Lec 5 Stereotypes, Prejudice & Discrimination

Stereotypes (Cognitive)
o The generalized perceptions, beliefs, and expectations a person has about members
of some group
o Schemas about entire groups of people
Cognitive framework that influences the processing of information
Shared within society
o Effects of stereotypes on behavior can be automatic and unconscious
o Based on cognition
Basically it is a schema
o Not necessarily negative
Prejudice (Affective)
o A negative attitude toward an individual based solely on the persons membership is
some group
o Includes an irrational hostility toward a particular group
o In one wordprejudgment
o This is an attitude component
Discrimination (Behavioural)
o Differential treatment of individuals who belong to different groups
o Can be both positive and negative
Stereotypes
Stereotypes are a type of schemas
o Generalized beliefs about members of a group (based on race, gender, religion, etc.)
Very difficult to change
o May or may not be accurate
o May be positive or negative
o Most researchers believe it is even possible to have a schema that you don't
personally believe (i.e., OTHER PEOPLE think that Group X has qualities ... but I
don't)
Stereotypes are formed through social categorization
o The classification of persons into groups on the basis of common attributes.
Helps us form impressions quickly and use past experiences to guide new
interactions.
o What constitutes a group varies depending on how you process and interpret info
Devine (1989)
o Suggests that our parents and media may have started an early process that has now
become automatic
o Most stereotypes are formed based on classical conditioning
Serious drawback: By categorizing people, we often:
o Overestimate the differences between groups
o Underestimate the differences within groups
o This may bias our perceptions
We have a strong tendency to divide people into in-groups and out-groups
Such group identifications can promote an in-group bias
o Often it becomes an Us vs. Them attitude
o The in group
The group we perceive ourselves belonging to
This can change depending on different situations
o The out group
People that arent members of our in group

Consequences
o Exaggerate differences between in-groups and other out-groups.
Tend to focus on what makes us different
And we mostly focus on the negative
o Creates an out-group homogeneity effect
A Perceived Out-group Homogeneity effect is a phenomenon of
overestimating the extent to which members within other groups are similar
to each other (e.g., they all look the same to me)
Stereotypes & Prejudice in action
Who has the razor??? (Allport and Postman, 1947)
o Subjects were shown a picture depicting two men, one black and one white,
confronting each other on a subway car
o The white man has a straight razor in his hand
o After viewing the picture, the first subject describes it to a second subject, who in
turn describes it to another, and so on
o After a few retellings, the straight razor ends up (is inferred to be) in the hand of the
black man
The story got distorted and so people filled in information based on their
schemas/stereotype and since violence is more associated with black men and tada-black
man was holding the razor
Interesting replication
Boon & Davies (1987)
o Subjects see a cartoon story of 2 men interacting on the subway. At the end of the
interaction, one man pulls a knife.
o Different subjects see one of three different versions:
o 1) Both men are white:
Man A has the knife (wearing a suit)
o 2) Both men are white:
Man B has the knife (wearing work clothes)
o 3) One is black, one is white:
White man has the knife
Retrieval phase
o Both recall and recognition tests
Recall test:
No stimuli, just "describe the man who pulled the knife
o
o Recognition test:
See two versions of the critical picture (correct knife-holder, or knife in the
OTHER man's hand): instructions are "pick the one you saw before
There is a correct and an incorrect version for the participants who saw the
original story with two white men, AND also for those participants who saw
the original story with one white man and one black man
o The order of these tests following the exposure to the stimuli
Recall then recog= the participants remembered the stimuli more correctly
Recog then recall= the participants remembered incorrectly/there was a
weapon transfer between white and black one
These men used their stereotype to fill in information that they had
forgotten
Recognition was caused by a priming effect
The recog test activated common stereotypical views
Some consequences of stereotypes and prejudice
Self-perpetuating stereotypes
o Can create reality
Even if they are initially untrue however the way we process this info makes
them true and this impacts the way we interact with others
May lead to self-fulfilling prophecies
o When info is inconsistence with a stereotype we just see that person
We try and salvage the stereotype by recognizing the stereotype doesnt apply
to everyone of that group
We split up The stereotype into subgroups
o Subtyping
Accommodating groups of individuals who deviate from ones stereotype by
thinking of them as a special category of people with different properties
The role of attribution in maintaining or changing a stereotype
The stereotype remains just not for that specific person
o Subgrouping
Accommodating groups of individuals who deviate from ones stereotype by
forming a new stereotype about this subset of the group
This is the best way to change a stereotype
Hewstone(2001)
o White upper class attitudes towards black people
Saw them as lazy, violent, aggressive
o Looked at another upper-class society in a place with more black people
Same negative opinion however less extreme
Less extreme due to sub grouping
They made an distinction between black individuals and black
professionals(middle-upper middle class)
These people had subgroups
o Compared out group members behaviour towards a stereotype
If it matched the stereotype was reinforces
Mismatched= one finds an explanation by going through the attribution
process
External/behaviour is due to the situation- stereotype wont change
Dispositional attribution-
o The person becomes an atypical member of that group.
This means that one is subtyping
We claim that they are a typical group member with some different
aspects that dont fit the stereotype
o Leads to subgrouping.
Can stereotypes actually create self-fulfilling prophecies? (Wood et al., 1974)
o White male University students interviewed white and black male high school
students seeking employment
o White interviewers of black applicants (relative to white interviewers of white
applicants)
Sat further away
Conducted shorter interviews
Made more speech errors
o Appeared to cause black applicants to become uncomfortable
Follow-up Experiment
o White males were applicants
o Treated like black applicants were treated in the first experiment
o They performed similarly (to black applicants in exp. 1) during the interview
Some consequences of stereotypes and prejudice
Stereotype threat
o A self-confirming apprehension that one will be evaluated based on a negative
stereotype (Steele, 1997)

Three ways as to why threat results in under performance
o Emotional
The threat causes tress and this stress interferes with functioning in the
prefrontal cortex of the brain which cause issues in our problem solving
abilities
o Cognitive
The threat itself is distracting
Causes people to actively monitor their performance
They try to monitor how they perform
This effort impairs performance by increase mental demand
and decrease working memory-creates cognitive load
Results in impaired performance
o Motivational
People do not want to confirm the stereotype
They try to suppress negative thoughts and feelings
Individual is not fully focused on the task.
Shows how the situation may impact performance negatively
o depend
The more you identified with a group the more ones performance is affected
o If you dont identify with the group then a particular stereotype wont affect
you
Has nothing to do with your self-concept
These are not mutually exclusive
Three Levels of Stereotypes
Public
o What we say to others about a group
Private
o What we consciously think about a group, but dont say to others
Implicit
o Unconscious mental associations guiding our judgments and actions without our
conscious awareness
Public and private are usually known as explicit
Public expression of stereotypes and prejudice has decreased in North America recently
(political correctness)
Discrimination
Behaviors directed toward people on the basis of their group membership
o Unfair treatment
o Often we are aware that we discriminate but sometimes we do not know why that is.
Do you know anyone who has, because of their membership in a group, been:
o Denied a job or promotion?
o Insulted or harassed?
o Ignored or poorly served in a restaurant or other business?
o Denied an apartment or house?
Prejudice and Discrimination based on race
o Racism vs Modern Racism
o Modern racism
Subtle forms of prejudice
Have a an egalitarian attitudes they consciously/unconsciously hold
negative attitudes, exhibit subtle acts of racism
They claim not to be racist or sexist
o Blatant forms of racism/sexism
Bertrand(2003)
Gave out resumes and call backs based on names showed these
statistics
o 1/10 for white sounding names
o 1/15 for black sounding names
o Discrimination without awareness
Study by correll(2007)
Looked at implicit prejudice
Participants played a vid game to shoot or not shoot men that
suddenly appeared in screen- either holding a gun/harmless
object(flashlight)
o Participants(both black and white) mistakenly shot black
harmless targets
Sexual Harassment as Gender Discrimination (Fitzgerald, 1993)
o As many as 50% of women surveyed reported having been sexually harassed during
their academic or working lives
o Research shows that men are more likely to harass than are women
But does whether men harass or not depends on the man, and on the situation?
In one study, male students were asked to train a young woman on a complex word-
processing task (Pryor, LaVite, & Stoller ,1993)
o In one condition the male graduate introduce the female trainee by objectifying her
(holding her/checking her out)
o In the other condition the male graduate behaved in a more professional manner to
the trainee
o Results did not depend on the Independent variable but rather depended on the
participants(the trainer) chronic disposition to harass
o So the situational factor here was relatively unimportant
Costs of Prejudice, Discrimination, and Stereotyping-
Schulman et al. (1999)
o Physicians were only 60% as likely to suggest a top-rated diagnostic test for black
heart patients as for whites
Even when blacks presented same symptoms, and gave identical information
about themselves
Ayres & Siegelman (1995)
o This study found that white men were offered better deals on cars:
o $109 less than White women
o $318 less than Black women
o $935 less than Black men
Reducing Prejudice
Contact Hypothesis
o Stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination toward a group will diminish as contact
with the group increases
o Getting to know and hopefully to understand a group
o Get two groups to work towards a common goal
Cooperation helps; competition hurts
Group contact is considered effective when
o Out-group members have traits and abilities challenging negative stereotypes
o Contact is supported by local authorities and norms
o Groups are of equal status, at least in contact setting
o Contact is at individual level
o Contact is rewarding
o Groups work toward common goals