Transcript Aronson, The Social Animal, 10e

Prejudice
Chapter Seven
Prejudice
Feelings of helplessness,
powerlessness, and anger
are the harvest of being the
constant target of prejudice.
Does
exist?
such prejudice still
Prejudice
 Without question, significant changes have
taken place in American society in the last few
decades.
 There
is no doubt that our society is a lot
less prejudiced against women and
minorities than it was forty or fifty years
ago.

Survey data indicate that the numbers
of people willing to admit they hold
prejudices have been dropping
sharply.
Prejudice
Yet, although hate crimes and
other overt expressions of
prejudice tend to be less
frequent and flagrant, prejudice
lingers in a number of forms,
exacting a heavy toll on its
victims.
Example:
LA firefighter
What is Prejudice?
 Aronson defines prejudice as a hostile or
negative attitude toward a distinguishable
group based on generalizations derived from
faulty or incomplete information.
 It
contains a cognitive component, an
emotional component, and a behavioral
component.
 The nature of prejudice leads us to generalize
from individuals to the group as a whole.
What is Prejudice?
 It is reasonably safe to assume that all
of us have some degree of prejudice,
whether it is against an ethnic, national,
or racial group, against people with
different sexual orientations from our
own, against specific areas of the
country as places to live, or even
against certain kinds of food.
What is Prejudice?
 It is easy to be smug about other people’s
prejudices, especially if we don’t share them.
 It’s
harder to see our own.
 Even scientists, who are trained to be
objective and fair-minded, can be influenced
by the prevailing prejudices of their times.
 Example: Aronson’s
Social Animal
first edition of The
What is Prejudice?
 In short, when we are reared in a
prejudiced society, we often
casually accept its prejudices.
We
don’t even look at scientific
data critically if it supports our
biased beliefs and stereotypes
about some group.
What is Prejudice?
 Direct and Subtle Forms of
Prejudice
When
most people think of
acts of prejudice, they imagine
overt behavior.

Example: Ayers, et al. study
of car sale negotiations
What is Prejudice?
 Direct and Subtle Forms of Prejudice

Many otherwise decent people, despite their
best efforts to be open-minded, are
nonetheless capable of subtle acts of
prejudice.

Many investigators, like Pettigrew, et al.,
believe that indirect – and perhaps more
insidious – forms of prejudice have
largely replaced the blatant kinds of
racial bigotry expressed in the past.
What is Prejudice?
 Direct and Subtle Forms of Prejudice

Prejudice also has subtle, but important, effects on the
behavior of the targets of prejudice as well.
 A majority of Americans believe that
discrimination is no longer a barrier to life
success for people of color, but research
suggests otherwise.
 Example: Pager
 Example: Word, et al.
 Example: Frey & Gartner
 Findings suggest that subtle racism
tends to emerge when it can be easily
rationalized.
What is Prejudice?
 Direct and Subtle Forms of Prejudice
 Does
this discrimination extend toward gay
men and lesbian women?

Example: Hebl, et al.
 Investigators found no evidence of
blatant discrimination.
 It was clear, however, that the
interviewers were more
uncomfortable and standoffish with
interviewees they believed were not
straight.
What is Prejudice?
 Direct and Subtle Forms of Prejudice

Does subtle prejudice extend toward women?
 Glick and Fiske have identified two specific kinds
of prejudice affecting women:

 Hostile sexism – which reflects an active
dislike of women
 Benevolent sexism – which appears
favorable to women but actually is
patronizing
Both types of sexism serve to justify relegating
women to traditional stereotyped roles in society.
What is Prejudice?
 Feeling vs. Expressing Prejudice

Because most of us realize that prejudice is
generally frowned upon, we take pains to
avoid doing or saying things that would appear
biased.



But the effort to suppress what we really feel can
be mentally taxing.
Thus, when our cognitive resources are depleted,
prejudice may leak out.
We also may express our prejudices in small
ways that we have little control over.
What is Prejudice?
 Feeling vs. Expressing Prejudice

Crandall & Eshleman suggest that most
people struggle with the conflict between their
urge to express prejudice and their need to
maintain a positive self-concept.


We are thus attracted to information that justifies
our prejudices.
Once we find a valid justification for disliking a
group, we can express prejudice without feeling
like bigots – thus avoiding cognitive dissonance.
Stereotypes & Prejudice
 At the core of prejudice is the generalization of
characteristics, motives, or behaviors to an entire
group of people.

This kind of generalization is called
stereotyping.

To stereotype is to allow the “little
pictures in our heads” to dominate our
thinking, leading us to assign identical
characteristics to any person in a group,
regardless of the actual variation among
members of that group.
Stereotypes & Prejudice
 Stereotyping is not necessarily an
intentional act of abuse; nor is it always
negative.
 Often,
it is merely a way we
humans have of organizing and
simplifying the complexities of our
social world.

We all do it!
Stereotypes & Prejudice
 Whether we consciously believe these
stereotypes when we consider them, express
them, or act upon them depends a good deal
on our individual characteristics and the
situations we are in.
 To
the extent that the stereotype is
based on experience and is at all
accurate, it can be an adaptive,
shorthand way of dealing with complex
events.
Stereotypes & Prejudice
 On the other hand, if the stereotype
blinds us to individual differences within
a class of people, it is maladaptive and
potentially dangerous.
 Stereotyping
can be harmful to the
target even if the stereotype
seems to be neutral or even
positive.
Stereotypes & Prejudice
Stereotypic generalizations are
abusive, if only because they
rob the person of the right to be
perceived and treated as an
individual with his or her own
individual traits, whether
positive or negative.
Stereotypes & Prejudice
 Stereotypes distort the way we
interpret people’s behavior.
In
turn, we may act on these
distorted perceptions, treating
the individual in a biased way.

Example: Men shoving
(Duncan)
Stereotypes & Prejudice
 One consequence of stereotyping is
that when making judgments about
people, we will often ignore or give
insufficient weight to information that
does not fit the stereotype.
 Example:
Convicts coming up for
parole (Bodenhausen & Wyer)
Stereotypes & Prejudice
 Most stereotypes are based not on valid
experience, but rather on hearsay or
images disseminated by the mass
media or generated within our heads as
ways of justifying our own prejudices
and cruelty.
 Negative stereotypes can be comforting
– they help us justify an unfair system in
which some people are on the top and
some are on the bottom.
Stereotypes & Prejudice
 Biased thinking of this sort can
have harmful consequences in
everyday life.
Example:
Bond, et al. study of
patients in a psychiatric
hospital
Example: Correll, et al. study
of police officers
Stereotypes & Prejudice
 Stereotypes and Attributions
 Stereotyping
is a special form of
attribution.
 Our need to find a cause for
another person’s behavior is part
of the human tendency to go
beyond the information given.

It is often functional.
Stereotypes & Prejudice
Stereotypes and Attributions
In
an ambiguous situation,
people tend to make
attributions consistent with
their prejudices.
Pettigrew dubbed this
the ultimate attribution

Stereotypes & Prejudice
 Stereotypes and Attributions
 Prejudice causes particular kinds of negative
attributions or stereotypes that can, in turn, intensify
the prejudice.
 Example: Swim & Sanna analysis
 If a man was successful on a given task, observers tended
to attribute his success to ability.
 If a woman was successful on the same task, observers
tended to attribute her success to hard work.
 If a man failed on a given task, observers tended to
attribute his failure either to bad luck or to lower effort.
 If a woman failed, observers felt the task was simply too
hard for her ability level.

Example: Jacobs & Eccles study of mothers
Stereotypes & Prejudice
 Stereotypes and Attributions
 This
phenomenon has some interesting
ramifications – namely, the creation of
debilitating self-attributions that affect
future performance.
Example: Male vs. female tennis
players
 Example: Turner & Pratkanis study
of affirmative action programs

Stereotypes & Prejudice
 Self-fulfilling Prophecies
 Our
preconceptions about what other
people are like often influence our
behaviors in such a way as to elicit from
them the very characteristics and
behaviors we expected in the first place.

“Belief creates reality” perpetuating
a “reign of error.”
Stereotypes & Prejudice
 Self-fulfilling Prophecies
 Even if we don’t hold stereotypes, we often
embrace social beliefs, only tentatively, and
work to determine if they are accurate.
 Frequently, we use social interactions to test
our hypotheses about what other people are
like.
 Unfortunately, the strategies we use can
produce confirming evidence, even when our
hypotheses are incorrect.

Example: Synder & Swann profile of “extrovert”
Stereotypes & Prejudice
 Self-fulfilling Prophecies

One kind of self-fulfilling prophecy caused by
the mere existence of stereotypes is that
people who are targets of negative
stereotypes can confirm those stereotypes –
paradoxically – by trying to disconfirm them.

Steele & J. Aronson identified “stereotype threat”
as the apprehension felt by minority group
members when trying to disconfirm a widely held
belief about their group.
Stereotypes & Prejudice
 Self-fulfilling Prophecies

Steele and Aronson argue that any group
stereotypes as inferior to some other group
can experience stereotype threat to a
meaningful degree.

This can happen to a group even if, by
all objective standards, that group excels
in the relevant domain.
 Example: J. Aronson, et al.
Stereotypes & Prejudice
 Self-fulfilling Prophecies
 What
happens when we belong to more
than one stereotyped group?

Each “social identity” can have
different implications for behavior or
performance – or the way one feels
about oneself – depending on
which identity is made salient by
the situation.
 Example: Shih, et al.
Stereotypes & Prejudice
 Self-fulfilling Prophecies
 Alternatively,
if merely thinking
about a negative stereotype can
lower your performance on a test,
then some kind of alternative
mindset that counters the
stereotype should be able to boost
it.

Example: McGlone & J.
Stereotypes & Prejudice
 Self-fulfilling Prophecies
 It
is not always easy for people who
have never experienced prejudice to
understand fully what it is like to be a
target.

Empathy does not come easy and
there is a tendency to lay blame on
the victim.
 This may take the form of the
“well-deserved reputation.”
Stereotypes & Prejudice
 Self-fulfilling Prophecies

Ironically, this tendency to blame victims for
their victimization, attributing their
predicaments to their own personalities and
disabilities, is often motivated by a desire to
see the world as a just place.

Example: Lerner, et al.
 People tend to assign personal
responsibility for any inequitable
outcome that is otherwise difficult to
explain.
Stereotypes & Prejudice
 Self-fulfilling Prophecies

Further understanding of blaming the victim comes
from Fischhoff’s work on the hindsight bias.
 After we know the outcome of an event, the
complex circumstance surrounding its occurrence
suddenly appears crystal clear; it seems as if we
knew it all along and could have predicted it.
 Example: Janoff-Bulman, et al. study of
rape victims
Causes of Prejudice
 Although we humans may have inherited biological
tendencies that predispose us toward prejudicial
behavior, no one knows for sure whether or not
prejudice is a vital and necessary part of our
biological makeup.
 Most social psychologists would agree that the
specifics of prejudice must be learned, either through
imitating the attitudes and behavior of others or
through the ways in which we construct our own
psychological reality.
Causes of Prejudice
 Economic and Political Competition
 Given that resources are limited, the dominant
group might attempt to exploit or derogate a
minority group in order to gain some material
advantage.
 Prejudiced attitudes tend to increase when
times are tense and there is conflict over
mutually exclusive goals.

Example: Union membership; US Department of
Labor statistics
Causes of Prejudice
 Economic and Political Competition

Discrimination, prejudice, and negative
stereotyping increase sharply as competition
for scarce jobs increases.
Example: Dollard classic study of
German immigrants
th
 Example: Chinese immigrants in 19
century US
 Example: Sherif, et al. experimental
study at Boy Scout camp

Causes of Prejudice
 Displaced Aggression: The Scapegoat Theory

In modern times, the term scapegoating has
been used to describe the process of blaming
a relatively powerless innocent person for
something that is not his or her fault.



Example: Klineburg description of the burakumin
in Japan
Example: Jews in Nazi Germany
Example: Miller & Bugelski experiment
Causes of Prejudice
 Displaced Aggression: The Scapegoat Theory



Laboratory experiments help to clarify factors
that seem to exist in the real world.
The general picture of scapegoating that
emerges is that individuals tend to displace
aggression onto groups that are disliked, that
are visible, and that are relatively powerless.
Moreover, the form the aggression takes
depends on what is allowed or approved by
the in-group.
Causes of Prejudice
 Maintenance of Self-Image and Status


A powerful determinant of prejudice is
embedded in our need to justify our behavior
and sense of self.
Several studies indicate that a good predictor
of prejudice is whether or not a person’s social
status is low or declining.
Example: Crocker, et al. study of sorority
women
 Example: Fein & Spencer study of antiSemitic students

Causes of Prejudice
 The Prejudiced Personality

There is some evidence to support the notion
of individual differences in a general tendency
to hate.


In other words, some people are predisposed
toward being prejudiced not solely because of
immediate external influences, but also because
of the kind of people they are.
Adorno, et al. referred to these individuals as
authoritarian personalities.
Causes of Prejudice
 The Prejudiced Personality

Individuals with authoritarian personalities
tend to be rigid in their beliefs; they tend to
possess conventional values; they are
intolerant of weakness in themselves and
others; they tend to be highly punitive; they
are suspicious; and they are respectful of
authority to unusual degrees.

The instrument developed to determine
authoritarianism is called the F scale.
Causes of Prejudice
 The Prejudiced Personality
 The
major finding is that people who are
high on authoritarianism show a
consistently high degree of prejudice
against all minority groups.

Adorno, et al. traced the
development of this cluster of
attitudes and values to early
childhood experiences in families
characterized by harsh, threatening
parental discipline.
Causes of Prejudice
 The Prejudiced Personality
Although
research on the
authoritarian personality (e.g.,
McFarland, et al.) has added
to our understanding of the
possible dynamics of
prejudice, one problem is that
the bulk of the data are
correlational.
Causes of Prejudice
 Prejudice through Conformity
 Many
people simply learn a wide array
of prejudices by conforming to the
lessons they learned on Mommy’s or
Daddy’s knee.

Others may conform to prejudices
that are limited and highly specific,
depending upon the norms of their
subculture.
 Example: Prejudice against
blacks in the South vs. the North
Causes of Prejudice
 Prejudice through Conformity

Pettigrew argues that although economic
competition, frustration, and personality needs
account for some prejudice, prejudiced
behavior is mostly driven by slavish conformity
to social norms.



Example: Study of interracial tension in South
Africa
Example: Watson study of anti-Semitic people
Example: Pettigrew study of Southerners
Causes of Prejudice
 Prejudice through Conformity
 The
pressure to conform can be overt
(e.g., Asch’s study) or conformity to a
prejudicial norm might simply be due to
the unavailability of accurate evidence
and a preponderance of misleading
information.

Example: Marlowe &
Shakespeare’s literature
Causes of Prejudice
 Prejudice through Conformity

Even casual exposure to bigotry can affect our
attitudes and behavior toward a group that is
the victim of prejudice.

Example: Kirkland, et al. study of
criminal trial transcript
 One finding: Conformity to the
prejudiced norms can have damaging
effects that even extend beyond the
initial target of racism.
Causes of Prejudice
 Prejudice through Conformity
 Bigoted
attitudes can also be
fostered intentionally by a society
that institutionally supports these
attitudes.
Example: Apartheid in South
Africa
 Example: Historical treatment
of blacks, women, & Jews in

Reducing Prejudice
 For most people, prejudice is too
deeply rooted in their own belief
systems, is too consistent with their
day-to-day behavior, and receives
too much support and
encouragement from the people
around them to be reduced by a
book, a film, or a radio broadcast.
Reducing Prejudice
 Although changes in attitude might induce
changes in behavior, it is often difficult to
change attitudes through education.

It is changes in behavior that can affect
changes in attitudes.
 Research examined the importance of equal-
status contact between groups.

Example: Deutsch & Collins study of whites
and blacks in public housing projects

One conclusion: Stateways CAN change
folkways.
Reducing Prejudice
 Social psychologists also examined the
impact of desegregation on the values of
people who do not even have the opportunity
to have direct contact with minority groups.
 Example: Aronson
argument about the
psychology of inevitability
 Example: Pettigrew, Clark examinations
of desegregation violence
Reducing Prejudice
 It is important to recognize that much of what
Aronson presents is an admittedly
oversimplified view of a very complex
phenomenon.

Real-world conditions are very different from
theoretical conditions and affect the outcome
of the situation very differently.

Example: Stephan study of self-esteem in black
children following desegregation
Reducing Prejudice
 In sum:


Equal-status contact under the ideal
conditions of no economic conflict can and
does produce increased understanding and a
diminution of prejudice.
The psychology of inevitability can and does
set up pressures to reduce prejudiced
attitudes and can set the stage for smooth,
nonviolent school desegregation under ideal
conditions.
Reducing Prejudice
 In sum (continued):


Where economic conflict is present, as in
integrated neighborhoods of private homes,
there is often an increase in prejudiced
attitudes.
Where school desegregation results in a
competitive situation, especially if there are
serious inequities for the minority groups,
there is often an increase in hostility of Blacks
or Latinos toward Whites that is at least
partially due to an attempt to regain some lost
self-esteem.
Interdependence: A Possible Solution
 Situations of mutual interdependence, those
which require cooperation between groups in
order to accomplish a goal, have been shown
to be effective in reducing hostile feelings and
negative stereotyping.



Example: Sherif, et al. study of the Boy Scout
camp
Example: Deutsch study of problem-solving
Example: Keenan & Carnevale study of
cooperation
Interdependence: A Possible Solution
 Unfortunately, cooperation and
interdependence are not characteristic
of the process that exists in most
American classrooms, even at the
elementary level.
 One widely effective alternative to the
intense competition in most classrooms
is the jigsaw classroom (Aronson, et
al.).
Interdependence: A Possible Solution
 Why does the jigsaw method produce
positive results?

One reason is that this cooperative strategy
places people in a favor-doing situation.


Example: Leippe & Eisenstadt
Another mechanism appears to be cognitive,
in that the process of cooperation changes our
tendency to categorize the out-group from
“those people” to “us people.”

Example: Gaertner, et al.
Interdependence: A Possible Solution
 Why does the jigsaw method produce
positive results?

A mediating process is empathy – the ability to
experience what your group member is
experiencing.

Example: Bridgeman study of 10-year-old
children
 When we develop the ability to understand what
another person is going through, it increases the
probability that our heart will open to that person.
 Once our heart is open, it becomes virtually
impossible to feel prejudice against that person.
Interdependence: A Possible Solution
 Diversity in a nation, in a city, in a
neighborhood, or in a school can
be an exciting thing – or a source of
turmoil.
 It is vital for us to learn to relate to
one another across racial and
ethnic lines in as harmonious a way
as possible.
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