PSY 331Social Psychology – Exam IIIMiura AngStereotypes, Prejudice and discriminationØ Video: A Class Divided- Discrimination Exercise – Brown eyes and Blue eyes- How easily stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination come aboutØ Stereotype- Definition: Set of beliefs and expectations about members of a social grpo Beliefs abt the personalities, abilities, and motives of a social grp that doesn’t allow for individual variation These social beliefs are typically learned from others and maintained thru regular social interaction. - Generalization o Ignores possibility of individual variationo Stem from generalizations of a grp as a whole- Type of schema, which is an organized structure of knowledge about a stimulus that is built up from experience and contains causal relations. o Schema of a social grp – use it to make sense of things- Can be both positive and negativeo Tend to be talked about in more a negative sense and NOT see people for who they are but in a general sense- Can involve both deliberate and automatic cog processing. - Stereotypes significantly influence how we process and interpret social info – even when we are not consciously aware that they have been activated from memory. o When activated in this manner, stereotypes can non-consciously influence our thoughts and actions.  These implicit stereotypes can be activated by various stimuli. - Once a stereotype is activated, we tend to see ppl within that social category as possessing the traits or characteristics associated w the stereotyped grp. 2- “Shortcuts to thinking” that provide us w rich and distinctive info about individuals we do not personally know- Stereotyping may be beneficial because it allows us to redirect our energies to other pressing cog abilitieso Cost: run the risk of making faulty social judgments about whomever we stereotype- Purpose of stereotyping:o 1) Provide us w a fast basis for social judgments and appears to free up cognition for other taskso 2) Stereotyped thinking is efficient and allows ppl to cognitively engage in other necessary activitieso Activation of stereotypes often results in fast social judgments because filtering social perceptions thru a stereotype causes ppl to ignore info that is relevant but inconsistent w the stereotype. - Stereotypes can lead to accurate social judgmentso Stereotypes develop in a social environment in which grp s are often regularly interacting w one another, each grp’s beliefs about the other are shaped and distorted by the interaction. - Stereotypes often reveal a good deal more about the nature of the r/s btw grps than they reveal about the grps themselves.- Within a society, the stereotypes that are commonly held about a particular grp of ppl are shaped by the grp’s social status (low or high) and whether it is perceived to have a competitive or cooperative r/s w mainstream society. Ø Prejudice- Definition: Attitudes toward members of specific social grp that suggests they deserve inferior social statuso Typically directly negative – But can be mixed, + and –o Racism, sexism, etc.We might have automatic prejudice (implicit negative) attitudes. - 3 forms of prejudiceo 1) Contemptous: Disrespect, Resentment, Hostility3o 2) Envious: Resentment, Hostility, Fear, Admirationo 3) Paternalistic: Disrespect, Condescension, Patronizing affection, Liking- Prejudice can serve as a justification for oppressiono Social Dominance Theory: Societal grps can be organized in power hierarchy in which dominant grps enjoy a disproportionate share of the society’s assets and the subordinate grps receive most of its liabilities  Proposes that in all societies, grps can be organized in a hierarchy of power w at least 1 grp being dominant over all others. - Exs.: Disliking, disrespecting, and/or resenting ppl because of their grp membershipStereotypes vs. Prejudice- Stereotypes: Can contain multiple beliefso Some positive, some negative, some neutralo E.g. Stereotypes of Buffalonains: “friendly”, bitter sports fans, like chicken wings- Prejudice: Overall evaluation of these individual componentso Evaluations range from likes to dislikes, good to bad, etc. Ø Discrimination- Definition: Negative and/or patronizing action toward members of specific social grpso BehaviorDiscriminating because of whatever role they play and what we negatively relateo Can have stereotypes and prejudice w/o discriminationo E.g. of how discrimination does not necessarily have to follow prejudice: Women in a corporation – there are policies that corporations have to abide by in terms of the ratio of women and men. - Can occur w/o prejudice4- Ex.: Physically attacking or failing to hire ppl for jobs because of their grp membershipStereotype, prejudice, or discrimination?- “Group X is lazy and unreliable” – Stereotype- “I hate group X” – Prejudice, a negative evaluation towards them- Refusing to hire someone from group X – Discrimination Ø Possible functions of Stereotypes- 1) Provide info about others  Schema: Fill in the gapso Because these are v automatic things, so it frees up resources. - 2) Simplify complex world – Inundated with infoØ Stereotype Formation- Illusory correlationo Belief that 2 variables are associated w each other when in fact there is little or no actual associationo 2 factors can produce/develop an illusory correlation:1) Associative Meaning a. In which 2 variables are associated w each other because of the perceiver’s preexisting beliefsb. Just an imagined association – smt ppl make upc. Once the stereotype is activated, the person engages in biased processing of social info by attending to info consistent w the stereotype and ignoring contradictory info. 2) Shared distinctivenessa. In which 2 variables are associated because they share some unusual featureb. Distinctive events capture our attention, and are more likely to be associated in memoryc. Negative behaviors are distinctived. Minority grps are distinctiveØ Stereotype threat- 1) Fear of confirming stereotypes about one’s grp5o The apprehension ppl feel when performing a task in which their grp is stereotyped to lack ability- 2) Particularly when stereotypes are made salient - Stigmatized grps can experience stereotype threat- Steele & Aronson (1995)o Black and white students take difficult testo Manipulation: ½ asked to indicate race before hando Results: No-threat  Blacks performed equally well to Whites If indicated race 