Prejudice, Stereotyping and
Discrimination
What is prejudice?
l an attitude, usually negative
l evident when members of a majority group
develop negative attitudes towards
members of a minority group; they feel
superior to the minority group
What is prejudice?
l Negative prejudices stem from:
– social learning
l observation of people in real life, on TV, in
books, etc
l reinforcement with social approval
– social inequalities causing resentment,
requiring justification by better off
Describe this person’s personality.
You have just stereotyped!
What’s good about stereotyping?
It makes things easy; categorising someone
as a member of a group and inferring they
share that group’s characteristics saves time
and energy.
Stereotyping is a way of seeking mental
efficiency.
So when is cognitive simplicity bad?
Seeking mental efficiency
What are the effects of
simplification?
– between group distinctions are
sharpened
– within group distinctions softened
→ perceived out-group homogeneity,
i.e. over-estimating how similar
members of another group are
to each other
Impressions and Expressions (stereotyping of paintings)
http://www.ablongman.com/html/mindmatters2/activities/m12/hp12ac19.htm
Seeking mental efficiency
Stereotypes are overall impressions
based on the assumption that all
members of a group possess similar
attributes; may lead to prejudice,
affecting one's emotion.
This can lead to changing
behaviour, sometimes leading to
discrimination.
Generalised feelings
PREJUDICE towards members of
a group
Behaviours directed
DISCRIMINATION towards people on the
basis of their group
membership
Generalised belief
STEREOTYPE about members of a
group
Prejudice:- the ABC of prejudice
Stereotypes
l List some other stereotypes.
l Are these stereotypes positive or negative?
l Were the stereotypes mentioned focussing on
males, females, or neither?
l Do you see yourself as belonging to any of
the groups mentioned? Which ones?
Stereotypes
A useful link that that examines the media’s
portrayal of young people:
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/
special_initiatives/toolkit/stereotypes/index.cfm
Summarise the main points in the three
sections available to you.
How can conflict breed more?
l How can an initial Group
Group B seen
seen as
as threat
threat
threat lead to its
confirmation?
Group A acts in
competitive manner
l What type of
situations are
more likely to
Group A seen as threat
contribute to this? by group B
– poverty
– social
dominance
Group B acts hostile
Reducing PSD
l What can we do to reduce the existence or
expression of prejudice, stereotyping, and
discrimination?
l See prejudice in action on:
http://www.understandingprejudice.org/
segregation/board1.htm
l Find out how to reduce prejudice on:
http://www.ablongman.com/html/
mindmatters2/activities/m12/hp12ac20.htm
Reducing PSD
l Co-operation
l Since prejudice can result from
competition between groups, strategies for
reducing prejudice should be based on the
idea of promoting co-operation instead.
l Co-operative learning strategies include
getting members of two distinct groups to
perceive themselves as having common
goals.
Reducing PSD
l Contact
l If members of different groups are brought
together to interact under the appropriate
conditions, prejudice between the groups
should be reduced.
Reducing PSD
l Contact
l In theory, getting to know members of
another group as individuals and
discovering similarities between the groups
should be beneficial in breaking up
stereotypes.
l However, this requires everyone having
similar status and common goals to work.
Reducing PSD
l Critical Thinking
l Teaching people to identify common errors
in reasoning, such as over-generalisations,
may allow them to become more aware of
the impact of groups biases and
stereotypes.
Reducing PSD
l Empathy
l Using simulations and role-playing, people
can be encouraged to take the perspective
of members of other groups.
l Exposing children to multicultural
characters in literature and films provides
an opportunity for them to identify, and
perhaps empathise with, members of other
racial or ethnic groups.
Reducing PSD
l Positive acts toward another person breed
liking for that person.
l This works with racial attitudes as well.
l Decreased discriminatory behaviours lead
to improved racial attitudes.
Overcoming stereotypes
Racial Attitudes
Visit
http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/livepsych/
media/interface/index.htm?
atitle=Prejudice&id1=28_1&id2=28_2&sid=28_1
to find out more about prejudice.
Stereotypes
l Visit the following site on stereotypes:
http://college.hmco.com/psychology/brehm/
social_psychology/5e/students/netlabs.html
– Do Chapter 5 : What do you know about prejudice?
– Do Chapter 6 : Who would you most trust to tell the
truth?
l Visit
http://bcs.worthpublishers.com/myers6e/content/
psychquest/08index.htm
and complete “Connections – stereotyping in every day
life”.
