February 7^th, 2000

Perceiving Groups

Terms relating to Intergroup Biases:

Prejudice (affective)--positive or negative feelings toward individuals because of their group or category membership

Stereotype (cognitive)--impressions of the traits and characteristics of members of a group or category---some have a grain of truth but become overgeneralized

Discrimination (behavioral)--altered behavior toward individuals because of their group or category membership

Definitions not same as those in text--though they are compatible

Prejudice refers to every group you can think of--any basis for categorization

Can be positive or negative --- Weak or extreme

Three terms correspond to tripartite model of attitudes

MAJOR BASES OF PREJUDICE AND STEREOTYPES:

Personality (the authoritarian personality):

--may be a need to discriminate against others

--insinuates most are good people, only few deviant people stereotype

Cognition (illusory correlation):

--stereotyping natural thing to do

Experience: Contact Hypothesis

Racial prejudice most often studied, but religious and gender biases also prominent

Table 5.1 in text shows that some stereotypes have a grain of truth to them---true on average, but not for any given man or woman, so still dangerous to use

If enough people believe these stereotypes, they can become true simply because people believe it---self f ulfilling prophecy

Categorization seems to be inevitable---can’t get through life without it---it’s a natural part of interacting with people

So what’s wrong with stereotyping and prejudice?

--extremity….more extreme judgments are detrimental

--systematicity….is it systematic?

How many people believe it? If widespread, becomes a stronger issue. Also, do people in positions of power believe it?

--persistence…if stereotype or prejudice persists in light of counter evidence, it becomes a problem

Social psychologists have been trying to figure out the processes underlying prejudice and stereotyping

After WWII, a researcher named Adorno had the first approach to stereotyping and prejudice

--Conditions in Germany gave rise to Naziism--culture created

--Tried to identify problem people/those with authoritarian personality (more likely to be prejudiced)

What kind of person is authoritarian?

1. conventionalism--extreme middle class values

2. submission--need to submit to strong leader

3. aggression--belief in stern discipline

4. anti-intraception--rejects tender mindedness

5. superstition--belief in mystical things

6. toughness--denial of personal weaknesses

7. cynicism--rationalizations for agression

8. projectivity--belief there is wild and evil things in world

9. sexual concerns--predominant concern with

Authoritarians tend to be anti-outgroup and they are often very irrational. They will believe anything negative even if it is contradictory

Also ethnocentric--their group is positive no matter what

Politically conservative--often right wingers (but this is culturally specific)

We can also find authoritarians at extremely liberal end of the spectrum also. They are now thought to gravitate to political poles

Tend to be bad at person perception--assume that those in the ingroup will automatically agree with them---often wrong of course

Strict disciplinarians to children

Today, dogmatism takes place of authoritarianism--dogmatists also hold extreme political views

COGNITIVE BASES OF PREJUDICE:

--Says we must stereotype as a normal part of cognitive processing--part of natural cognitive functioning

We tend to pay attention to extreme things (natural mechanism)--see overhead of psych. Vs. engineers (8 positive and 4 negative behaviors for each category)

Because the engineers did more EXTREME things than psychology majors, people tend to overemphasize the prevalence of negativity in engineers

Memory biases determine what you can remember about a group

What if we had information about less/fewer engineers?

Should remember negative behaviors about engineers because they are very distinctive and done by a minority group---best recall

Increases proportion of negative behaviors remembered about engineers