Chapter 9: Reducing Prejudice (p. 240-262) amazonaws com
Chapter 9: Reducing Prejudice (p. 240-262) -
People tend to make assumptions about groups with which they have little contact, or about which they have little knowledge about.
Contact hypothesis: the notion that bringing two outgroups together in a situation will result in decreased prejudice and stereotyping. -
Research indicates that in many situations of mere contact, roughly 50% of the interactions felt more positive about the outgroup, but about 50% of the time, people felt more negative toward the outgroup.
Allport specified four fundamental criteria for positive intergroup contact to occur: 1. Equal-status members 2. Common goals 3. Intergroup cooperation 4. Support of legitimate authority Pettigrew’s Reformulated Contact Theory -
Decategorization: when people begin to see each other in terms of their personalities and characteristics rather than their group membership.
-
By individuating members of the outgroup, one realizes they are unique and comparable to one’s ingroup.
-
Recategorization: the intergroup context is configured to encourage a breakdown of “us” versus “them” distinct categories, and to form broader “we” category by making members of both groups see they have more in common
-
Pettigrew’s reformulation of the contact situation is a promising model.
SHERIFF’S ROBBER’S CAVE STUDY: THE SUPERORDINATE GOAL -
Relating back to the boys camp experiment
-
When two groups completed for scarce resources, prejudice and stereotypes between the two groups will result.
Robber’s Cave study: Sheriff’s classic study that found support for the realistic-conflict theory and that also demonstrated how giving prejudiced groups a superordinate goal can greatly reduce prejudice by blurring the lines between ingroup and outgroup membership.
Superordinate goal: a task that requires the cooperation and efforts of two or more individuals to be completed successfully. -
Sheriff’s study showed that prejudice and outgroup hostility can be caused by competition, but can be greatly reduced via intergroup cooperation on a superordinate goal.
Common Ingroup Identity -
Prejudice can be greatly reduced through the encouragement of superordinate ingroup identities.
-
Intergroup prejudice can be reduced by breaking down the salience of the groups’ category membership and by getting the groups to reconceptualise themselves as all members of a larger, common ingroup identity.
-
However, holding two separate group identities can lead to increased likelihood of prejudice and discrimination toward outgroups.
THE “CONFRONTATION TECHNIQUE” OF ROKEACH Cognitive-dissonance theory: states that inconsistent thoughts and/or behaviours bring about negative arousal. The arousal will motivate the individual to change one, or both of the inconsistencies in order to make them consistent and to reduce the negative arousal. -
RWA individuals are characterized by three main features: a) high degree of submission, b) aggression, and c) conventionalism.
-
RWA’s are highly prejudiced to anyone that is different than them.
THE JIGSAW CLASSROOM -
Researchers made individual competiveness incomparable with success and set up the classroom such that success only resulted from cooperation.
Jigsaw system: technique for prejudice reduction in which outgroups are formed into small, cooperative, and interdependent groups that are working toward a common goal. Each group comprises an equal number of ingroup and outgroup members who contribute equally to the task success. -
Children ended up liking their group members more than others in the classroom.
-
Cooperative jigsaw settings are very effective in increasing positive intergroup attitudes and behaviour and in decreasing stereotyping and prejudice.
-
More likely to think of group members in terms f individual attributes rather than terms of their category (i.e. race, gender, etc.).
-
In people have time to consider the discrepancy between their feelings for the outgroup member in the cooperative group and toward outgroup, they may be more likely to generalize their positive feelings toward the outgroup.
EDUCATION, EMPATHY, AND ROLE PLAYING -
Under certain conditions, low-prejudice students can act as peer socializers and models of tolerance, and this can be an effective means of reducing prejudice in their fellow students.
THE COLOR-BLIND APPROACH -
Suggests prejudice and stereotyping can be reduced if people were asked to not consider race when thinking about a person.
-
This approach suffers from a number of problems – fails to recognize the continuing significance of prejudice and discrimination in society.
CURRENT APPROACHES TO PREJUDICE REDUCTION -
Researchers found there is often a dissociation between Whites’ self-reported attitudes towards Blacks, and their indirectly assessed attitudes.
Functional approach: says that stereotyping and prejudice serve various motivational functions for different individuals. To reduce prejudice, it is important to understand what functions the stereotype serve and provide substitute psychological processes that do not entail stereotyping others but still allow the functions to be served. Normative influence: suggests that to reduce prejudice, it is important to make anti-prejudice norms salient. Once people are made aware of the social sanctions against prejudice, they will be less likely to express and endorse prejudice. -
Experiments have shown if social norms are salient for a particular (non-prejudiced behaviour) in a given situation, then expressions of prejudice and discrimination are much less likely to occur in those situations.
-
Participants in an experiment who overheard antiracist views tended to express more strongly antiracist opinions compared with those who overheard neutral or racist views.
Self-Regulation -
How prejudice reduction might occur based on self-regulating principles.
-
Monteith suggests self-regulation tendencies may be activated in low-prejudice persons who experience a discrepancy between their thoughts and behaviour and their egalitarian values and beliefs.
Dissociation model: states that low-and high-prejudice individuals automatically activate stereotypes of outgroups, but that low-prejudice persons also inhibit these thoughts with their egalitarian personal beliefs. -
With enough practice and motivation, people can drop prejudicial attitudes and beliefs associated with an outgroup.
-
Perspective-taking is better than stereotype-suppression.
Confrontation technique: a process whereby the individual is reminded of their endorsement of egalitarian values then confronted with the fact that they also hold attitudes that are inconsistent with egalitarian values (i.e. stereotypes). When individuals are faced with this discrepancy, they will be motivated to change their attitudes (which are more malleable than values) to make them consistent with their values. Realistic conflict theory: a theory on the origin of prejudice which suggests that when two groups compete for scarce resources, prejudice will arise between them. Transactional approach: suggests that prejudice reduction is most likely to occur when people interact cooperatively toward a common goal, and when they have motivation and opportunity to form friendships with outgroup members in that context.
People tend to make assumptions about groups with which they have little contact, or about which they have little knowledge about.
Contact hypothesis: the notion that bringing two outgroups together in a situation will result in decreased prejudice and stereotyping. -
Research indicates that in many situations of mere contact, roughly 50% of the interactions felt more positive about the outgroup, but about 50% of the time, people felt more negative toward the outgroup.
Allport specified four fundamental criteria for positive intergroup contact to occur: 1. Equal-status members 2. Common goals 3. Intergroup cooperation 4. Support of legitimate authority Pettigrew’s Reformulated Contact Theory -
Decategorization: when people begin to see each other in terms of their personalities and characteristics rather than their group membership.
-
By individuating members of the outgroup, one realizes they are unique and comparable to one’s ingroup.
-
Recategorization: the intergroup context is configured to encourage a breakdown of “us” versus “them” distinct categories, and to form broader “we” category by making members of both groups see they have more in common
-
Pettigrew’s reformulation of the contact situation is a promising model.
SHERIFF’S ROBBER’S CAVE STUDY: THE SUPERORDINATE GOAL -
Relating back to the boys camp experiment
-
When two groups completed for scarce resources, prejudice and stereotypes between the two groups will result.
Robber’s Cave study: Sheriff’s classic study that found support for the realistic-conflict theory and that also demonstrated how giving prejudiced groups a superordinate goal can greatly reduce prejudice by blurring the lines between ingroup and outgroup membership.
Superordinate goal: a task that requires the cooperation and efforts of two or more individuals to be completed successfully. -
Sheriff’s study showed that prejudice and outgroup hostility can be caused by competition, but can be greatly reduced via intergroup cooperation on a superordinate goal.
Common Ingroup Identity -
Prejudice can be greatly reduced through the encouragement of superordinate ingroup identities.
-
Intergroup prejudice can be reduced by breaking down the salience of the groups’ category membership and by getting the groups to reconceptualise themselves as all members of a larger, common ingroup identity.
-
However, holding two separate group identities can lead to increased likelihood of prejudice and discrimination toward outgroups.
THE “CONFRONTATION TECHNIQUE” OF ROKEACH Cognitive-dissonance theory: states that inconsistent thoughts and/or behaviours bring about negative arousal. The arousal will motivate the individual to change one, or both of the inconsistencies in order to make them consistent and to reduce the negative arousal. -
RWA individuals are characterized by three main features: a) high degree of submission, b) aggression, and c) conventionalism.
-
RWA’s are highly prejudiced to anyone that is different than them.
THE JIGSAW CLASSROOM -
Researchers made individual competiveness incomparable with success and set up the classroom such that success only resulted from cooperation.
Jigsaw system: technique for prejudice reduction in which outgroups are formed into small, cooperative, and interdependent groups that are working toward a common goal. Each group comprises an equal number of ingroup and outgroup members who contribute equally to the task success. -
Children ended up liking their group members more than others in the classroom.
-
Cooperative jigsaw settings are very effective in increasing positive intergroup attitudes and behaviour and in decreasing stereotyping and prejudice.
-
More likely to think of group members in terms f individual attributes rather than terms of their category (i.e. race, gender, etc.).
-
In people have time to consider the discrepancy between their feelings for the outgroup member in the cooperative group and toward outgroup, they may be more likely to generalize their positive feelings toward the outgroup.
EDUCATION, EMPATHY, AND ROLE PLAYING -
Under certain conditions, low-prejudice students can act as peer socializers and models of tolerance, and this can be an effective means of reducing prejudice in their fellow students.
THE COLOR-BLIND APPROACH -
Suggests prejudice and stereotyping can be reduced if people were asked to not consider race when thinking about a person.
-
This approach suffers from a number of problems – fails to recognize the continuing significance of prejudice and discrimination in society.
CURRENT APPROACHES TO PREJUDICE REDUCTION -
Researchers found there is often a dissociation between Whites’ self-reported attitudes towards Blacks, and their indirectly assessed attitudes.
Functional approach: says that stereotyping and prejudice serve various motivational functions for different individuals. To reduce prejudice, it is important to understand what functions the stereotype serve and provide substitute psychological processes that do not entail stereotyping others but still allow the functions to be served. Normative influence: suggests that to reduce prejudice, it is important to make anti-prejudice norms salient. Once people are made aware of the social sanctions against prejudice, they will be less likely to express and endorse prejudice. -
Experiments have shown if social norms are salient for a particular (non-prejudiced behaviour) in a given situation, then expressions of prejudice and discrimination are much less likely to occur in those situations.
-
Participants in an experiment who overheard antiracist views tended to express more strongly antiracist opinions compared with those who overheard neutral or racist views.
Self-Regulation -
How prejudice reduction might occur based on self-regulating principles.
-
Monteith suggests self-regulation tendencies may be activated in low-prejudice persons who experience a discrepancy between their thoughts and behaviour and their egalitarian values and beliefs.
Dissociation model: states that low-and high-prejudice individuals automatically activate stereotypes of outgroups, but that low-prejudice persons also inhibit these thoughts with their egalitarian personal beliefs. -
With enough practice and motivation, people can drop prejudicial attitudes and beliefs associated with an outgroup.
-
Perspective-taking is better than stereotype-suppression.
Confrontation technique: a process whereby the individual is reminded of their endorsement of egalitarian values then confronted with the fact that they also hold attitudes that are inconsistent with egalitarian values (i.e. stereotypes). When individuals are faced with this discrepancy, they will be motivated to change their attitudes (which are more malleable than values) to make them consistent with their values. Realistic conflict theory: a theory on the origin of prejudice which suggests that when two groups compete for scarce resources, prejudice will arise between them. Transactional approach: suggests that prejudice reduction is most likely to occur when people interact cooperatively toward a common goal, and when they have motivation and opportunity to form friendships with outgroup members in that context.
