Basics of Intergroup BiasLike all attitudes, attitudes toward different social groups are composed of three componentsPrejudice (affective): an attitude structure (positive or negative), but more specifically the emotional component.Discrimination (behavioral): differential treatment due to group membership.Stereotyping (cognitive): generalization that is seen as descriptive of all members of that group.Conclusions of emoployment study:Formal Prejudice is often limited in expression but may still be expressed through interpersonal channels.Modern Racism is measurable and has implications for understanding discrimination in real-world contextsModern (symbolic) Racism: Prejudice directed at other racial groups that exists alongside rejection of explicitly racist beliefsEx. Less eye contact, hiring discrimination, sitting further apart, giving wider berth when passing on the street.Blatant (“old fashioned”) racism: Beliefs about minorities that are clearly bigoted and readily admittedOpen expression of bigoted views is now rare in the United StatesEx. Belief in racial superiority, segregation and discriminationBenevolent Prejudice: Race and gender stereotypes often contain a mix of both positive and negative sentimentsGlick and Fiske (2001) studied positive and negative stereotypes about women in 19 different countries and found that positive stereotypes can have troublesome consequences.Positive sexism (“Women need to be protected”) often co-exists with negative sexism (“Women are incompetent at work”)These ambivalent sexist attitudes are resistant to changeAllows holder to deny prejudiceTend to act positively to only those who fulfill the idealized imageOrigins of Prejudice and DiscriminationEconomic perspective: Argues that prejudice results from different social groups competing over scarce resourcesRealistic group conflict theory: Competition for limited resources will increase conflict among groups, resulting in prejudice and discrimination.Resources may be physical, economic, or conceptualFor example, competition over territory, jobs, religious identity, and so on...Theory also predicts that strongest feelings of prejudice will come from the group that feels they have the most to loseFor instance, greater hostility is directed toward immigrant groups during economic recessionsImplication of Robbers Cave ExperimentIntegration can be successful if there is superordinate goalThe group category becomes less importantThe individual’s contribution to the goal become more important – can’t doing yourselfAfter these types of tasks, friendships were created between groups and name-calling dropped offPredicted Successes:Military: shared goal of defeating a common enemyPredicted Failures:College campuses: not a cooperative bond between classmates“No one asks, ‘How can I increase my class’ overall grade?’”Cognitive perspective: Argues that prejudice results from biases in social cognition due to schemas about differences between ingroup and outgroup membersStereotypes as mental shortcutsStereotyping can sometimes be useful because it can decrease the time and effort needed to deal with our social environment.Stereotypes help us process social information efficientlyLess effort is required when you know what to expectMore likely to use stereotypes when we are mentally drainedStereotypes can conserve mental energyUse of stereotypes can free up mental energy that can then be applied to other thingsStudy found that participants who used a stereotype to remember information about a person then performed better on a cognitive taskFive types of biased construals:1) Outgroup homogeneity effectMembers of outgroup viewed as similar“They’re all the same.”Impaired ability to view outgroup members as distinct individuals.2) Biased information processingStereotypes guide attention, perception, and memoryWe may pay attention to and remember things that are consistent with our stereotypes and fail to notice or remember things that are inconsistent3) Self-fulfilling prophecyStereotypes may give us expectations about certain groups that lead to us to treat those groups in ways that encourage them to confirm our original expectation4) Illusory Correlations5) Paired DistinctivenessFalse beliefs about groups may be maintained because we more easily remember the pairing of two distinct events“Rare person doing a rare thing is more memorable”Negative behaviors on the part of members of minority are particularly distinctive and memorable.Cognitive Perspective: Automated vs. Controlled Processing-- Social information may be processed two different waysAutomatic processingAutomatic, involuntary, and unconsciousOften based on emotional responsesImplicit attitudes determine behaviorShooter bias: Participants were presented images of black and white people who were either armed with a gun or not. As in a video game, participants were instructed to “shoot” the armed targets and not shoot the unarmed targetsBoth white and black participants were more likely to accidentally shoot the unarmed black targets than unarmed white targetsControlled processingConscious, systematic, and deliberateControlled processing can override automatic responsesMotivational perspective: Argues that prejudice results from motivations to view one’s ingroup more favorably than outgroupsIt’s about boosting self-esteemIntergroup hostility can develop in the absence of competitionMinimal Groups Paradigm: creating groups based on meaningless criteria and then examining how the members behave towards one anotherExperiments using the minimal group paradigm find that individuals show preferences for the ingroup even when group distinctions are meaninglessIf given a chance to distribute rewards across two groups, they prefer to give more to ingroupMore interested in getting a relative advantage over the outgroup than in maximizing absolute gain for the ingroupFor example, prefer ingroup to get $7 and outgroup to get $3 than for both groups to get $10Ingroup bias: Because self-esteem is based in part on our group memberships, we’re motivated to boost the status of the ingroupTwo main motivational frameworks:1) Self-Identity Theory: Theory that a person’s self-concept and self-esteem come from the status and accomplishments of the various groups to which the person belongseffects of social identity…Basking in reflected gloryDerogating outgroups to boost self-esteemSelf-esteem can be bolstered by