KLA210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Novell, Henri Tajfel, Role Theory
Social psychology week 4: Prejudice and Intergroup Relations
What is prejudice?
- Allport:
oBelieve prejudice was an attitude
oThree aspects: Tripartite model
Cognitive: idea why a member is less worthy than you
Affective: feel emotion when you think about those in other
groups
Behavioural: discrimination is behaviour that is based on
prejudice
oKnowing that others are prejudice, negative attitudes, and knowing
what behaviours are related
oPeople with negative attitudes don’t always discriminate
Societal expectations
- Fiske
o“Stereotypes is the cognitive component, prejudice the affect
component, discrimination the behavioural consequence”
oputting someone in a category that you evaluate negatively
oIndividual perspective: factors of the individual are responsible for
prejudice and discrimination
oIntergroup perspective: factors on the group level are responsible for
prejudice and discrimination
Means you don’t treat that person as individual you treat as
member of a group
Properties you prescribe to this group result in your behaviours
and thought toward them
oPrejudice is a direct result of the way we are short wired to work
Doesn’t mean we cannot change this
Reflection of the way of systems work
- Effects of prejudice:
oDe-humanisation: regarded as something less than human
They don’t require full human rights
Consequences of negative actions against them are not seen as
being as severe as they would be for one of ‘us’
They are just a member of a group, they’re not individuals
Example: when Nazi’s talk about Jews as being rats
Also evident when you use technical terms to describe a group
Neurospsych result:
Shows that neural processes differs when viewing faces
of out-group than in-groups; processed more like
objects
Interesting that different brain areas are activated
- Stereotype threat:
oThe feat or expereicen that you as a member of a group that is being
discriminated against, are reduced to that stereotype
oMeans people start internalizing the discriminatory attitudes held by
others, and perform accordingly
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oAcademic impeding:
Reaction can directly interfere with performance
Cause individual to dismiss the domain of academia as no
longer relevant
Example study: told test either measured something unrelated
to intelligence, or that it was an intelligence test
Would expect no difference in both results
Only a difference when told it was a test to measure
intelligence
Because of stereotype threat: as a member of African
American group thought to be less intelligence, ill
probably perform in this way
Cognitively unrelated to task; there is no difference in
performance
Only a difference when those stereotypes are activated
Internalizing these
- Self-esteem: effects of discrimination
oLess status and power
oInternalizing negative thoughts and evaluations of themselves
oSelf esteem lower because of this process of internalizing
oHogg: women study
When being told it is a comparison between male and females
they experience a lower self-esteem
- Objective disadvantage:
oDiscrimination reduces the real access of some groups to education,
health, and other
oThis creates observable differences
oSense of failure can be internalized and cause chronic apathy and lack
of motivation
oSmith: sexisim
Evidence that women tend to anticipate failure more than men
further reducing their motivation
- Hidden/reverse discrimination:
oReluctance to help:
Bystander apathy greater in whites witnessing African
Americans in difficulty if they thought they weren’t observed
Gaertner and Dovidio 1977
oTokenism:
Small positive act to deflect criticism
Small donations to avoid having to put in more
Having 2 women on the board:
Thought to be hired on merit, perceived they were hired
as a token
Rated lower on job satisfaction and commitment
Mainly there to deflect evaluations that are discrimination
oReverse discrimination:
Deliberate advantage to members of minority group to product
short term advantage
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White teachers evaluations of student essays of varying quality
as a function of student race:
Either written by black or white students
Scientists produced varying levels of good to bad essays
Teachers had an objectively bad essay but because it was told
to be written by black student, oh yeah that’s good for a black
student
Deny objective feedback: worse in the long run not having
objective marks
oSelf-fulfilling prophecies: discrimination
Rosenthal and Jacobsen 1968: teachers told that IQ predicts
performance and get a list of 20 bloomers
Teachers reported bloomers are happier and more curious
Actual IQ scores improved over time because teachers treated
them differently
Teachers reported them as being happier and more enthusiastic
- Measuring prejudice: social distance scale (Bogardus, 1933):
oFrowned upon so public will very unlikely to disclose real attitudes
because it is social undesirable
oHow closely would you be willing to associate with someone of
another race: 7 point scale
oFound that Anglo Americans wanted to maintain more distance from
Jews than Greeks and more again for Negroes
oAlso found people were quite ready to exclude ethnic categories that
they had never met and even categories that did not exist
Just because we are happy/short-wired to do so
- Measuring prejudice: Implicit Association test
oBecause we cant directly measure racism, wont be honest
oAsk for associations with different races and association with positive
words
oBlack or white person paired with a positive or negative word: acts as
primes for reaction times
oThen follow up study to test empathy toward these groups
- Modern and symbolic racism:
oKinder and Sears 1981, McConahy 1986
oBecause it is socially unacceptable to be racist, sentiments of prejudice
they hold go a different way
oRather than being openly racist: attitudes come to the surface in things
such as
Denying same work ethic
oMore traditional American moral values like the Protestant work ethic
Nothing against them they just don’t work as hard as us
Seemingly neutral aspect
oReligious prejudice
oFeeling that when disadvantaged accept help they transgress the values
of individualism and so do not deserve what they get
Pauline Hanson
Andrew Bolt
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Document Summary
Social psychology week 4: prejudice and intergroup relations. Allport: believe prejudice was an attitude, three aspects: tripartite model. Cognitive: idea why a member is less worthy than you. Affective: feel emotion when you think about those in other groups. Behavioural: discrimination is behaviour that is based on prejudice: knowing that others are prejudice, negative attitudes, and knowing what behaviours are related, people with negative attitudes don"t always discriminate. Means you don"t treat that person as individual you treat as member of a group. Properties you prescribe to this group result in your behaviours and thought toward them: prejudice is a direct result of the way we are short wired to work. Reflection of the way of systems work. Effects of prejudice: de-humanisation: regarded as something less than human. Consequences of negative actions against them are not seen as being as severe as they would be for one of us". They are just a member of a group, they"re not individuals.
