factors prejudice

• Situational

  Unwritten rules about what's socially acceptable in in-group

  Minard - observed black and white coal miners friendly underground but hostile on ground (when identifying w in-groups)

  factors such as economic hardship and competition over limited resources like food and housing can lead to prejudice (eg towards immigrants for jobs)
• Situation eval

  Sherifs cave study supports situational factors as boys became prejudiced when put in competition

  BUT there are individual differences - not all Germans were prejudiced to Jews and some helped them escape (personality involved too)

  Also application to reduce prejudice (Eg Esses et al target zero sum beliefs that lead to prejudice against immigrants)
• Personality

  People w authoritarian more prejudiced as they displace feelings of aggression onto outgroups (scapegoats)

  More status orientated so prejudiced to lower status

  People who score higher for social dominance (SD0 - Pratto et al) more prejudiced - want their social group to be better than others

  Right wing authoritarianism (RWA - Altemeyer) not parenting but social learning
• Personality eval

  Doesn't explain widespread incidences of prejudice like Rwandan genocide - not all could have had a prejudiced personality - so situational factors are present

  Application - tackle root causes of prejudice to combat it like regulating media sources (eg social media that promotes prejudiced views) so prejudiced isn't learned
• Cultural 1

  Multiculturalism (eg UK) - cultures should be accepted into a country as they are

  Assimilation (eg France) - incoming cultures should adapt to dominant culture of a country (hijab banned in schools)

  Ideas of how immigrants should behave affect levels of prejudice
• Cultural 2

  The norm of fairness - she cultures more concerned w fairness than competition: lowered prejudiced levels as more accepting of diversity. Wetherell replicated Tajfels minimal group experiment in New Zealand school and found immigrant Polynesian children more generous (fairer) in points given to outgroups than Caucasian classmates
• Culture 3

  The norm of intolerance - Baldwin states all cultures are ethnocentric (believe themselves superior) some more prejudiced than others. Subtle discrimination - micro-aggression.

  Benevolant intolerance - in-groups behave differently to outgroups and justify this as trying to support them. Eg giving money to a homeless guy but not wanting a homeless shelter on your street
• Culture eval

  Guimond et al found countries that promote assimilation like Germany were more prejudiced

  Mixed evidence for collectivist/individualistic cultures w prejudice

  Culture may be less important than situational factors on levels of prejudice
• Culture eval 2

  cultural norms affecting prejudice supported by research evidence

  Orpen notes that F-scale scores not significantly correlated w prejudice in a group of white South African Ps. But measures of social conformity and susceptibility to cultural pressure showed significant correlation w prejudice towards black South Africans

  BUT Ps were 16 years old - Youngers have a strong desire to fit in w their social group
• Personality strength

  Cohrs et al found RWA and SDO positively correlated w generalised prej

  RWA + openness to experience & SDO + agreeableness both have negative correlations - suggests levels of prej can be predicted from ppls personality traits
• Personality weakness

  Louis et al - it ignores social norms and situational factors - 72% in Australian study strongly disagree with "white race is best race" but agreed w exclusion of asylum seekers - important to understand social factors as well to address prej
• Esses + extra info

  resource stress, zero sum beliefs - provisions for outgrip come at cost to indigenous pop. so they try to demonstrate outgrips lack of worthiness

  + Violating social norms - leads to rejection - affects self esteem
• Collectivist

  expect them to be more focussed on sharing and cooperation - reducing discrimination
• Culture encouraging prejudice

  White pop in South Africa - 1948-1994 apartheid (racial segregation) legal - abolished now but prej still widespread