Wize University Psychology Textbook > Social Psychology
Prejudice, Judgment, & Stereotyping
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Prejudice, Judgment, & Stereotyping
The human brain's vulnerability to biases, attributional errors, and group membership can sometimes lead to harmful beliefs or attitudes!
Prejudice - a negative attitude towards someone based on their group membership (ethnicity, gender, political orientation, etc.)
Like all attitudes, prejudice has three components (ABCs of Attitude):
1. Affective - how we feel about something
2. Behavioural - how we act towards something
3. Cognitive - how we think about something
Discrimination - unfair behaviour towards someone based on their group membership (the B of the ABCs of Attitude)
Judgement - forming opinions or beliefs about others, can often be influenced by prejudice and stereotypes
Stereotype - generalized and broad beliefs about a person based on their group membership rather than their individual characteristics
- Can be positive (i.e. people with brown hair are better at math) or negative (i.e. tall people are worse drivers)
- Can lead to stereotype threat, or when group members perform more poorly or fulfill the stereotype when they are made aware of it
- Example: when women are made aware of the stereotype that they are worse at math than men, they end up performing more poorly on math assessments. This can create a self-fulfilling prophecy
Social Identity Theory - suggests that people feel find self-esteem in their group membership. Therefore, we might feel more protective of our in-group ("us") and more threatened by the out-group ("them"), which can lead to prejudice.
Equal status contact - one method of reducing prejudice. Involves fostering contact and cooperation between people of different groups that have equal status and are working towards a common goal.