social identity theory

competition and conflict aren't necessary for prejudice, SIT claims knowing another group exists that we do not belong to is enough to cause prejudice

social identification

social categorisation

social comparison

associating yourself with the culture of your in-group. to emphasise the membership you may wear particular clothes. if your in group does well then you feel good :D

placing yourself and others into particular groups, your group is your in-group and the others are the out-group

to boost your self esteem, you make your in-group look better than your out-group. people can deliberately make the out-group look bad via prejudice

Tajfel

CISAC

Can Explain
why prejudice would develop between groups who are not in conflict with each other

Studies
-Tajfel
-Blue eyes/brown eyes
-Wetherell (Tajfel replication)

Application
can be applied to significant world events in which prejudice developed and had an effect despite no conflict or competition causing it e.g. genocide in Rwanda

Issues and Debates
ethnocentric - ideas such as 'self esteem' and 'self concept' are a very western explanations, and may apply better to individualist cultures, not collectivist cultures

Cannot Explain
it cannot account for why opposing groups may show differing levels of prejudice at different times assuming that their collective self-esteem has not altered

aim
to test whether prejudice and discrimination can form between groups without the introduction of competition or conflict

procedure

  • asked 64 teenage schoolboys to choose between two paintings
  • at random, two groups were allocated, forming an in-group and an out-group
  • participants were then asked to give or take points away from both groups

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findings and conclusion
-participants favoured the in-group, and discriminated against the out-group
-this shows that competition and conflict are not necessary to cause prejudice

Blue eyes Brown eyes study
a teacher told her (young) students that people with brown eyes are superior. instant prejudice was formed between the two groups, with no introduction of competition or conflict, supporting SIT

Wetherell
in a replication of Tajfel's study, found that New Zealand Polynesian children favoured the out group more than the in group