Social Psychology – Chapter 6 – Prejudice and Discriminaton
Prejudice – negatie emotonal response or dislike based on group membership
Discrimination – differental (usually negatie) behaiiors directed toward member of
different social groups
Discriminaton treatment can be based on many different category memberships
including age, race, marital status, occupaton, gender, religion, language spoken,
sexual orientaton, and body weight
All f orms of differental treatment based on group membership are not perceiied
and responded to in the same way some f orms: legitmatee others: striied to be
actiely eliminated a
How Members of Different roups Perceiie Inequality
Perceptons of how much progress has been made in moiing toward equality
Whites: a lot of progress
Blacks: not much progress
“racial diiide”
When change is seen as a potental loss, those who are priiileged respond more
negatiely to f urther change and suppose that more change has already occurred
compared to those who don´t see it as loss f or them
When equality is f ramed as loss f or whites, they perceiie that more progress has
already occurred and they´re less supportie of aarmatie acton
o support f or aarmatie acton f or black (south) Af ricans depends on the extent to
which they´re perceiied as a threat to white (south) Americans high-status jobs
and access to good housing
Kahneman &Tiersky´s prospect theory: people are risk averse – we weigh all possible losses
more heaiily than equiialent potental gainss As a result, we respond more negatiely to
changes that are f ramed as potental losses than positiely to changes that are f ramed to
potental gains
The Nature and Origins of Stereotyping
Stereotypes – belief s about social groups in terms of the traits or characteristcs that they
are belieied to shares Stereotypes are cognitie f rameworks that infuence the processing of
social inf ormaton
attitude approach: some groups are characterided by negatie stereotypes, leading to a
general f eeling of hostlity, resultng in a conscious intenton to discriminate against
members of the targeted group
Stereotyping: Belief s About Social roups
Gender Stereotypes – stereotypes concerning the traits possessed by f emales and males
and that distnguish the two genders f rom each other
o typically conierse of each other (esgs women: high on warmth – low on
confdencee men: high on competence – low on communal atributed)
, o women seem to be liked more than men key problem: the traits women
possess iiewed as less appropriate f or high-status positons than the traits
presumed to be possessed by men (“support roles” rather than “leadership
roles”)
Stereotypes and the “Glass Ceiling”
women partcularly underrepresented in the corporate world
o only 16% of corporate oacers in the UsSs are women
o only 1% of CEO positons in 00 companies are occupied by women
politcal power structure dominated by malese but women seek elected oace in
record numbers
in corporate settings women can´t get higher than into middle management
o glass ceiling – barriers based on attitudinal or organidatonal bias that preient
qualifed f emales f rom adiancing to top-leiel positons
“think manager – think male” bias maintains glass ceiling
gender stereotyping in workplace contexts is weakening
o but when women iiolate stereotypic expectancies concerning warmth and
nurturance, and instead act according to the prototype leader likely to f ace
hostlity and rejecton
Gender Stereotypes and the “Glass Clif”
glass cliff effect – choosing women f or leadership positons that are risky, precarious,
or when the outcome is more likely to result in f ailure
o when men´s stereotypic leadership atributes aren´t working (seen in
downhill trend) then are women with their presumed stereotypic
communal atributed seen as suitable f or leadership
Objectification of females –regarding them as mere bodies that exist f or pleasure of the
others
Consequences of Token Women in High Places
presence of a f ew successf ul women leads those not achieiing similar success to
belieie that they only haie themselies to blame
tokenism, where only a f ew members of a preiiously excluded group are admited
highly effectie strategy f or deterring collectie protest in disadiantaged groups
o token conditons – to the same degree as when there is equal gender
representaton – encourages women to maintain their f aith that they can
moie up and engenders allegiance to organidatons where they are
substantally underrepresented
tokenism – can ref er to hiring based on group memberships It can concern a
numerically inf requent presence of members of a partcular category or it can ref er
to instances where indiiiduals perf orm triiial positie actons f or members of out-
groups that are later used as an excuse f or ref using more meaningf ul benefcial
actons f or members of these groups
negatie consequences:
o token practces appear to serie to maintain the status quo by making women
´s token representaton in organidatonal settings appear f air
Prejudice – negatie emotonal response or dislike based on group membership
Discrimination – differental (usually negatie) behaiiors directed toward member of
different social groups
Discriminaton treatment can be based on many different category memberships
including age, race, marital status, occupaton, gender, religion, language spoken,
sexual orientaton, and body weight
All f orms of differental treatment based on group membership are not perceiied
and responded to in the same way some f orms: legitmatee others: striied to be
actiely eliminated a
How Members of Different roups Perceiie Inequality
Perceptons of how much progress has been made in moiing toward equality
Whites: a lot of progress
Blacks: not much progress
“racial diiide”
When change is seen as a potental loss, those who are priiileged respond more
negatiely to f urther change and suppose that more change has already occurred
compared to those who don´t see it as loss f or them
When equality is f ramed as loss f or whites, they perceiie that more progress has
already occurred and they´re less supportie of aarmatie acton
o support f or aarmatie acton f or black (south) Af ricans depends on the extent to
which they´re perceiied as a threat to white (south) Americans high-status jobs
and access to good housing
Kahneman &Tiersky´s prospect theory: people are risk averse – we weigh all possible losses
more heaiily than equiialent potental gainss As a result, we respond more negatiely to
changes that are f ramed as potental losses than positiely to changes that are f ramed to
potental gains
The Nature and Origins of Stereotyping
Stereotypes – belief s about social groups in terms of the traits or characteristcs that they
are belieied to shares Stereotypes are cognitie f rameworks that infuence the processing of
social inf ormaton
attitude approach: some groups are characterided by negatie stereotypes, leading to a
general f eeling of hostlity, resultng in a conscious intenton to discriminate against
members of the targeted group
Stereotyping: Belief s About Social roups
Gender Stereotypes – stereotypes concerning the traits possessed by f emales and males
and that distnguish the two genders f rom each other
o typically conierse of each other (esgs women: high on warmth – low on
confdencee men: high on competence – low on communal atributed)
, o women seem to be liked more than men key problem: the traits women
possess iiewed as less appropriate f or high-status positons than the traits
presumed to be possessed by men (“support roles” rather than “leadership
roles”)
Stereotypes and the “Glass Ceiling”
women partcularly underrepresented in the corporate world
o only 16% of corporate oacers in the UsSs are women
o only 1% of CEO positons in 00 companies are occupied by women
politcal power structure dominated by malese but women seek elected oace in
record numbers
in corporate settings women can´t get higher than into middle management
o glass ceiling – barriers based on attitudinal or organidatonal bias that preient
qualifed f emales f rom adiancing to top-leiel positons
“think manager – think male” bias maintains glass ceiling
gender stereotyping in workplace contexts is weakening
o but when women iiolate stereotypic expectancies concerning warmth and
nurturance, and instead act according to the prototype leader likely to f ace
hostlity and rejecton
Gender Stereotypes and the “Glass Clif”
glass cliff effect – choosing women f or leadership positons that are risky, precarious,
or when the outcome is more likely to result in f ailure
o when men´s stereotypic leadership atributes aren´t working (seen in
downhill trend) then are women with their presumed stereotypic
communal atributed seen as suitable f or leadership
Objectification of females –regarding them as mere bodies that exist f or pleasure of the
others
Consequences of Token Women in High Places
presence of a f ew successf ul women leads those not achieiing similar success to
belieie that they only haie themselies to blame
tokenism, where only a f ew members of a preiiously excluded group are admited
highly effectie strategy f or deterring collectie protest in disadiantaged groups
o token conditons – to the same degree as when there is equal gender
representaton – encourages women to maintain their f aith that they can
moie up and engenders allegiance to organidatons where they are
substantally underrepresented
tokenism – can ref er to hiring based on group memberships It can concern a
numerically inf requent presence of members of a partcular category or it can ref er
to instances where indiiiduals perf orm triiial positie actons f or members of out-
groups that are later used as an excuse f or ref using more meaningf ul benefcial
actons f or members of these groups
negatie consequences:
o token practces appear to serie to maintain the status quo by making women
´s token representaton in organidatonal settings appear f air
