The Martha Stewart Syndrome: Discrimination Education

1
The Martha Stewart Syndrome Discrimination
Education

• Marla Harvey
• Mentor Travis Langley, Ph.D.
• Henderson State University

2
The Nature of Prejudice Gordon
Allport, 1954

• Civilized men have gained notable mastery
  over energy, matter, and inanimate nature
  generally, and are rapidly learning to control
  physical suffering and premature death. But, by
  contrast, we appear to be living in the Stone Age
  as so far as our handling of human relationships
  is concerned.
• p. xiii

3
Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Originally conceived to protect the rights of
  black men, the bill was amended prior to passage
  to protect the civil rights of all men and women.
  
• The Act transformed American society. It
  prohibited discrimination in public
• facilities, in government, and in
• employment.
• Over next four decades, its amendments and
  provisions strengthened resolve to eliminate
  prejudice and discrimination.

4
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Illegal for employers to discriminate based on
  race, color, gender, religion, or national
  origin.
• No other legislation has had a greater effect on
  the workplace.
• Societies are very slow to change, and
• individual perspectives are even more time
  consuming and difficult.

5
Individuals Majoring in Business

• Human Resource Departments must adhere to
  government policy and procedure regulations.
• Required educational material focuses on the laws
  and specifically the interpretation of case law.
• Industrial/Organizational and Social Psychology
  can be usefully integrated into the legal
  parameters.

6
Personnel Selection

• Recruiters and human resource managers claim to
  make decisions based solely on qualifications.
• Research indicates otherwise
• Mack Rainey (1990)
• Shannon Stark (2003)
• Dipboye, Fromkin, Wiback (1975)

7
Current Research Hypothesis

• An individuals prejudice toward a particular
  group can be more effectively reduced through a
  psychology-oriented educational lecture, as
  opposed to a business-oriented lecture.
• Second, that unconsciously exposing students to
  the foundation of their beliefs will cause them
  to become less biased.
• For the purpose of this research, attitudes
  toward powerful female executives are examined.

8
Participants

• Ninety-two upper level (junior senior)
  undergraduate students majoring in business at
  Henderson State University currently enrolled in
  Human Resource, Management, or Business Law
  courses.

9
Materials

• Index of Attitudes Toward Powerful Female
  Executives - part A (IA part A)
• Business Lecture (Video)
• Psychology Lecture (Video)
• Stereotype Formation (SF) Questionnaire
• IA part B

10
Design

• 2x2 mixed factorial design
• (Business Lecture/Psychology Lecture x IA-B
  first/SF first)
• Independent Variable Index of Attitudes (IA
  prejudice inventory)

11
Procedure

• Voluntary Consent Form
• IA part A
• Either BL or PL (both videotaped)
• IA part B/SF or SF/IA part B
• Unanticipated Confound Instructor Present/Not
  Present

12
Results
Psychology Lecture
Business Lecture

• Hypothesis not supported, opposite occurred.
  
• Participants who heard the business lecture
  demonstrated less bias toward the female
  executive than did those who heard the psychology
  lecture (F(1,86)3.362, p.070).

13
Results
A Lecture Type X Order X Trials interaction was
significant. (F(1,86)8.435, p.005)
Groups responses differed before they heard
their respective lectures. This should not occur
unless conditions have been confounded.
SF First
SF First
IA-B First
IA-B First
Pre-lecture
Post-lecture
14
Confounding

• Unanticipated confound arose
• Instructor Present
• Instructor Absent

Pre-lecture
Post-lecture
Instructor Presence X Trials interaction
(F(1,88)8.356, p.005). Groups differed before
lecture but not after.
15
IA Subscales

• Components of an attitude (description, behavior,
  feelings)
• Consistent with past findings (Ehrlich, 1973
  Dunton Fazio, 1997)

Description
Behavior
Feelings
16
Discussion

• Type of learning passive vs. active.
• Business lecture was recall material.
• Longitudinal study appropriate.
• More emphasis on attitude formation.

17
Politically Correct

• Individuals often think and feel one way, yet act
  another.
• People often recognize that expressing a
  prejudice idea about a particular group is
  unacceptable in modern society and there may
  social or even legal ramifications.

18
Legal Motivation to Conform

• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was
  created through the societal institution of
  government, and sociological reasons often create
  the human motivation to conform. But laws are
  only the beginning educating those most effected
  must be examined.

19
Allport said it best

• It required years of labor and billions of
  dollars to gain the secret of the atom. It will
  take a still greater investment to gain the
  secrets of mans irrational nature. It is
  easier, someone has said, to smash an atom than a
  prejudice.
• The Nature of Prejudice (1954)