Chapter 4 â The Prejudiced Personality: Are Some People More Likely ...
Chapter 4 – The Prejudiced Personality: Are Some People More Likely To Feel Prejudice? 1) Psychodynamic Perspectives a) Authoritarianism i) Authoritarians – rigid personality characterized by categorical thinking, submissiveness to authority, and adherence to middle-class values. These individuals tend to dislike anyone who is different from themselves and thus tend to have stereotypes and prejudice toward many groups (Adorno) ii) They tend to grow up in homes in which the parents were strict disciplinarians iii) An authoritarian’s parents open use harsh disciplines to keep the children from misbehaving iv) They tend to think in ‘either-or’, all-or-nothing thinking terms v) Authoritarians hate deviant impulses (fear, aggression, sex) vi) The authoritarian person does not believe he has these negative qualities, but these characteristics are attributed to the various minority groups b) Character-Conditioned Prejudice i) Allport discussed the prejudiced personality in psychodynamic terms just like Adorno ii) Prejudiced personality emerged out of a “crippled” ego. This person feels threatened, insecure, and fearful of everything iii) Prejudice is used as a way to overcome these insecurities, by projecting these negative qualities onto others iv) People who are prejudiced tend to repress their fears and insecurities to avoid facing anxieties and shortcomings v) Prejudiced people uses dichotomization (black-or-white thinking) c) Problems with the Psychodynamic Approach i) There are 4 main reasons for the decline in the psychodynamic approach: (1) Researchers became more critical of its approach to personality. Essentially, the F scale (fascism scale) and the world-mindedness scale (measures one’s attitudes toward and acceptance of people from other countries) are inversely related, i.e., they measure the same thing (a) Martin suggests that prejudice may be a result of an intolerant personality (b) These people would score low on sympathy and trust, and high on conservatism (c) The important point about both the world-mindedness and the tolerant-personality approaches is that each measures the same constellation of personality c characteristics as the Adorno study, but they do so without assuming the psychodynamic process that were supposed to create the authoritarian personality (2) Methodological and other conceptual problems with the authoritarian personality caused many researchers to conclude that the approach was not up to scientific standards (3) The theory only explained the presence of prejudice in a small subset of the population and did not explain why many people who did not have an authoritarian personality did show prejudice toward at least one other group
(a) It also could not account for why prejudice was higher in one region (e.g., south) than the north (4) The authoritarian-personality perspective suggests that there is little hope of changing an authoritarian individual to be more accepting of others d) Right-Wing Authoritarianism i) In 1994, Altemeyer wrote a paper called the “a case study in overcompensation” ii) He found that three of Adorno’s nine related traits seemed to show a strong relationship with each other. Altemeyer called this “attitudinal clusters”. They are explained below: (1) Authoritarian submission – indicates a strong degree of submission to perceived legitimate authorities in one’s society (2) Authoritarian aggression – a general aggression and hostility directed toward outgroups, that is viewed as acceptable by recognized authorities (3) Conventionalism – a strong adherence to social norms and traditions that are perceived as sanctioned by recognized authorities iii) Together, they are called the Right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) – personality style in which the individual tends to be politically conservative, more punitive toward criminals, more likely to endorse orthodox religious views, and very prejudiced toward outgroups (1) It is also used to denote the difference from Adorno’s psychodynamic authoritarianism iv) High RWA tends to be politically conservative, while low RWA tends to be politically liberal v) Altemeyer, using RWA, have found that people with high RWA tends to be prejudiced toward virtually everyone. He thus calls them “equal-opportunity bigots” vi) RWA individuals are both fearful and self-righteous vii) RWA individuals do not get the experience of socializing with people with different attitudes from their own in their teen years, which is why it is hard to change the rigid attitudes and prejudices of high-RWA individuals later on e) Religion i) There is a positive correlation between being more religious and having less tolerance and more stereotyped cognitions about others ii) The reason may be that with greater adherence to strict tenets of religious scripture comes an increase in the tendency to think in rigid, either-or terms. This will in turn increase the likelihood that one will rely on heuristics iii) Committed versus Consensual Religiosity (1) Other research have found that there is little correlation between religion and prejudice (2) People who support this view believe that the measures of religiosity used by previous researchers were too simplistic (3) Allen classified churchgoers as having either “committed” or “consensual” religious beliefs (a) Committed religious orientation – one that allows an individual to hold a wide range of belief categories through which one can evaluate the world. Committed individuals show a greater tolerance for diversity, and they are more likely to thoughtfully consider different ideas, opinions, and beliefs
f)
(b) Consensual religious individuals – tend to interpret religion more literally and concretely, tend to make more generalizations about religious topics, and relatively unreceptive to different ideas and opinions (4) Thus, consensual religiosity was closely associated with prejudiced attitudes, and committed religious beliefs were strongly associated with greater tolerance and nonprejudiced attitudes iv) Extrinsic versus Intrinsic Religious Orientations (1) Allport in 1967 examined 2 different types of religious individuals, extrinsic and intrinsic religious orientation (a) Extrinsic people use religion for their own purposes, attend church infrequently and tend to be more prejudiced toward others (b) Intrinsic people are those who have internalized the values of their religion, live life according to these beliefs, attend church regularly, and tend to be more egalitarian (2) Some critics say that the measure used by Allport, the Religious Orientation Scale (ROS) is inaccurate (3) Other critics say that because the ROS is a self-reporting measure of a sensitive topic, it is very prone to become influenced by social desirability v) Religion as Quest (1) Batson did a study in 1978 using a different religious orientation called “Quest” orientation (2) Quest orientation sees religion as a “process of questioning, doubting, and reexamination in response to the contradictions and tragedies of life” (3) High quest orientation was negatively correlated with prejudice (4) Quest orientation correlate positively with prosocial behaviour, such as compassion (5) Critics say that it is too simplistic to measure a broad religious orientation and correlate it with prejudice (6) Religion fosters both tolerance of groups accepted by the church and intolerance of groups not acceptable to the church Need for Cognition i) Need for cognition (NC) concept – an individual-difference variable that describes the dispositional motivation of an individual to think about the world; the higher this motivation is, the more the individual enjoys thinking about, seeking, and pondering problems and information about the world (1) The variable refers to the motivational state of an individual to think about the world (2) High NC (HNC) tend to think about, seek, and ponder information relevant to the relationships among people, events, and objects in their environment (3) Low NC (LNC) people are neither motivated to nor excited by thinking about their environment (a) They prefer to avoid extensive cognition, and instead they rely on more heuristic types of thinking that allows them to make quick judgments with the least effort
(4) Note that HNC individuals remembered more stereotype-consistent information about a target than did LNC persons, but they were unaffected by target-relevant stereotypes when forming impressions of a target (5) LNC persons tend to rely on stereotypes when forming impressions of a target, but when they later recall information about that target, their recollections tend to be unaffected by stereotypes (6) The difference between HNC and LNC individuals in levels of careful cognition is greatest when the situation exerts a moderate level of influence 2) Need for Structure a) People differ in the degree to which they desire clear, certain, or unambiguous knowledge b) Knowledge can be norms, emotions, or attitudes c) Need for structure (NS) – an individual-different variable in which those who have a high degree of this motivation tend to desire clear, certain, or unambiguous knowledge (structure) about a topic i) people with high need for structure prefer to halt the acquisition of further information about the world with regard to a particular aspect of knowledge ii) HNS individuals seek a definite, clear answer, and the process of further information gathering would pose a threat to the stability and clarity of one’s current state of thinking, because such information might contain knowledge-inconsistent information d) Need for structure construct is a variable that influences social judgments e) It is conceptualized as both a stable characteristic of one’s personality and as a situationally induced motivational state i) This is why some people prefer clear state of knowledge, whereas others do not show such a preference, and is comfortable with inconsistent information about the world f) Research shows that HNS persons may be more likely to use a stereotype to help them arrive at a social evaluation in ambiguous situations. HNS persons are also more likely than LNS individuals to form stereotypes about other groups g) NS can be enhanced by conditions that restrict one’s ability to consider information relevant to a judgment. Such factors include emotions, distraction, too much information, and time pressure to arrive at a judgment i) E.g., increased time pressure leads participants to rely on stereotypes in making their evaluations of a target 3) Need for Cognitive Closure a) Need for cognitive closure (NCC) – an individual-difference variable in which persons who have this motivation tend to need an answer – any answer – on a given topic, so that they may arrive at a conclusion (and not have confusion or ambiguity about the topic), even if the conclusion is incorrect b) NCC is proportionate to the perceived costs for not attaining closure and the perceived rewards for getting cognitive closure c) NCC appears to be a similar construct to authoritarianism and dogmatism, in that they deal with intolerance of ambiguity
i)
However the NCC is not tied to politically conservative attitudes, it is viewed as a contentfree motive d) NCC influences two tendencies in individuals: i) Tendency toward urgency – person has a desire to seize on closure rapidly ii) Tendency toward permanence – individual wishes to preserve a certain state of knowledge and block out subsequent information that might negate the belief e) NCC has significant effects on how individuals process information, and it lead the person to think more heuristically, make more errors in social judgments, and rely on any salient cues to make a fast judgment f) NCC delivers a ‘double hit’ to the social perceiver by: i) Leading them to an often erroneous judgment ii) Motivating the individual to avoid seeking further information relevant to the accuracy of that assessment g) NCC can be enhanced when a judgment on the issues is required or a time constraint is induced. NCC can be reduced by a fear of making an invalid evaluation h) NCC has a significant effect on the information processing of the individual in a range of cognitive tasks i) High NCC tend to rely on stereotypes to a greater extent in their social judgments compared to those low in the need for cognitive closure ii) Research shows that HNCC individuals tended to recall more stereotype-consistent information about a target group, while those low in the need for cognitive closure recalled more stereotype-inconsistent information i) NC, NS, NCC are all essentially measuring a general tendency to avoid ambiguity, and that the distinctions between them are really conceptually insignificant j) However, further research shows that they do not reflect the same construct i) NS and NCC are slightly correlated ii) NC and NCC are slightly negatively correlated iii) Thus, it is evident that they do not reflect the same construct 4) Social-Dominance Orientation a) Social-dominance orientation (SDO) – an attitude toward intergroup relations in which the individual believes that groups are different, that they are organized hierarchically in society, and that some groups naturally are higher in status than others. These individuals strongly prefer and seek to maintain the inequality among groups b) High SDO persons seek to maintain this structure by promoting group inequity and policies that help maintain the dominance one group over another c) Low SDO persons seek to reduce group inequity and eliminate the hierarchical structure of society’s groups d) SDO was strongly correlated with anti-Black racism and sexism e) High SDO is strongly correlated with conservative political views, and opposition to programs and policies that aim to promote equality f) Low SDO individuals tend to hold attitudes that attenuate social hierarchies. I.e., they favour programs and policies that promote equality and hold more liberal political views
g) However, SDO does NOT make any specifications about the foundation of prejudice attitudes (e.g., genetics, fairness, political views) h) The SDO foundation provides a “legitimizing myth” and these beliefs tend to be highly correlated with SDO i) Legitimizing myths must be widely accepted in a society for it to have an impact j) The stabilized oppression is supported by providing a self-evident truth about the rationale for the differential status of certain groups within society k) In this sense, legitimizing myths help society minimize group conflict by promoting the superiority of one group over another l) Dichotomy of society: organizations that favour the strong over the weak, and organizations that promote the interests of the weak over the strong m) People in organizations that are hierarchy enhancing are likely to hold high SDO attitudes. People in organizations that are hierarchy-attenuating should hold attitudes that are consistent with low SDO n) Please note that it may be the case that people with high SDO are drawn to positions that favour those attitudes, and those who have a low SDO wish to work in positions that foster their social attitudes o) Also in most cultures, men prefer to maintain their special status in society over women, and should support policies, legislations, and attitudes that promote the dominance of men over women p) Research shows that men do indeed have significantly higher SDO scores than women q) Men tend to prefer hierarchy-enhancing positions and women favoured hierarchy-attenuating occupations r) High SDO persons oppose a wide range of political and social programs that would attenuate the social hierarchy s) However, people who oppose social programs are not sexist or racist, but rather they oppose these programs on a “principled conservatism” t) However, researches show that SDO can be a measure of racism for the highly educated people u) Research shows that people high in SDO do not differ from those low in SDO on measures of implicit group prejudice v) Interestingly, high SDOs were significantly more likely to show implicit outgroup discrimination and prejudice than low SDO when they perceive a threat w) Also under group threat, high SDOs responded with strong forms of ingroup favouritism and outgroup derogation x) RWA and SDO do not describe personality traits, but rather they are conceptualized as ideological beliefs that influence personality traits and intergroup attitudes y) People who find themselves in a dominant social position are more likely to adopt higher SDO beliefs, and these beliefs are what influences prejudice toward outgroups 5) Summary a) Why have most prejudice researchers not given much attention to the idea that there may be a prejudiced personality? i) Personality approaches underestimate the powerful impact of situational forces
ii) It cannot account for why different groups become targets of prejudice, or why different cultures show differing levels of prejudice toward outgroups iii) It cannot account for the “historical specificity of prejudice”, i.e., why is it the case that prejudice toward certain outgroup has rather suddenly erupted in society, only to recede again (e.g., Nazi anti-Semitism) iv)
(a) It also could not account for why prejudice was higher in one region (e.g., south) than the north (4) The authoritarian-personality perspective suggests that there is little hope of changing an authoritarian individual to be more accepting of others d) Right-Wing Authoritarianism i) In 1994, Altemeyer wrote a paper called the “a case study in overcompensation” ii) He found that three of Adorno’s nine related traits seemed to show a strong relationship with each other. Altemeyer called this “attitudinal clusters”. They are explained below: (1) Authoritarian submission – indicates a strong degree of submission to perceived legitimate authorities in one’s society (2) Authoritarian aggression – a general aggression and hostility directed toward outgroups, that is viewed as acceptable by recognized authorities (3) Conventionalism – a strong adherence to social norms and traditions that are perceived as sanctioned by recognized authorities iii) Together, they are called the Right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) – personality style in which the individual tends to be politically conservative, more punitive toward criminals, more likely to endorse orthodox religious views, and very prejudiced toward outgroups (1) It is also used to denote the difference from Adorno’s psychodynamic authoritarianism iv) High RWA tends to be politically conservative, while low RWA tends to be politically liberal v) Altemeyer, using RWA, have found that people with high RWA tends to be prejudiced toward virtually everyone. He thus calls them “equal-opportunity bigots” vi) RWA individuals are both fearful and self-righteous vii) RWA individuals do not get the experience of socializing with people with different attitudes from their own in their teen years, which is why it is hard to change the rigid attitudes and prejudices of high-RWA individuals later on e) Religion i) There is a positive correlation between being more religious and having less tolerance and more stereotyped cognitions about others ii) The reason may be that with greater adherence to strict tenets of religious scripture comes an increase in the tendency to think in rigid, either-or terms. This will in turn increase the likelihood that one will rely on heuristics iii) Committed versus Consensual Religiosity (1) Other research have found that there is little correlation between religion and prejudice (2) People who support this view believe that the measures of religiosity used by previous researchers were too simplistic (3) Allen classified churchgoers as having either “committed” or “consensual” religious beliefs (a) Committed religious orientation – one that allows an individual to hold a wide range of belief categories through which one can evaluate the world. Committed individuals show a greater tolerance for diversity, and they are more likely to thoughtfully consider different ideas, opinions, and beliefs
f)
(b) Consensual religious individuals – tend to interpret religion more literally and concretely, tend to make more generalizations about religious topics, and relatively unreceptive to different ideas and opinions (4) Thus, consensual religiosity was closely associated with prejudiced attitudes, and committed religious beliefs were strongly associated with greater tolerance and nonprejudiced attitudes iv) Extrinsic versus Intrinsic Religious Orientations (1) Allport in 1967 examined 2 different types of religious individuals, extrinsic and intrinsic religious orientation (a) Extrinsic people use religion for their own purposes, attend church infrequently and tend to be more prejudiced toward others (b) Intrinsic people are those who have internalized the values of their religion, live life according to these beliefs, attend church regularly, and tend to be more egalitarian (2) Some critics say that the measure used by Allport, the Religious Orientation Scale (ROS) is inaccurate (3) Other critics say that because the ROS is a self-reporting measure of a sensitive topic, it is very prone to become influenced by social desirability v) Religion as Quest (1) Batson did a study in 1978 using a different religious orientation called “Quest” orientation (2) Quest orientation sees religion as a “process of questioning, doubting, and reexamination in response to the contradictions and tragedies of life” (3) High quest orientation was negatively correlated with prejudice (4) Quest orientation correlate positively with prosocial behaviour, such as compassion (5) Critics say that it is too simplistic to measure a broad religious orientation and correlate it with prejudice (6) Religion fosters both tolerance of groups accepted by the church and intolerance of groups not acceptable to the church Need for Cognition i) Need for cognition (NC) concept – an individual-difference variable that describes the dispositional motivation of an individual to think about the world; the higher this motivation is, the more the individual enjoys thinking about, seeking, and pondering problems and information about the world (1) The variable refers to the motivational state of an individual to think about the world (2) High NC (HNC) tend to think about, seek, and ponder information relevant to the relationships among people, events, and objects in their environment (3) Low NC (LNC) people are neither motivated to nor excited by thinking about their environment (a) They prefer to avoid extensive cognition, and instead they rely on more heuristic types of thinking that allows them to make quick judgments with the least effort
(4) Note that HNC individuals remembered more stereotype-consistent information about a target than did LNC persons, but they were unaffected by target-relevant stereotypes when forming impressions of a target (5) LNC persons tend to rely on stereotypes when forming impressions of a target, but when they later recall information about that target, their recollections tend to be unaffected by stereotypes (6) The difference between HNC and LNC individuals in levels of careful cognition is greatest when the situation exerts a moderate level of influence 2) Need for Structure a) People differ in the degree to which they desire clear, certain, or unambiguous knowledge b) Knowledge can be norms, emotions, or attitudes c) Need for structure (NS) – an individual-different variable in which those who have a high degree of this motivation tend to desire clear, certain, or unambiguous knowledge (structure) about a topic i) people with high need for structure prefer to halt the acquisition of further information about the world with regard to a particular aspect of knowledge ii) HNS individuals seek a definite, clear answer, and the process of further information gathering would pose a threat to the stability and clarity of one’s current state of thinking, because such information might contain knowledge-inconsistent information d) Need for structure construct is a variable that influences social judgments e) It is conceptualized as both a stable characteristic of one’s personality and as a situationally induced motivational state i) This is why some people prefer clear state of knowledge, whereas others do not show such a preference, and is comfortable with inconsistent information about the world f) Research shows that HNS persons may be more likely to use a stereotype to help them arrive at a social evaluation in ambiguous situations. HNS persons are also more likely than LNS individuals to form stereotypes about other groups g) NS can be enhanced by conditions that restrict one’s ability to consider information relevant to a judgment. Such factors include emotions, distraction, too much information, and time pressure to arrive at a judgment i) E.g., increased time pressure leads participants to rely on stereotypes in making their evaluations of a target 3) Need for Cognitive Closure a) Need for cognitive closure (NCC) – an individual-difference variable in which persons who have this motivation tend to need an answer – any answer – on a given topic, so that they may arrive at a conclusion (and not have confusion or ambiguity about the topic), even if the conclusion is incorrect b) NCC is proportionate to the perceived costs for not attaining closure and the perceived rewards for getting cognitive closure c) NCC appears to be a similar construct to authoritarianism and dogmatism, in that they deal with intolerance of ambiguity
i)
However the NCC is not tied to politically conservative attitudes, it is viewed as a contentfree motive d) NCC influences two tendencies in individuals: i) Tendency toward urgency – person has a desire to seize on closure rapidly ii) Tendency toward permanence – individual wishes to preserve a certain state of knowledge and block out subsequent information that might negate the belief e) NCC has significant effects on how individuals process information, and it lead the person to think more heuristically, make more errors in social judgments, and rely on any salient cues to make a fast judgment f) NCC delivers a ‘double hit’ to the social perceiver by: i) Leading them to an often erroneous judgment ii) Motivating the individual to avoid seeking further information relevant to the accuracy of that assessment g) NCC can be enhanced when a judgment on the issues is required or a time constraint is induced. NCC can be reduced by a fear of making an invalid evaluation h) NCC has a significant effect on the information processing of the individual in a range of cognitive tasks i) High NCC tend to rely on stereotypes to a greater extent in their social judgments compared to those low in the need for cognitive closure ii) Research shows that HNCC individuals tended to recall more stereotype-consistent information about a target group, while those low in the need for cognitive closure recalled more stereotype-inconsistent information i) NC, NS, NCC are all essentially measuring a general tendency to avoid ambiguity, and that the distinctions between them are really conceptually insignificant j) However, further research shows that they do not reflect the same construct i) NS and NCC are slightly correlated ii) NC and NCC are slightly negatively correlated iii) Thus, it is evident that they do not reflect the same construct 4) Social-Dominance Orientation a) Social-dominance orientation (SDO) – an attitude toward intergroup relations in which the individual believes that groups are different, that they are organized hierarchically in society, and that some groups naturally are higher in status than others. These individuals strongly prefer and seek to maintain the inequality among groups b) High SDO persons seek to maintain this structure by promoting group inequity and policies that help maintain the dominance one group over another c) Low SDO persons seek to reduce group inequity and eliminate the hierarchical structure of society’s groups d) SDO was strongly correlated with anti-Black racism and sexism e) High SDO is strongly correlated with conservative political views, and opposition to programs and policies that aim to promote equality f) Low SDO individuals tend to hold attitudes that attenuate social hierarchies. I.e., they favour programs and policies that promote equality and hold more liberal political views
g) However, SDO does NOT make any specifications about the foundation of prejudice attitudes (e.g., genetics, fairness, political views) h) The SDO foundation provides a “legitimizing myth” and these beliefs tend to be highly correlated with SDO i) Legitimizing myths must be widely accepted in a society for it to have an impact j) The stabilized oppression is supported by providing a self-evident truth about the rationale for the differential status of certain groups within society k) In this sense, legitimizing myths help society minimize group conflict by promoting the superiority of one group over another l) Dichotomy of society: organizations that favour the strong over the weak, and organizations that promote the interests of the weak over the strong m) People in organizations that are hierarchy enhancing are likely to hold high SDO attitudes. People in organizations that are hierarchy-attenuating should hold attitudes that are consistent with low SDO n) Please note that it may be the case that people with high SDO are drawn to positions that favour those attitudes, and those who have a low SDO wish to work in positions that foster their social attitudes o) Also in most cultures, men prefer to maintain their special status in society over women, and should support policies, legislations, and attitudes that promote the dominance of men over women p) Research shows that men do indeed have significantly higher SDO scores than women q) Men tend to prefer hierarchy-enhancing positions and women favoured hierarchy-attenuating occupations r) High SDO persons oppose a wide range of political and social programs that would attenuate the social hierarchy s) However, people who oppose social programs are not sexist or racist, but rather they oppose these programs on a “principled conservatism” t) However, researches show that SDO can be a measure of racism for the highly educated people u) Research shows that people high in SDO do not differ from those low in SDO on measures of implicit group prejudice v) Interestingly, high SDOs were significantly more likely to show implicit outgroup discrimination and prejudice than low SDO when they perceive a threat w) Also under group threat, high SDOs responded with strong forms of ingroup favouritism and outgroup derogation x) RWA and SDO do not describe personality traits, but rather they are conceptualized as ideological beliefs that influence personality traits and intergroup attitudes y) People who find themselves in a dominant social position are more likely to adopt higher SDO beliefs, and these beliefs are what influences prejudice toward outgroups 5) Summary a) Why have most prejudice researchers not given much attention to the idea that there may be a prejudiced personality? i) Personality approaches underestimate the powerful impact of situational forces
ii) It cannot account for why different groups become targets of prejudice, or why different cultures show differing levels of prejudice toward outgroups iii) It cannot account for the “historical specificity of prejudice”, i.e., why is it the case that prejudice toward certain outgroup has rather suddenly erupted in society, only to recede again (e.g., Nazi anti-Semitism) iv)
