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Causes of Prejudice & Intergroup Conflict (Social Identity Theory…
Causes of Prejudice & Intergroup Conflict
Individual Differences
The Authoritarian Personality - Adorno
Psychoanalytical Approach - influenced by Freud
Stresses childhood and parents (Fathers)
Expects unquestioning obedience & willing to enforce through violence --> volatile situation & forms a young person due to harsh father
During childhood - can't release frustration --> displacement & easy target of frustration
Minority groups stand out - not like us --> correlate highly with racism, homophobia & anti-semitism
Broke down authority into these 3 components - if you agree then you score highly on Authority: (
Sample F Scale Items)
Obedience & respect = most important virtues in children
Homosexuals are hardly better than criminals and ought to be severely punished
The wild sex life of Greeks and Romans was tame compared to nowadays
Altemeyer - 'right-wing auth.'
- RWA scale
Didnt talk about Freudian ideas (RWA) --> measures the convertatism of a person --> you like things the way they are - No challenge on status quo - correlate scores on RWA with sexism & racism etc. strong correlations, high RWA = high prejudice
Sample RWA scale items:
Established authorities generally tun out to be right about things, while the radicals & protestors are usually just 'loud mouths' showing off their ignorance
Social Dominance Orientation (SDO)
Economic winners & losers - social groups
Testing whether you think system is fair & if you have no desire to change it
Way of thinking about society
Don't mind some people are at the top and some at bottom -
Predictive of prejudice
Example =
US stereotypes of the Japanese
Becomes difficult to explain how prejudices fluctuate - map US stereotypes of Japanese - chose personality traits & link them to Japanese most of them positive in the way we think of them
Attack on Pearl Harbour & WW2 --> changed the words they associated with Japanese
What would you do? - white male was not challenged when he was seen trying to cut a bike lock but the police were called when it was a black male
Media --> white race will not be mentioned, will if they're NOT white
Group Psychology Approaches
Realistic Conflict Theory (RCT)
Poor area - perception of a competition of who can get the best council house, best gang etc.
Enhance performance & encourage them to beat other group - split into groups, no friendships outside of groups
Aggressive = leaders (violence) - acted in opposite way to opposing team (e.g. one cursed, other wouldn't)
Summer Camp Studies
Need a psychology that helps you understand what happens to us in a group
3 field experiments over 5 year period
White 12 y/o boys in USA - 'well-adjusted'
Split into 2 groups & a competition for scarce resources introduced
Led to prejudice, violence, in-group preference physically dominant leaders, 'us vs. them'
Personality is NOT an adequate explanation
Evaluating RCT
Blake & Mouten:
Trainee managers split into small groups and given a group task, manifested in-group preference
Gangs and inter-racial conflict in Britain
Difficult to prove negative interdependence is the main cause of prejudice & group conflict
^^ Always favoured own groups trainee's presentations, negative interdependence - in order for one to win, the other must lose segregation in hospitals - nurses, doctors --> overarching ideologies (help patients)
Around someone we're comfortable with - more likely to say something racist/sexist --> aggressive
Social Cognition Factors
Stereotyping Biases
Far more complex stereotypes of own group than others' =
outgroup
- homogeneity effect
"Other groups are all the same" - Mind forgets bad things about won group - Easy to remember bad things other groups do -->
Helps perpetuate prejudices
Very difficult to get rid of prejudice once you have it
Attributional Biases
Pettigrew
- Private vs. state schools
Explain exam success as just chance (others) --> own success = succeed because cover - other = a fluke
Ask sexist man how woman became successful --> "slept with people" - perpetuate stereotype & had onto sexist belief
Memory Distortions
Confirmation Bias
Duncan
- Actors have a violent exchange on train -- ask PP (onlooker) to describe the scene - very different description if a black person started the violence over white
Memory warped by stereotypes (identical actions) --> court biases?
Social Identity Theory (SIT) -
Tajfel
Nazi Germany & fled to Bristol created categories
Lines either A or B systematic bias in line length judgements
Rated lines in same group as more similar than they were & exaggerated difference between opposite groups
Categorise people & objects in the same way -->
Heuristic
= mental shortcut (Stereotype)
The 'Minimal Group' Study
Assignments to groups on 'minimal' criteria, or toss of coin
PPs completed booklets full of point-allocation matrices
In-group favouritism = mixture of maximum in-group profit & maximum difference
Replicated in other countries (e.g. USA, Germany etc.)
But may not explain hostility
Most boys go for maximum profit & difference - influenced by desire to create difference between what the groups go
Meaningless groups (no history) creates desire to create difference between groups - your group is favoured
Basic Assumptions
Interpersonal vs. intergroup behaviour
Categorisation affects social perception, is meaningful and unavoidable
Social Identity
is a valued part of the self concept, supplying self-esteem and reducing uncertainty
We desire positive distinctiveness and create it via stereotypes
Prejudice and conflict can occur:
When people in groups strive to be positively from others and perceive collective inductive
When social identity is perceived to be threatened by outgroups; defensive reactions can spark prejudice and discrimination