Transcript Introduction to Psychology - Pascack Valley Regional High

The social psychology of
prejudice and racism
Three key concepts defined
 Prejudice is:
 A stereotype is:
 Discrimination is:
Turn to your neighbor and generate a list of the
following in the space provided:
 Groups of people that most commonly experience prejudice in our
society today:
 Most common stereotypes that some people believe in today:
 Examples of actual discrimination that you’ve actually seen, heard
about, or read about:
And now…
… a closer look at how
Social Psychology explains
prejudice and racism.
Reason #1: Categorization
 People are “cognitive
misers” who unconsciously
and consciously seek to
simplify the world by
making people and events
as predictable as possible.
Reason #2: In-group bias: Us vs. Them
 People tend to favor those
who we perceive to be like
us.
Reason #3: Social learning (Albert Bandura)
 A picture is worth a
thousand words- here’s the
proof ->
 Attitudes (good or bad) are
often acquired from parents
and other family members
through observation and
imitation.
 Do you know of anyone
who has adopted the same
attitudes as their
parents/grandparents?
Reason #4: Scapegoat Theory
 Prejudice provides an outlet
for anger by providing
someone to blame (also
known as the frustrationaggression theory)
 What are some other
examples?
Reason #5: Just-World Phenomenon


The tendency of people to believe
the world is just: people get what
they deserve and deserve what
they get.
“Blame the victim”
 Did this phenomenon change the
outcome of the 2012 election
(rightfully or wrongfully so)? Click
here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
M2gvY2wqI7M
Reason #6: Vivid cases
 People tend to
overgeneralize from a few
exceptional cases to a
group expectation (9/11).
 “Availability heuristic:”
 Can you think of other
examples?
Reason #7: The authoritarian personality
type
 The authoritarian personality is
rigidly conventional. They favor
following the rules and abiding by
tradition, and are hostile to those
who defy social norms.
 They respect and submit to
authority and are preoccupied
with toughness and power.
Four factors that make prejudice
more likely (Herbert Blumer)
1.
2.
3.
4.
The contact hypothesis (Gordon
Allport)
 Prejudice will decrease if two
groups with equal status have
contact, but it will increase if
contact occurs under
conditions of inequality.
 Meet my grandfather’s old
friend and coworker ->
The good news: Americans today openly express
much less racial and gender prejudice
The bad news: there still seems to be a difference
between what we say and what we do...
Over past 50 years, most Americans’
outward and expressive racial attitudes
have changed.
Blatant prejudice wanes, subtle prejudice
remains strong (and grows online).
Duncan study, 1976
Most white subjects
shown a picture of a
white man pushing a
black man perceived
it as “horsing around”
Most white subjects
shown a picture of a
black man pushing a
white man perceived
it as “violent” and
“aggressive”
Harbert study, 1998
 White female college students
asked to evaluate flawed essay
said to have been written by a
black or a white student.
 When the writer was said to be
black, the ratings were much
higher.
 Evaluators had lower expectations
and offered less criticism of
essays they thought were written
by African Americans.
 Can you think of other examples
of “the soft bigotry of lowered
expectations?”
Hurricane Katrina media coverage
More about Hurricane Katrina and
race
 66% of African Americans said
that the government’s response
would have been better if most of
the victims were white; only 26%
of whites agreed.
 19% of African Americans felt that
the government’s response was
good or excellent; 41% of whites
did.
 What did Kanye West say in 2005
on live TV? Check this out:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=9pVTrnxCZaQ
Racial profiling
 Trayvon Martin case?
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/
2012-04-17/news/os-senateracial-profiling-20120417_1_lawenforcement-lawmakers-fredericawilson
 NJ Turnpike study, 1999:African
Americans were 13.5% of drivers,
15% of speeders, and 35% of
drivers stopped!
 NYPD cases: Amadou Diallo
 http://topics.nytimes.com/top/ref
erence/timestopics/people/d/ama
dou_diallo/index.html
 http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/r
eference/timestopics/people/b/se
an_bell/index.html
The election of President Obama: A landmark
in U.S. race relations… or not?
 http://thesituationist.wordpress.com/2
008/10/07/situational-racism-inpresidential-election/
 http://articles.latimes.com/2009/aug/1
9/nation/na-obama-studies19
 From listening to others, in what ways
did race influence the 2008 and 2012
election? Share your observations.
 To what extent have attitudes about
race changed since his election?
 Does his election prove that we live in
a “post-racial” society?
 Would Americans vote for a female
Presidential candidate? A Latino? An
Asian American? A gay candidate?
The explosion in racist hate groups
since 2008
 http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2008/1
1/06/hate-groups-claim-obama-win-issparking-recruitment-surge/
 http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/
01/09/1422471/virginia-kkk-obamarecruiting/?mobile=nc
 http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsw
eek/2009/04/24/rebranding-hate-inthe-age-of-obama.html
 http://www.splcenter.org/getinformed/intelligence-report/browseall-issues/2012/spring/the-year-inhate-and-extremism#.UadiiL-IsbA
Guess which relatively small state ranks #4 in
the number of hate groups currently operating?
Click here for the answer- and zoom in to
get a closer look.
http://www.splcenter.org/hate-map
A few words about how to
overcome prejudice
 Improving group contact: bring people together on
equal terms to socialize
 Controlled processing: train yourself to be more
mindful of your prejudices (once you are aware of
what they are- remember this after you take the
online IAT tests in a few minutes!)
 Instilling empathy:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/12/10/babies.combat
ing.bullying/index.html
Other interesting articles to
check out!
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/05/27
/race.empathy/index.html?hpt=Sbin
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/18/doll.
study.parents/?hpt=Mid