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Dive into the concept of prejudice, exploring its affective, cognitive, and behavioral components, along with the roots and consequences of social categorization and discrimination. Learn about stereotypes and the cognitive processes behind them.
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6th edition Social PsychologyPp 415-435 Elliot Aronson University of California, Santa Cruz Timothy D. Wilson University of Virginia Robin M. Akert Wellesley College slides by Travis Langley Henderson State University
Prejudice Defined Prejudice is an attitude... Attitudes are made up of three components: • affective or emotional component, representing both the type of emotion linked with the attitude (e.g., anger, warmth) and the extremity of the attitude (e.g., mild uneasiness, outright hostility), • cognitive component, involving the beliefs or thoughts (cognitions) that make up the attitude, • behavioral component, relating to one’s actions—people don’t simply hold attitudes; they usually act on them as well.
Prejudice Defined Prejudice refers to the general attitude structure and its affective (emotional) component. While prejudice can involve either positive or negative affect, social psychologists (and people in general) use the word prejudice primarily when referring to negative attitudes about others.
Prejudice Defined Prejudice refers to the general attitude structure and its affective (emotional) component. While prejudice can involve either positive or negative affect, social psychologists (and people in general) use the word prejudice primarily when referring to negative attitudes about others. Prejudice A hostile or negative attitude toward people in a distinguishable group, based solely on their membership in that group. Source of image: www.clipart.com
Stereotypes: The Cognitive Component The distinguished journalist Walter Lippmann (1922), who was the first to introduce the term stereotype, described the distinction between the world out there and stereotypes—“the little pictures we carry around inside our heads.” Within a given culture, these pictures tend to be remarkably similar.
Stereotypes: The Cognitive Component Stereotype A generalization about a group of people in which identical characteristics are assigned to virtually all members of the group, regardless of actual variation among the members. Once formed, stereotypes are resistant to change on the basis of new information. Source of image: www.clipart.com
Stereotypes: The Cognitive Component Stereotyping is a cognitive process, not an emotional one. Stereotyping does not necessarily lead to intentional acts of abuse. Often stereotyping is merely a technique we use to simplify how we look at the world—and we all do it to some extent.
Discrimination:The Behavioral Component Discrimination An unjustified negative or harmful action toward the members of a group simply because of their membership in that group
As a broad-based and powerful attitude, prejudice has many causes. Four aspects of social life that bring about prejudice are: • The way we think: Social Cognition • How we assign meaning: Attributional Biases • Prejudice and Economic Competition • The way we conform: Normative Rules Prejudice is enabled by the human tendency to organize people into in-groups and out-groups
The Way We Think: Social Cognition Our first explanation for what causes prejudice is that it is the inevitable byproduct of the way we process and organize information. Our tendency to categorize and group information, to form schemas and use them to interpret new or unusual information, to rely on potentially inaccurate heuristics (shortcuts in mental reasoning), and to depend on what are often faulty memory processes—all of these aspects of social cognition can lead us to form negative stereotypes and to apply them in a discriminatory way.
Social Categorization:Us versus Them • The first step in prejudice is the creation of groups- putting some people into one group based on certain characteristics and others into groups based on their different characteristics • This kind of categorization is the underlying theme of human social cognition • This, social categorization is both useful and necessary; however, this simple cognitive process has profound implications
Social Categorization:Us versus Them • When the feeling of “us versus them” becomes intense, group polarization occurs (McDoom, 2012) • Decisions and opinions of people in a group become more extreme than their actual, privately held beliefs • The in-group can do no wrong and the out-group can do no right
Social Categorization: Us versus Them For example, in Jane Elliot’s third-grade classroom, children grouped according to eye color began to act differently based on that social categorization. • Blue-eyed children, the superior group, stuck together and actively promoted and used their higher status and power in the classroom. • They formed an in-group, defined as the group with which an individual identifies. • The blue-eyed kids saw the brown-eyed ones as outsiders—different and inferior. • To the blue-eyed children, the brown-eyed kids were the out-group, the group with which the individual does not identify. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
In-Group Bias In-Group Bias Positive feelings and special treatment for people we have defined as being part of our in-group and negative feelings and unfair treatment for others simply because we have defined them as being in the out-group.
In-Group Bias The major underlying motive is self-esteem: • Individuals seek to enhance their self-esteem by identifying with specific social groups. • Self-esteem will be enhanced only if the individual sees these groups as superior to other groups.
In-Group Bias T o get at the pure, unvarnished mechanisms behind this phenomenon, researchers have created entities that they refer to as minimal groups. • In these experiments, complete strangers are formed into groups using the most trivial criteria imaginable. • For example, in one experiment, participants watched a coin toss that randomly assigned them to either group X or group W.
In-Group Bias The striking thing about this research is that despite the fact that the participants were strangers before the experiment and didn’t interact during it, they behaved as if those who shared the same meaningless label were their dear friends or close kin. • They liked the members of their own group better. • They rated the members of their in-group as more likely to have pleasant personalities and to have done better work than out-group members. • Most striking, participants allocated more rewards to those who shared their label.
Minimal Group Activity Compared to overestimators, underestimators considered themselves to be more • Kind • Friendly • Honest
Minimal Group Activity Compared to underestimators, overestimators considered themselves to be more: • Thoughtful • Intelligent • Dependable
Out-Group Homogeneity The belief that “they are all alike” In-Group members tend to perceive those in the out-group as more similar to each other (homogeneous) than they really are as well as more homogeneous than the in-group members are
The Failure of Logic Even people who are usually sensible become relatively immune to rational, logical arguments when it comes to their prejudice but why is this so?
The Failure of Logic • It is primarily the emotional aspect of attitudes that makes a prejudiced person so hard to agree with... logical arguments are not as effective in countering emotions • As discussed in earlier chapters, an attitude tends to organize the way we process relevant information about the targets of that attitude.
The Failure of Logic Specifically , information consistent with their notion about these target groups will be: • Given more attention • Rehearsed (or recalled) more often, and • Therefore remembered better than information that contradicts these notions.
The Persistence of Stereotypes Stereotypes reflect cultural beliefs Even if we don’t believe these stereotypes, we can easily recognize them as common beliefs held by others
Automatic and Controlled Processing of Stereotypes • An automatic process is one over which we have no control. • Stereotypes are automatically triggered under certain conditions—they just pop into one’s mind. • Since the process is automatic, you can’t control it or stop it from occurring. • However, for people who are not deeply prejudiced, their control processes can suppress or override these stereotypes.
The Justification-Suppression Model of Prejudice • According to Crandall and Eschleman’s (2003) model, most people struggle between their urge to express prejudice and need to maintain positive self-concept (as a non-bigot). • However, it requires energy to suppress prejudiced impulses. • Because people are programmed to avoid the constant expenditure of energy, we seek information that can convince us there is a valid justification for holding a negative attitude toward a particular out-group. • Once we find a valid justification for disliking this group, we can act against them and still feel as though we are not bigots—thus avoiding cognitive dissonance.
The Illusory Correlation Illusory Correlation When we expect two things to be related, we fool ourselves into believing that they are actually unrelated.
Can We Change Stereotypical Beliefs? • Researchers have found that when people are presented with an example or two that seems to refute their existing stereotype, most do not change their general belief. • Indeed, in one experiment, some people presented with disconfirming evidence actually strengthened stereotypical belief because the disconfirming evidence challenged them to come up with additional reasons for holding on to that belief.
