Transcript Rosenhan
Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination
Social Psychology
Chapter 5
September 17, 2004
Class #4
He fit the description…
Case Study:
February 4, 1999 –
Amadou Diallo, 22,
died in a hail of 41
bullets outside his
Bronx apartment in
what the officers
testified was a
tragic error
Stereotypes and Prejudices
Stereotypes
The generalized perceptions, beliefs, and expectations a
person has about members in some group
Schemas about entire groups of people
Effects of stereotypes on behavior can be automatic and
unconscious
Prejudice
A negative attitude toward an individual based solely on
the person’s membership is some group
Includes an irrational hostility toward a particular race or
group
In one word…prejudgment
Discrimination
Differential treatment of individuals who belong to
different groups
Stereotype
Stereotypes about racial, ethnic, gender, or sexual orientation
groups are schemas.
Generalized belief about members of a group
May or may not be accurate
Most researchers believe it is even possible
to have a schema that you don't personally
believe (OTHER PEOPLE think that Group x
has qualities y... but I don't)…
Lets try this:
What are the characteristics of:
A
A
A
A
A
typical
typical
typical
typical
typical
New Yorker?
Californian?
white male?
“career woman”
“stay-at-home” mom
How Stereotypes Form:
Social Categorization
The classification of persons into groups
on the basis of common attributes.
Helps us form impressions quickly and use
past experiences to guide new interactions.
Serious drawback: By categorizing people,
we often:
Overestimate the differences between groups
Underestimate the differences within groups
Can bias our perceptions
Stone et al. (1997)
Radio broadcast played to
participants
They are shown a “photograph” of the
player to be analyzed
Participants rated the player better if
they thought he was black
How Stereotypes Form:
In-groups vs. Out-groups
Strong tendency to divide people into
ingroups and outgroups
Such group identifications can promote an
ingroup bias…
Often
it becomes an “Us vs.
Them” attitude
Consequences
Exaggerate differences between ingroups and
other outgroups.
Outgroup homogeneity effect
Perceived Outgroup Homogeneity
Phenomenon
of overestimating the
extent to which members within
other groups are similar to each
other
Example: “They all look the same to
me”
How Stereotypes Form:
Maybe they become automatic…
Devine (1989)
Suggests that our parents and media may
have started an early process that has now
become automatic
Racial Bias Study:
Sagar & Schofield (1980)
Purpose:
Participants:
Demonstrate that stereotypes bias interpretation of
ambiguous events
40 African American; 40 White
Procedures:
Participants presented with four ambiguous drawings:
Bumping
Requesting food
Poking
Taking a pencil
Sagar & Schofield (1980)
Participants
were to rate actor’s
behavior as.....
Mean
Threatening
Playful
Friendly
Sagar & Schofield (1980): Experimental Set-Up
Actor Race
African
American
Participant Race
African
American
White
White
Sagar & Schofield (1980): Results
Subject
Actor
Mean & Threatening
White
W
AA
8.28
8.99
African
American
W
AA
7.38
8.40
Conclusion: White and African American participants rated
identical behavior as more mean and threatening when
actor was African American. Schemas influence the
interpretation of events.
Who has the razor???
Allport and Postman's (1947)
Subjects were shown a picture depicting two
men, one black and one white, confronting
each other on a subway car
The white man has a straight razor in his hand
After viewing the picture, the first subject
describes it to a second subject, who in turn
describes it to another, and so on
After a few retellings, the straight razor ends
up (is inferred to be) in the hand of the black
man
Interesting replication…
Boon & Davies (1987)
Subjects see a cartoon story of 2 men interacting on the
subway. At the end of the interaction, one man pulls a
knife.
Different subjects see one of three different versions:
1) Both men are white:
Man A has the knife (wearing a suit)
2) Both men are white:
Man B has the knife (wearing work clothes)
3) One is black, one is white:
White man has the knife
Boon & Davies (1987)
Retrieval phase
Both recall and recognition tests
Recall test:
No stimuli, just "describe the man who pulled the
knife“
Recognition test:
See two versions of the critical picture (correct knifeholder, or knife in the OTHER man's hand): instructions
are "pick the one you saw before“
There is a correct and an incorrect version for the
participants who saw the original story with two white
men, AND also for those participants who saw the
original story with one white man and one black man
Results???
What do you think happened???
Explanations???
Can stereotypes actually create selffulfilling prophecies???
Wood et al. (1974)
White male University students interviewed white and black
male high school students seeking employment
White interviewers of black applicants (relative to white
interviewers of white applicants)
Sat further away
Conducted shorter interviews
Made more speech errors
Appeared to cause black applicants to become
uncomfortable
Follow-up Experiment
While males were applicants
Treated like black applicants were treated in the first experiment
They performed similarly (to black applicants in exp. 1) during the
interview
Three Levels of Stereotypes
Public
Private
what we consciously think about a group, but don’t say to
others
Implicit
What we say to others about a group
unconscious mental associations guiding our judgments
and actions without our conscious awareness
Public stereotypes have decreased in North
America recently (“political correctness”)
Well, there are exceptions…
“The biggest
thing I don't
like about
New York are
the foreigners”
Explicit versus Implicit Prejudice
If
you were asked your opinions
about Irishmen, Californians, or
fraternity men, that would tap:
Explicit prejudice – positive or
negative feelings of which you are
aware
But not implicit prejudice – feelings
of which you are not aware
Intergroup Competition
Sherif (1961):
The Robbers Cave Experiment
Two groups of eleven year-old boys were sent
to a remote summer camp in Robbers Cave
State Park (Oklahoma)
Initially unaware of their fragile co-existence,
they formed tribalistic bonds, and having a
great time…and then…
These middle class boys placed into competing areas in a
summer camp:
They competed for medals and attention
Competed in a variety of contests…
Soon the rivalry became violent…
Raided
one another’s cabins
Stole and burned one another’s flags
Came to view one another as “stinkers” “smartalecks” and “sneaks”
Verbal prejudice became apparent,
spiraling downward towards aggressive
territorial violence
The groups eventually had to be separated
So how did experimenters try to reduce
the prejudice they had created???
Propaganda: No
Contact: No
Positive propaganda about one
group directed to the other by
the experimenters did not help
Doing non-competitive
activities together (e.g.,
watching movies) did not help
Cooperative action: Yes
Experimenters arranged for
camp truck to break down
Both groups needed to pull it
uphill
Intergroup friendships began to
develop
Realistic Conflict Theory
Proposal
that intergroup conflict, and negative
prejudices and stereotypes, emerge out of
actual competition between groups for desired
resources
Example: Members of different ethnic groups may
compete for the same jobs, or the same farmland
Realistic Conflict Theory
Competition for valuable but limited resources
breeds hostility…
Loser: becomes frustrated
Winner: becomes threatened
Result: Much conflict
Example: Women and immigrants joining the
workforce
When conflict arises there is a higher tendency to
rely on stereotypes…”they’re all the same”
SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY
Rubin
& Hewstone (1998)
Comparing our ingroups with outgroups that are
less well off can raise our self-esteem
We desire to feel good about ourselves
Part of our identity comes from the groups to
which we belong
Discrimination
Behaviors directed toward people on
the basis of their group membership
Unfair treatment
History Repeats Itself
Who is more likely
to get harassed at
the airport security
check?
Who is more likely to get harassed at
an airport security check???
Note: Several of the previous slides
were prepared by the following
website:
http://instruct.uwo.ca/psychology/023
/pdfs/
Discrimination
Do you know anyone who has, because of
their membership in a group, been:
Denied a job or promotion?
Insulted or harassed?
Ignored or poorly served in a restaurant
or other business?
Denied an apartment or house?
Herek (2000)
On the one hand, people surveyed seemed
to think that homosexuals deserved
similar job opportunities
But when we got to specifics, old attitudes
surfaced
See next two slides…
Do you think homosexuals should or
should not have equal rights in
terms of job opportunities?
100
Percentage
Should Have Equal Rights
50
Should NOT Have Equal Rights
0
1977
1982
1989
YEAR
1992
1996
Percentage Saying “Should”
Do you think homosexuals should or
should not be hired for the following
occupations?
100
Salespersons
50
Doctors
Clergy
Elementary School Teachers
0
1977
1982
1989
YEAR
Many still believe
homosexuals should
be excluded from
some jobs.
1992
1996
Sexual Harassment
as Gender Discrimination
Fitzgerald (1993)
As many as 50% of women are sexually
harassed during their academic or working
lives
Faley et al. (1999)
U.S. Army spent $250 million in one year to
deal with problems related to sexual
harassment
Sexual Harassment
as Gender Discrimination
Pryor & Day (1988)
Sheets & Braver (1993)
Behavior seen as more harassing when
performed by person in power
Less harassing when performed by an
attractive single individual
Terpstra & Baker (1986)
Women more likely than men to define staring
and flirting as sexually harassing
Sexual Harassment
as Gender Discrimination
Men are more likely to harass than are
women
But whether men harass or not depends
on the man, and on the situation
In one study, male students were asked to
train a young woman on a complex wordprocessing task
Pryor, LaVite, & Stoller (1993)
Male participants were introduced to the
female trainee (confederate) by a male
graduate student (confederate) who acted
either:
Sexist
Put his arm around trainee, visually checked out her
body
Professional
Respectful of trainee
Pryor, LaVite, & Stoller (1993)
DV:
The amount of sexuality expressed by the
male student while instructing the female
trainee
IV:
Amount of exposure to sexual harassment
Results did not depend on the IV but rather
depended on the participant’s chronic
disposition to harass
So the situational factor here was relatively
unimportant
Costs of Prejudice, Discrimination, and
Stereotyping
Schulman et al. (1999)
Physicians were only 60% as likely to suggest
a top-rated diagnostic test for black “heart
patients” as for whites
Even when blacks presented same symptoms,
and gave identical information about
themselves
Costs of Prejudice, Discrimination, and
Stereotyping
Ayres
& Siegelman (1995)
This study found that white men were offered
better deals on cars:
$109 less than White women
$318 less than Black women
$935 less than Black men
Stereotype threat…
Can you see how a stereotype threat can
develop…
You go to ATM and woman in front looks at you
and seems nervous
Reducing Prejudice
One
hypothesis is - negative stereotypes and
prejudice are due to ignorance
From this perspective, simply exposing people
to members of different groups should reduce
prejudice
But merely putting different groups together
has not generally worked
Reducing Prejudice
Contact Hypothesis
Stereotypes and prejudice toward a group will
diminish as contact with the group increases
Getting to know and hopefully to understand a
group
Get two groups to work towards a common
goal
Cooperation helps; competition hurts
Effective group contact…
Outgroup members have traits and abilities
challenging negative stereotypes
Contact is supported by local authorities and norms
Groups are of equal status, at least in contact setting
Contact is at individual level
Contact is rewarding
Groups work toward common goals
Jigsaw Classroom
Each
student in a mixed race group is given a
different, and essential, task to complete
towards a class project
This intervention takes advantage of each of the
six principles of effective group contact
Back to the Rattlers and Eagles…
Importance of common goals was shown in the study
of the Rattlers and Eagles…
When their only contact involved competitive
games, interactions became increasingly negative
But then researchers forced the boys to cooperate
towards common goals (such as starting a bus to
take them all to a movie)
100
Percentage of
Rattler and
Eagle Ratings
That Were
Unfavorable
80
Ratings of Own Group
Ratings of Other Group
60
40
20
0
After
Competition
After
After Cooperation
competing, the Rattlers’ impressions
of the Eagles were highly unfavorable, as
were the Eagles’ impressions of the
Rattlers
100
Percentage of
Rattler and
Eagle Ratings
That Were
Unfavorable
80
Ratings of Own Group
Ratings of Other Group
60
40
20
0
After
Competition
The
After Cooperation
hostility between the groups eventually
turned into friendship and acceptance after
they were induced to begin cooperating with
each other
Finally, maybe we should just
eliminate these altogether…