Negative Contact

1
Overview of Lecture
Prejudice
Negative Contact
Discrimination
Stereotypes
2
What are stereotypes

• Associating members of certain groups with
  certain characteristics
• E.g., Perceived to be alike have similar
  (negative) traits

3
Stereotypes
Causes of
How to reduce them
4
Why Stereotypes Form

• Negative historical relations between groups
• Inequalities in societal roles
• Socialization experiences
• Media portrayals

Stereotypes
5
Why Stereotypes Form

• Negative historical relations between groups
• e.g., slavery, indentured labor
• Inequalities in societal roles
• e.g., more women in low-paying jobs, earning less

Stereotypes
6
Why Stereotypes Form

• Socialization experiences
• e.g., parents, teachers, peers
• Media portrayals
• E.g., African Canadians as gangsta rappers,
  Caribbean Canadians as ganja smokers

Stereotypes
7
Why Stereotypes Form

• Negative historical relations between groups
• Inequalities in societal roles
• Socialization experiences
• Media portrayals

Stereotypes
Causes similar to explaining negative contact
8
Why Stereotypes Persist

1. Activated automatically
2. Reinforced via social norms
3. Information that confirms beliefs is easily
   recalled
4. Trait-based explanations for behavior
5. Sub-grouping exceptions
6. Create expectations for interaction
7. Enable in-group members to feel different from
   out-group members

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Why Stereotypes Persist

• Activated automatically
• E.g., from observable characteristics
• Reinforced via social norms
• E.g., it is ok to derogate gays nowadays

Stereotypes
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Why Stereotypes Persist

• Information that confirms beliefs is easily
  recalled
• E.g., times you saw women driving badly vs. times
  you saw women driving well

Stereotypes
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Why Stereotypes Persist

• Provide trait-based reasons to explain why people
  behave the way they do
• E.g., Women get into more accidents because they
  are bad drivers
• Sub-grouping exceptions of out-group
• E.g., successful Black

Stereotypes
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Why Stereotypes Persist

• Create expectations for interaction
• E.g., Blacks are violent, so this Black man is
  going to be hostile so I better be prepared

Stereotypes
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Why Stereotypes Persist

• Enable in-group members to feel different from
  out-group members
• E.g., Women are bad drivers, Men are good
  drivers, so they are different

Stereotypes
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Stereotypes
Causes of
How to reduce them
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How to reduce Stereotypes

• 1. Stereotypes activated automatically?

• Counter automatic activation of stereotypes with
  guilt (self regulation)
• Replace/modify negative associations with
  positive experiences information

Reduce Stereotypes
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How to reduce Stereotypes

• 2. Reinforced via social norms?

• Change old social norms with new ones
• Change motivation to comply w/norms

Reduce Stereotypes
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1. Information confirming beliefs is easy to recall?

• Counter recall tendencies with other needs
• Make in-group dependent on out-group
• e.g., learning to distinguish Chinese editors
  from each other bec. of supervisory relationship
• Create need in in-group members for out-group
  members to like them
• e.g., business case for selling products/services
  to women

Reduce Stereotypes
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1. Trait-based explanations for behavior?

• Change explanations
• Increase focus on situation
• E.g., Why are more Blacks in the criminal system?
  
• Different out-group members display
  non-stereotypical traits in different settings
• Teach statistics
• Representativeness of sample outgroup member

Reduce Stereotypes
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1. Trait-based explanations for behavior?

• Change explanations
• Reduce tendency to blame negative outcomes to
  out-group members by thinking about out-group in
  complex ways
• E.g., teach about collectivism, power-distance

Reduce Stereotypes
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1. Sub-grouping exceptions of out-group?

• Increase knowledge of many individual out-group
  members to prevent sub-group creation
• Differentiate out-group members from each other
• E.g., cultural circles exercise enabled
  differentiation by providing contact with
  different members of the same ethnic group

Reduce Stereotypes
21

1. Have expectations for interaction?

• Counteract expectations
• Out-group members behave in non-stereotypical
  ways that disconfirm stereotypes
• e.g., Womens driving records
• Out-group members confident they do not have the
  expected trait
• e.g., Women is confident of her driving skills

Reduce Stereotypes
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1. Stereotypes enabling in-group to feel different
   from out-group?

• Change ability of stereotypes to maintain
  differences
• Create Super-ordinate Groups
• Tendency to view out-group members as alike and
  negative is no longer functional
• Emphasize Multiple Identities
• Emphasize those categories which unite groups

Reduce Stereotypes
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Notice inter-relationships
Prejudice
Negative Contact
Discrimination
Stereotypes
24
Prejudice
Negative Feelings
Negative Thoughts
Negative Associations
Stereotypes
Positive Associations
25

• Recalling stereotype inconsistent information
• Create Super-ordinate groups
• Emphasize Multiple Identities
• Changing explanations

Prejudice
Negative Feelings
Negative Thoughts
Negative Associations
Positive Associations
Stereotypes
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Processes underlying Valuing Diversity Training

• Self-insights into own biases ?increased
  motivation to regulate discriminatory behavior
• Provide experience or information that
  contradicts stereotypes

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Processes underlying Valuing Diversity Training

• Change knowledge of and understanding about
  different groups
• Provide historical information about groups
• Info on group differences in values, behaviors,
  norms, beliefs

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Processes underlying Valuing Diversity Difficultie
s with Training

• Adult attitudes hard to modify bec
• Lifelong exposure and experience with mass
  medias stereotypes
• May react with defensiveness and avoidance to
  info that creates change
• May feel they are being attacked or blamed during
  training

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Causes of
How to reduce them
Counter activation or replace w/positive
associations Change social norms Counter recall
tendencies with interdependence Change
explanations with a more complex
understanding Increase knowledge of more varied
members Members act in counter stereotypical
ways Change ability for stereotypes to enable
feeling of difference

• Activated automatically
• Reinforced via social norms
• Information that confirms beliefs is easily
  recalled
• Trait-based explanations for behavior
• Sub-grouping exceptions
• Provide expectations for interaction
• Enable in-group members to feel different from
  out-group members