forms
• Aversive racism
– Whites who show support for equality, but
who discriminate in subtle ways
– They may rationalize their subtle racism
 Sources of Prejudice
• Social Sources
– Unequal Status
– Social Identity
• Cognitive Sources
– Stereotypes
– Perceived Similarities and Differences
– Illusory Correlation
 Social Sources of Prejudice
• Unequal Status
– realistic conflict theory - direct competition
between groups over valued resources (jobs,
schools)
 Social/Emotional Sources of
Prejudice
• Social Identity
– social categorization- divide world into in-group
(“us”) and out-group (“them”)
• in-group bias- view own group more favorably
 Social Identity Theory(SIT)

• Social identities made stronger by in-group

and out-group distinctions.
• In-group: “Us”-a group of people who share a
sense of belonging, a feeling of common
identity
• Out-group: “Them”-a group that people
perceives as distinctively different from or
apart from their in-group.
 Realistic Group Conflict Theory

• One of the oldest explanations argues that

prejudice arises from social competition over
scarce resources.
• 1.) Realistic Group Conflict Theory
 Realistic Group Conflict Theory

• Central Assumptions
• 1. People are selfish and out for own gain
• 2. Incompatible group interests cause
intergroup conflict
• 3. Incompatible group interests cause social
psychological processes (e.g., in-group
favoritism; stereotyping)
 Summary

• Competition between groups for scarce

resources produces inter-group conflict.
Without such competition, inter-group
conflict would fade.
 Causes of Prejudices
Prejudices can be created by many factors:
 Fear, such as xenophobia

 Shame

 Guilt

 Inadequacy/insecurity

 Ignorance

 Negative experiences of a certain group

 Cognitive Sources of Prejudice
prejudice is by-product of our thinking processes”
• Prejudice is partially a by-product of normal
thinking processes. Schema and heuristics
lead to informational shortcuts, but at some
cost.
• Schemas about social groups—stereotypes—
contains beliefs about members of an “out-
group” that may not always be true.
 Cognitive Sources of Prejudice
stereotypes- sweeping generalizations of social groups
• influence social thought by:
– process information consistent with stereotype quicker
– focus on information consistent with stereotype
– use tacit inferences to make inconsistent information appear
consistent
 Cognitive Sources of Prejudice
• Social categorization
Out-group homogeneity
– out-group members seen as more alike. The assumption
that members of an outgroup are “all the same.”
– When the group is our own we are more likely to see
diversity. Out-groups (those outside our groups) are
homogenized.
– May be contributed to by a lack of familiarity of the
out-group
Cognitive Sources of Prejudice cont
• Social categorization cont
In-group differentiation.
- in-group members seen as more diverse
(heterogeneous)
 Attributional Biases
• Ultimate attribution error
– Explaining group behaviors in terms of
internal, dispositional factors
– Disregarding situation constraints
– A more global form of the fundamental
attribution error
– Negative outgroup behavior is used to support
prejudice toward the entire group
 Attributional Biases (continued)
• Just-world hypothesis
– The belief that victims of misfortune deserve
what they got
– Allows us to see the world as predictable and
fair
– “Blame the victim" mentality
– 10-20% believe rape victims are at least
partially responsible for being attacked
– Do we do this to create the illusion that we
have control of our fate?
 Motivational Factors
• Realistic group conflict theory
– Groups compete for resources
– Ingroup favoritism and outgroup
discrimination increase
– Robber’s Cave
• The groups became possessive of common areas
(baseball diamond, campground)
 Motivational Factors (continued)
• Relative deprivation
– Feeling unhappy because we think those in
an outgroup will fare better than we will
– Could this be why affirmative action has so
many opponents?
– Minimum ingroup paradigm
• People who are put together randomly will still form
an "ingroup" mentality
 Motivational Factors (continued)
• Being part of a minority group
– Can lead to greater ingroup favoritism due to
a feeling of uniqueness
– Might explain why larger "groups" do not have
their own clubs on campus
• It is harder to distinguish them from everyone else
– Status within a group can affect how we treat
outgroup members
• Feeling a threat to the whole group can
lead to enjoying another group’s failure
 Illusory Correlations

• Illusory correlation: over estimating rates of

negative behvr in minority grps
• A false impression that two variables correlate.
• Occurs because negative behaviors and out-
group members are both distinct. This shared
distinctiveness is more memorable than other
combinations.
 Discrimination
Discrimination- negative behaviors directed
toward members of some social group
• subtle forms
– tokenism- perform trivial actions for minorities
– reverse discrimination- leaning over backwards to
treat targets of prejudice favorably
– “modern” racism
 Characterizing Intergroup Bias
1. Modern Racism and Sexism
Modern racism - prejudice directed at other
racial groups that exists alongside a rejection
of explicitly racist beliefs
a. Benevolent Racism and Sexism
 Characterizing Intergroup Bias
2. Measures to Assess True Attitudes
a. Implicit Association Test (IAT)
technique for revealing unconscious
prejudices toward particular groups
b. Priming and Implicit Prejudice

Priming - procedure used to increase the

accessibility of a concept or schema (for
example, a stereotype)
 Implicit Attitudes
• Automatic Stereotype Activation
• Are automatically activated evaluations outside of
a person’s awareness Seeking Mental
Efficiency(unconscious).
• •Hearing the neutral word “bread” automatically
primes most people to think of the word
“butter.”
Formed slowly through experiences.
Very resistant to extinction
 Changing implicit attitudes
– Can be changed without subject’s conscious
awareness
• Prime subjects with counterstereotypes
 Being a Member of a Stigmatized
Group
1. Attributional Ambiguity
2. Stereotype Threat
- fear that one will confirm the stereotypes
that others have regarding some salient
group of which one is a member
 Moods and Emotions
• What kinds of emotions bring out
prejudice? You might be surprised!
– Both good and bad moods!
– Good moods – we think less carefully
– Bad moods – we may pay too much attention
to details around us
– Negative emotions can interfere with proper
cognitive processing
 Sources of Stereotyping and
Prejudice
• Social learning
-reward and punishment of behvr
-observation of others’ behavior
Cognitive biases
-out-group homogeneity
-in-group favouritism
Motivational factors
-realistic group conflict theory
-social identity theory, mood and emotion
Consequences of Stereotyping
– Influences our perception of others
– Affects our behaviors
– Affects the behaviors of the stereotyped group
– Confirmation bias
 Consequences of Stereotyping
cont
• Self-fulfilling prophecy
– “A belief that causes itself to be true"
– Can lead to positive or negative behaviors
• How might a student perform who is told that she is
"excellent?"
• How might that same student perform if she is told
she is "average?"
– We may inadvertently promote such outcomes
based on how we interact with people
 How to reduce stereotype and
prejudice
• There are four techniques that can be
used to reduce stereotypes and prejudice
• Contact Hypothesis
– Increased communication between groups
reduces prejudice/discrimination
– Equal contact between the groups is also
essential
 Reducing Prejudice
• Social Learning
– teach parents to socialize children to be tolerant
• Increase intergroup contact
– contact must involve cooperation and interdependence
– norms favoring group equality must exist
– focus on individual-based (vs. category) processing
• Extended Contact Hypothesis
– knowing that members of in-group have formed friendships with out-
group members may reduce prejudice
 Reducing Prejudice (con’t)
• Have groups work on superordinate goals
• Focus on similarities between in-group and
nonthreatening out-group
• Recategorization
– reset boundaries between “us” and “them”, so
former out-group is now included in in-group
• Focus on others’ specific traits and outcomes
(attribute-driven processing) rather than on
group stereotypes (category-driven
processing)
 Group Interdependence
• Gordon Allport proposed 4 conditions to
decrease prejudice
– Equal status between groups
– Institutional support for both groups
– Intergroup cooperation
– Common goals for both groups
Group Interdependence (continued)
• The Jigsaw Classroom (Aronson, et al.,
1978)
– Each student serves a necessary purpose
– A common goal can’t be completed without
each purpose being present
– Fosters cooperation
– Leads to a decrease in negativity
Group Interdependence (continued)
• Education
– It is not enough to just talk about it
– People have to participate in order to reduce
prejudice and discrimination
• Motivation
– Motivation can reduce automatic processing
that leads to prejudice
– It is important to make people aware of their
own prejudices to create positive change
• Action learning: The jigsaw classroom
The jigsaw classroom technique
fosters cooperation and reduces
stereotyping and prejudice.
• 1). Individuals are divided into small groups of
5 or 6 depending on the nature of task
• 2). Each group member is given an individual
task
• 3). Individual group members with the same
task work together to become experts
• 4). The small group members come back
together to share their areas of expertise and
then do the same with the larger group
 How does Prejudice/Stereotypes
lead to Conflict?
•Perceiving members of a different group
unfavorably (negative attitude) and/or holding
certain beliefs about that group (stereotypes)
can lead directly to conflict.
•For example, these internal “beliefs” can make
a person think that the difference between
themselves and the other party is something
incompatible that needs to be remedied.
Hence, conflict can emerge.
 How does Prejudice/Stereotypes
lead to Conflict?
•In reality, prejudice attitudes and stereotypes
interact with other forms of conflict such as
competition for mates, jobs, status and
resources.
•I would argue that evolutionary theory needs to
be integrated with the psychological processes
discussed below. For example, male
competition can be exacerbated or moderated
depending on the level of prejudice.
 The Cultural Transmission of
Prejudice
Cultural transmission is the transfer of
information (culture) from one person to the
next.
•If individuals transmit prejudiced ideas, and
stereotypes of other groups, group-level
cultural differences can both emerge and be
maintained.
•Prejudice attitudes may be slow to change due
to transmission from one generation to the
next.
Have prejudice attitudes changed?

• The results of numerous studies (Dovidio et

al., 1996; Peterson, 1997) suggest that
overtattitudes have changed dramatically
over the past 60 years.
 Cognitive Sources of Prejudice

• Prejudice is partially a by-product of normal

thinking processes. Schema and heuristics
lead to informational shortcuts, but at some
cost.
• Schemas about social groups—stereotypes—
contains beliefs about members of an
“outgroup” that may not always be true