Group antagonism contains three components: stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination. Explain how each works and describe the social and cognitive roots of prejudice.
Answers
Explanation:
The principles of social psychology, including the ABCs—affect, behavior, and cognition—apply to the study of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination, and social psychologists have expended substantial research efforts studying these concepts . The cognitive component in our perceptions of group members is the stereotype—the positive or negative beliefs that we hold about the characteristics of social group. We may decide that “French people are romantic,” that “old people are incompetent,” or that “college professors are absent minded.” And we may use those beliefs to guide our actions toward people from those groups. In addition to our stereotypes, we may also develop prejudice—an unjustifiable negative attitude toward an outgroup or toward the members of that outgroup. Prejudice can take the form of disliking, anger, fear, disgust, discomfort, and even hatred—the kind of affective states that can lead to behavior such as the gay bashing you just read about. Our stereotypes and our prejudices are problematic because they may create discrimination—unjustified negative behaviors toward members of outgroups based on their group membership.
Stereotypes and prejudice have a pervasive and often pernicious influence on our responses to others, and also in some cases on our own behaviors. To take one example, social psychological research has found that our stereotypes may in some cases lead to stereotype threat—performance decrements that are caused by the knowledge of cultural stereotypes. Spencer, Steele, and Quinn (1999) found that when women were reminded of the (untrue) stereotype that “women are poor at math,” they performed more poorly on math tests than when they were not reminded of the stereotype, and other research has found stereotype threat in many other domains as well.
Discrimination is a major societal problem because it is so pervasive, takes so many forms, and has such negative effects on so many people. Even people who are paid to be unbiased may discriminate. Price and Wolfers (2007) found that White players in National Basketball Association games received fewer fouls when more of the referees present in the game were White, and Black players received fewer fouls when more of the referees present in the game where Black. The implication is—whether they know it or not—the referees were discriminating on the basis of race.
You may have had some experiences where you found yourself responding to another person on the basis of a stereotype or a prejudice, and perhaps the fact that you did surprised you. Perhaps you then tried to get past these beliefs and to react to the person more on the basis of his or her individual characteristics. We like some people and we dislike others—this is natural—but we should not let a person’s skin color, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnic background make these determinations for us. And yet, despite our best intentions, we may end up making friends only with people who are similar to us and perhaps even avoiding people whom we see as different.
Answer:
Group antagonism has three components: stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination. First, stereotypes are generalized beliefs about a group of people. These beliefs may be accurate but overgeneralized. Next, prejudice is an unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group. This usually involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory action. One example of prejudice is ethnocentrism, where a person assumes the superiority of their ethnic group. This also involves believing that other ethnicities are inferior or threatening in some way. Lastly, discrimination is unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group. Prejudice is the attitude towards a group and discrimination is the action. These two are often connected but can exist without each other. The social roots of prejudice involve beliefs that people have learned through others. One example of this is the just-world phenomenon. This is where people may have the tendency to believe that the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve. This idea comes from the lesson taught to many children that good is rewarded and evil is punished. However, this phenomenon is typically more common in those who are fortunate. Another part of the social roots of prejudice is the us-and-them point of view. It is believed that this comes from our inherited need to belong to groups. This has caused mental grouping that defines an "us" and "them" or an ingroup and outgroup. This mental sorting tends to cause an ingroup bias which is the tenancy to favor one's own group. The cognitive roots of prejudice also involve mental grouping. Our brain naturally forms categories as a way of understanding the world and this includes categorizing by race. Researchers believe that people tend to best recognize the characteristics of their own race and become drawn to the distinctive features of other races. This can cause overgeneralization or stereotyping when one assumes that other groups are more similar to each other than they really are. One other aspect of the cognitive roots of prejudice is the other-race effect. This is where people tend to recall the faces of one's own race better than the faces of other races.