preffect and models of prejudice

• stereotype threat

  • Apprehension arising from a person’s awareness of a negativestereotype involving his/her own group, which can underminemotivation and impair performance
• stereotype threat

  steel and anderson

  • ST condition: diagnositic of intellectual ability
  • no ST condition: test described as 'just a laboratory exercise'

  results:

  black students in ST underperformed

  scored lower than white students

  scored lower than black students on the non ST condition

  no significant difference between black and white students in the non ST condition
• stereotyping threat - mechanisms

  • attention appears divided under stereotype threat conditions
  • instilling uncertainty about abilities/ efficacy
  • increases vigilance for evidence of stereotype confirmation
  • drains same executive control processes needed for the task
  • induces emotion regulation processes that are cognitively draining
• major theories of prejudice

  • frustration-agression hypothesis
  • authoritarian personality
  • coalitional thinking
  • social dominance theory
  • cog ability
• fustration-agression hypothesis

  • dollard et al
  • frustration always leads to aggression
  • aggression is always caused by frustration
  • being aggressive is cathartic - releases the pent up emotion
  • the target of aggression is usually the perceived agent of frustration, however when this is not possible
  • negative feeling will be displaced to an alternative target that can be aggressed against without fear - scape goat
• frustration-aggression hypothesis

  • aimed to explain intergroup aggression - especially violence and aggression associated with prejudice
  • problems with hypothesis
  • frustration does not necessarily result in aggression
  • frustration-aggression hypothesis only partially explains intergroup aggression or prejudice
• Authoritarian personality

  Adorno et al. (1950) published The Authoritarian Personality

  • Aimed to explain the conditions that allowed the rise of fascism in Europe
  • Prejudice is the result of an individual’s personality type (Authoritarian)
  • originated in childhood by harsh parenting
  • Deep-seated personality traits predisposed some individuals to be highly sensitive to totalitarian and anti-democratic ideas and therefore were prone to be highly prejudicial
• Authorization personality used various psychological scales to attempt to explain prejudice

  • A-S scale (anti semitism)
  • E scale (ethnocentrism)
  • PEC scale (political and economic conservatism)
• the california F scale

  • conventionalism
  • authoritarian submission
  • authoritarian aggression
  • power and toughness
• limitations of the Authoritarian personality theory

  • methodological issues (aquiescence bias - all positive formulation of items)
  • harsh parenting style does not produce prejudiced children
  • some prejudiced people do not conform to the authoritarian personality type
  • does not explain how whole social groups can be prejudiced
  • situational and sociocultural factors are underemphasised
• coalitional thinking

  • evolutionary explanation
  • humans rely on kin and non-kin for survival and reproduction
  • alliances with non-kin are computationally demanding
  • developed a specialised alliance detection system
  • monitor for patterns of cooperation and competition
  • extract cues that signal these behaviours
  • pick up which alliance categories matter
• social dominance theory

  • pratto
  • theory of intergroup relations that aims to explain the creation, maintenance and stability of group based social hierarchies
  • assumes group-based hierarchy is fairly universal with three types:
  • age-based
  • gender - based
  • arbitary-set
• social dominance theory

  • creates space for institutional discrimination and role of power
  • hierarchies maintained through shared cultural ideologies
  • appeals to evolutionary theories (sexual selection/ parental investment)
  • gendered prejudice: assumes on average, males will display higher aggression, social dominance, prejudice
• social dominance orientation sub-dimensions

  anti-egalitarianism

  • it is unjust to make groups equal
  • no matter how much effort it takes, we ought to strive to ensure that all groups have same chance in life

  dominance

  • its probably good thing that certain groups are at the top and other groups are at the bottom
  • an ideal society requires some groups to be on top and others to be on the bottom
• social identity theory

  • sense of self and self-esteem based upon group membership
  • them (outgroup) vs. us (ingroup) thinking which can exaggerate differences between groups and emphasise similarities
• is education the answer?

  • providing prejudice people with information may not be sufficient
  • due to cognitive bias, stereotypes are difficult to modify

  assumes that stereotypes drive prejudice and discrimination
• the contact hypothesis

  • suggests interpersonal contact between groups can reduce prejudice
  • four conditions are necessary
  • equal status
  • common goals
  • cooperation
  • institutuinal support
• contact hypothesis

  • pettigrew and tropp
  • reviewed 500 previous studies
  • studies focused on various social groups
  • 94% of studies found that increased intergroup contact predicted decreased prejudice
  • even in studies that did not meet Allports conditions prejudice was reduced
  • found to reduce predjuce at both explicit and implicit lvel
• the jigsaw classroom - elliot aronson

  • cooperative classroom
  • technique split classes into mixed ethnic groups to work on small problems that the group collates into a final outcome
  • every child had essential info that, like a piece of jigsaw puzzle, was necessary for completing the task
  • less prejudice and stereotyping, increased liking within and across ethnic boundaries, increased self-esteem, better scholastic performance
• how does jigsaw classroom reduce prejudice

  • reduces feelings of anxiety
  • increases empathy
  • changes how we categories others
  • decategorisation: involves seeing someone as an individual, rather than only a member of their group
  • re categorisation, in which people no longer see someone as part of a group that they're in conflict with, but rather as a member of a larger shared group
  • reduces the degree to which racial cues are alliance cues