Prejudice is a negative attitude directed toward people simply because they are members of a specific social group.
Discrimination is a negative action toward members of a specific social group.
Institutional discrimination occurs when a person acts on discriminatory guidelines of an institution (such as an employer.)
II. How Is Stereotyping Related to Prejudice and Discrimination?
Social categorization can lead to group distortions.
Outgroup homogeneity effect: we tend to believe that members of other groups are more similar to one another than are members of our own group. (In other words, we are a collection of distinct individuals, and they are all alike.)
Forming stereotype subcategories can foster the retention of more global stereotypes.
When presented with information that does not fit into a global stereotype, people may create subtypes or subcategories to process the information.
Stigmatized groups respond to negative stereotypes with opposition and anxiety.
An oppositional ethnic identity defensively opposes the rejecting dominant culture. May protect self-esteem from effects of discrimination, but may also constrict one's personal identity.
Stereotype threat is an awareness among members of a negatively stereotyped group that anything one does may confirm the stereotype as a self-characterization. When the threat is removed, academic performance among women and Blacks improves to the level of White males.
III. What Are the Social Causes of Prejudice and Discrimination?
Prejudice can develop as a way to justify oppression.
Power is a necessary condition for effective discrimination.
Developing negative attitudes toward the victim of one's own harmful acts is a common response.
Intergroup competition can lead to prejudice.
Realistic group conflict occurs when groups compete over scarce resources.
Ethnocentrism increases under conditions of realistic group conflict.
The Robbers' Cave experiment.
Random assignment of 11- and 12-year-old boys into two groups and artificially created competition was enough to cause normal, well-adjusted children to behave like "wicked, disturbed, and vicious" youngsters.
Superordinate goals decreased hostility.
The desire to enhance social identity can promote prejudice.
Research on minimal groups demonstrates an ingroup bias, or a tendency to favor members of one's own group over members of other groups. Groups may be based on entirely arbitrary criteria and still produce this effect.
Social identity theory: People are motivated to maintain a high level of self-esteem, and they derive their self-esteem in part from their evaluation of the groups to which they belong. Thus they will attempt to maintain a favorable evaluation of their groups, even engaging in ingroup biases.
Authoritarianism is associated with hostility toward outgroups.
Authoritarianism is a personality trait that describes people who are submissive to authority figures and intolerant of those who are weak or different.
Measured by the F-Scale (F is for Fascism).
Current research proposes that authoritarianism is acquired through socialization experiences in adolescence.
Authoritarianism is generally conceived of as an individual difference variable. However, there may be societal differences in the mean level of authoritarianism in a population that is related to perceived social threat.
There is a positive correlation between religious beliefs and prejudice.
Despite the tolerant messages of many of the world's major religions, religious involvement appears to be positively correlated with prejudice.
Type of religious orientation (intrinsic vs. extrinsic) may influence the individual's response to particular outgroups.
IV. Historical Manifestations of Prejudice and Discrimination
Racism is based on open hostility or aversiveness.
"Old-fashioned" racism comprises blatantly negative racial stereotypes and open opposition to racial equality.
Modern racism is a combination of egalitarian values and negative feelings toward Blacks, and produces negative reactions toward Blacks that are explained away as being due to other causes.
Aversive racism, arising from a conflict between positive and negative beliefs about Blacks, produces the desire to avoid encounters with Blacks because such encounters remind one about the conflicting attitudes.
Racial ambivalence can produce response amplification.
Is there racial prejudice among minority group members?
It is more acceptable for minority group members to be prejudiced than it is for Whites to be prejudiced.
Many minority group members are ambivalent about Whites.
Sexism has both a hostile and a benevolent component.
Ambivalent sexism theory.
There is significant interaction and intimacy between men and women, unlike relations between other oppressed groups.
Sexism contains both a hostile component, relatively analogous to other forms of prejudice, and a benevolent component, unique to sexism.
Although women can hold sexist attitudes, benevolent sexism appears to be a phenomenon restricted to men.
Sexual harassment.
Unwelcome physical or verbal sexual overtures that create an intimidating, hostile, or offensive social environment.
Men who associate power with sex are more likely to harass.
Often unreported; when reported, often leads to detrimental consequences for victim and little punishment for harasser.
Detecting sexism from unexpected sources.
People are less likely to make attributions of sexism when the behavior comes from an unexpected source (e.g., a woman making remarks about other women).
Heterosexism is woven into our cultural fabric.
Antigay prejudice as a cultural phenomenon.
Heterosexism is a system of cultural beliefs, values, and customs that exalts hetereosexuality and denies, denigrates, and stigmatizes any nonheterosexual form of behavior or identity.
Characteristics of antigay individuals
Usually male rather than female.
Hold traditional attitudes toward gender roles.
Strongly religious and have membership in conservative religious organizations.
Have friends who hold similar negative attitudes.
Tend to be racially prejudiced and authoritarian.
Have had less personal contact with gay men or lesbians.
Have antigay attitudes and beliefs changed?
There has been increasing recognition of gay people as a minority group struggling for civil rights.
However, despite slight improvement in overall attitudes, homosexuals remain among the most despised groups in American society.
V. Combating Prejudice
Social scientists differ on whether stereotyped thinking can be changed.
One view: Stereotyping is inevitable.
Stereotyping is an automatic cognitive process that humans need in order to function in a complex world. We can change the content of stereotypes pertaining to a social group from negative to positive, but we cannot do away with stereotypes in general.
Another view: Stereotyping can be monitored.
Stereotyping and categorization is natural, but so is differentiation.
There is a difference between knowing what the stereotype is and believing that the stereotype accurately represents a member of a minority group.
If people monitor their thoughts, they can deliberately call to mind non-prejudiced thoughts as a basis for response toward minority group members instead of acting on stereotypes that are automatically activated.
The contact hypothesis identifies four conditions that can reduce intergroup conflict.
The contact hypothesis is a procedure for reducing tension between two groups. Its necessary conditions are
groups must be of equal social status,
groups must have sustained close contact over time,
groups must cooperate (e.g., in pursuit of superordinate goals), and
there must be social norms favoring equality.
Beyond the contact hypothesis.
Social scientists should also consider the perspectives of minority group members and the way the beliefs and anxieties of all parties in the interaction can affect the way the interaction unfolds over time.
VI. Applications: How can our schools both reduce intergroup conflict and promote academic achievement?
The jigsaw classroom
A cooperative learning technique that has been shown to improve racial attitudes in a classroom setting.
