After Chapter 10.3, you will be able to:
While stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination are terms that are related and often used together, they are very different concepts. Stereotypes are viewed as cognitive, prejudice as affective, and discrimination as behavioral. Stereotypes refer to the expectations, impressions, and opinions about the characteristics of members of a group. Prejudice reflects the overall attitude and emotional response to a group. Discrimination refers to differences in actions toward different groups.
Note: Kaplan Test Prep does not endorse or encourage any of the stereotypes mentioned in this chapter; they are included only as examples.
Despite their negative connotations, stereotypes are fundamentally necessary to everyday life. In a psychological sense, the purpose of a stereotype is to make sense of a complex world by categorizing and systematizing information in order to better identify items, predict their behavior, and react. In the context of stereotyping what different items of furniture look like, how different types of stores operate, or how different cuisines taste, stereotypes are extremely useful in defining categories and determining what does or does not fit into that category. However, when stereotypes are used to develop prejudices toward others and to discriminate, they are being appropriated for negative uses.
In the context of sociology, stereotypes occur when attitudes and impressions are based on limited and superficial information about a person or a group of individuals. The content of stereotypes are the attributes that people believe define and characterize a group. The stereotype content model attempts to classify stereotypes with respect to a hypothetical in-group using two dimensions: warmth and competence. Warm groups are those that are not in direct competition with the in-group for resources; competent groups are those that have high status within society. The four possible combinations of warmth and competence are shown in Figure 10.8 and are associated with distinct emotions.
Paternalistic stereotypes are those in which the group is looked down upon as inferior, dismissed, or ignored. Contemptuous stereotypes are those in which the group is viewed with resentment, annoyance, or anger. Envious stereotypes are those in which the group is viewed with jealousy, bitterness, or distrust. Admiration stereotypes are those in which the group is viewed with pride and other positive feelings.
Stereotypes can lead to expectations of certain groups of individuals. This expectation can create conditions that lead to confirmation of those expectations, a process referred to as self-fulfilling prophecy. You may experience a self-fulfilling prophecy during your first days of surgery clerkship in medical school. During their first year in the wards, medical students are stereotyped as being unable to quickly and efficiently throw knots during a surgery. With this knowledge in mind, many medical students are nervous to suture for the first time and may struggle with every step of the knot-tying process. This validates the stereotype and thus completes the self-fulfilling prophecy.
Stereotype threat refers to the concept of people being concerned or anxious about confirming a negative stereotype about one’s social group. Stereotype threat can cause reduced performance, encourage self-handicapping strategies, and lower one’s personal investment in an activity. Some examples of stereotype threat include white males in sports, women driving, and homosexual couples providing childcare. Due to the awareness of stereotypes, individuals may perform worse or avoid performance altogether. The vulnerability of an individual to stereotype threat is in part based on how highly he or she identifies with the stereotyped group. However, stereotype threat can occur simply based on the presence of others. It has been shown that women taking a math exam with other women present scored higher than when taking a math exam when only men were present. Gender was not mentioned or emphasized, but it is possible that self-identification with a group and awareness of a stereotype resulted in reduced performance.
Stereotype threat is concern or anxiety about confirming a negative stereotype about one’s group. This may hinder performance, which may actually create a self-fulfilling prophecy.
From a social psychology approach, prejudice is defined as an irrational positive or negative attitude toward a person, group, or thing, prior to an actual experience with that entity. The process of socialization results in the formation of attitudes regarding our own groups and a sense of identity as an individual and a group member. Prejudice can form in response to dissimilarities among groups, races, ethnicities, or even environments. While racial and ethnic prejudices against individuals are at the forefront of most people’s minds, prejudices exist against objects and places as well. For instance, people have attitudes toward different regions of the country based on culture, weather, and history; which car manufacturers are the most reliable; what types of food are considered unhealthy; and even what types of animals make good pets. Prejudicial attitudes can run the gamut from hate to love, contempt to admiration, and indifference to loyalty.
Prejudices may be kept internally or shared with the larger community. Propaganda is a common way by which large organizations and political groups attempt to create prejudices in others. Propaganda posters often invoke messages of fear, and depictions of the target group are often exaggerated to an absurd degree.
There are a variety of social factors that influence prejudice. Three of the most important are power, prestige, and class. Power refers to the ability of people or groups to achieve their goals despite any obstacles, and their ability to control resources. Prestige is the level of respect shown to a person by others. Class refers to socioeconomic status. Social inequality, or the unequal distribution of power, resources, money, or prestige, can result in the grouping of haves and have-nots. Have-nots may develop a negative attitude toward haves based on jealousy. Haves may develop a negative attitude toward have-nots as a defense mechanism to justify the fact that they have more.
Ethnocentrism refers to the practice of making judgments about other cultures based on the values and beliefs of one’s own culture, especially when it comes to language, customs, and religion. Ethnocentrism can manifest in many ways, from innocent displays of ethnic pride to violent supremacy groups.
Two concepts related to ethnocentrism are in-groups and out-groups. An in-group is a social group with which a person experiences a sense of belonging or identifies as a member. An out-group, on the other hand, refers to a social group with which an individual does not identify. An in-group can form based on a variety of identifying characteristics, including but not limited to race, culture, gender, religion, profession, or education. Notably, negative feelings toward an out-group are not based on a sense of dislike toward the characteristics of the out-group; rather, they are based on favoritism for the in-group and the absence of favoritism for the out-group.
In order to avoid ethnocentrism, the concept of cultural relativism has been employed by sociologists to compare and understand other cultures. Cultural relativism is the perception of another culture as different from one’s own, but with the recognition that the cultural values, mores, and rules of a culture fit into that culture itself. In other words, while one group may follow a given set of rules (say, the dietary rules of kashrut or halal), that group does not perceive those rules as superior to those of other cultures—just different.
Discrimination occurs when prejudicial attitudes cause individuals of a particular group to be treated differently from others. While prejudice is an attitude, discrimination is a behavior. As prejudice is typically a negative attitude, discrimination is typically a negative behavior. It is also important to note that prejudice does not always result in discrimination. For instance, a person might have strong feelings against a particular race (prejudice), but may not express those feelings or act on them. As social inequality influences prejudice, the same idea applies to discrimination. The unequal distribution of power, prestige, and class influence discrimination.
Discrimination can be either individual or institutional. Individual discrimination refers to one person discriminating against a particular person or group, whereas institutional discrimination refers to the discrimination against a particular person or group by an entire institution. Individual discrimination is considered to be conscious and obvious. This type of discrimination can be eliminated by removing the person who is displaying the behavior. Sociologists have begun to stress the need to focus on institutional discrimination, as it is discrimination built into the structure of society. It is far more covert and harder to extricate. Because it is part of society, it is perpetuated by simply maintaining the status quo.
The United States has a long history of institutional discrimination against myriad groups. Perhaps the most overt example was that of racial segregation that existed in the early to mid-twentieth century. Even today, there are still concerns of institutional discrimination against women, racial and ethnic minorities, sexual minorities, and certain religions.