Prejudice - Disliking Others

Prejudice: Disliking Others What is the nature and power of prejudice? (Understand the nature of prejudice and the differences between prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination) 1. Defining Prejudice o Prejudice  A preconceived negative judgment of a group and its individual members. o Stereotype  A belief about the personal attributes of a group of people  Stereotypes are sometimes overgeneralized, inaccurate, and resistant to new information (and sometimes accurate).  Examples  Ms. seen as more assertive and ambitious, then later people who keep their own surnames  Europeans seeing other Europeans with definite stereotypes  Southerners as more emotional and less efficient than northerners  More or less true  May be positive/negative, accurate/inaccurate  Problem is with overgeneralization o Discrimination  Unjustified negative behavior toward a group or its members  Prejudice is negative attitude, discrimination is negative behavior  Emails about vacant apartments, more encouraging words for English names than Arabic names o Racism  An individual's prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory behavior toward people of a given race  Institutional practices (even if not motivated by prejudice) that subordinate people of a given race o Sexism  An individual's prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory behavior toward people of a given sex  Institutional practices (even if not motivated by prejudice) that subordinate people of a given sex 2. Prejudice: Implicit and Explicit o Dual attitude system  Explicit and implicit  Implicit association tests 3. Racial Prejudice o Is Racial Prejudice Disappearing?  Change in explicit prejudice  Less explicit prejudice for African-Americans in the US  Blacks having anti-black attitudes  Doll experiment  Shared ideals can reduce attitudes 1.  Less tribalism in Western democracies Racial equality  Whites tend to compare past to present  Blacks tend to compare present to the ideal Subtle Forms of Prejudice  Behavior  White behave well in front unless remote  Prejudiced attitudes and discriminatory behavior surface when they can hide behind the screen of some other motives  Resumes, white vs black/male vs female  Patronization  Overpraising minorities  Whites rating blacks higher  Whites concerned about appearing biased Automatic Prejudice  Implicit bias  White people find it harder to associate good with Black  Can leak into behavior  Critics say it may only denote cultural assumptions  Arab-Muslim not being interviewed  Nurses with implicit bias against drug users, may want to change jobs  Black/Whites with guns, more people shoot blacks  Exposure to weapons can also lead to profiling AfricanAmericans  Involves primitive regions like fear in the amygdala  May even include social scientists studying bias Gender Prejudice Gender Stereotypes  Strong gender stereotypes  Some things are quite true  Some differences in men and women for social connectedness  Some exaggerate, some are reasonable  Persisting across time and culture  See women as agreeable, see men as outgoing  Stereotypes are not prejudices Sexism: Benevolent and Hostile  Willingness to vote for female president changed overtime  Sometimes good for women  Seeing women as more understanding, kind, and helpful  Mix of benevolent and hostile sexism Gender Discrimination  Men have it hard sometimes, like suicides, autism, and battlefield deaths  Women discrimination  Lower ratings for women, even by women  However, less so in the modern day  Western countries may show less overt discrimination  o o 4. o o o  Also happens prenatally  Many people want boys, girls put in orphanages or aborted 1. What are the social sources of prejudice? (Understand and examine the influences that give rise to and maintain prejudice)  Social Inequalities: Unequal Status and Prejudice o Unequal status breeds prejudice  Used to justify the economic and social superiority  Masters seeing slavery as lazy  Men may give female praise, but fewer resources o Competent and likable, but not both  Respect other cultures, but not like them o Social dominance orientation  A motivation to have one's group dominate other social groups  People high in social dominance prefer policies that maintain hierarchies; avoid social work  Status may breed prejudice, but some people more than others seek to maintain status  Socialization o The Authoritarian Personality  Ethnocentric  Believing in the superiority of one's own ethnic and cultural group, and having a corresponding disdain for all other groups.  Intolerance for weakness, a punitive attitude, an a submissive respect for their group's authority  Authoritarian personality  A personality that is disposed to favor obedience to authority and intolerance of outgroups and those lower in status  Militant extremism; dehumanizing the enemy  Insecurity of leaders lead to concern of power and inflexible right/wrong  Right-wing authoritarianism  Authoritarian submission  Certain people should shut up and know their place  Authoritarian aggression  Strong, determined leader  Conventionalism  Get rid of rotten apples  Double High  Both high in social dominance orientation and authoritarian personality  Most prejudiced people o Religion and Prejudice  Leaders invoke religion to keep the order  White church members express more prejudice  Correlation between religion and prejudice  No connection - less educated people  Prejudice causes religion - religious ideas to support prejudice      Religion causes prejudice - believe impoverished people deserve to be  Actual findings  Faithful attendees were less prejudiced than the occasional  Less prejudice for people who see religion as the end  More protestant ministers and priests supported civil rights movement  Relationship  Church membership/agree to superficiality = more prejudiced  Religious commitment = less prejudiced o Conformity  May be prejudiced if others are prejudiced  More conforming to social norms are more prejudiced  Some maybe secretly integrative, but social norms prevent them  Gender prejudice  Women stereotypes exposure  Different exposure can change view Institutional Supports o Institutions can promote prejudice  Government, schools, media  Schools are most prone  Not always intentional o Contemporary examples  Male pictures mostly show face, female pictures mostly show body  Pictures showing face shows ambition  Film and Television reinforcing prejudice What are the motivational sources of prejudice? (Identify and examine the motivation sources of prejudice) Frustration and Aggression: The Scapegoat Theory o Displaced aggression  Redirecting our hostility towards other people  Black lynching, Jews in WWII  Anger fuels prejudice o Realistic group conflict theory  The theory that prejudice arises from competition between groups for scarce resources  People struggling with finances or employment likely to be prejudiced against minorities and immigrants Social Identity Theory: Feeling Superior to Others o Social identity  The "we" aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to "Who am I?" that comes from our group memberships o Social identity theory (Tajfel)  We categorize  Labelling people is an easy way to say something about others  We identify