How to reduce prejudice and discrimination? - Chapter 13

What are individual-level processes?

One way for dealing with unwanted stereotypic thoughts is by suppression. This can work sometimes, but a suppressed stereotype can also come back in greater strength. This is called the rebound effect. People who have suppressed stereotypes later show better memory for traits that are stereotypic. They also have a decreased memory for individuating information. Some researchers think that by suppressing thoughts you prime them. This makes them readily available for use when suppression is lifted. Because you think ‘I must not think about someone’s skin colour’ you will be on the lookout for cues that can indicate skin colour. By doing this the suppressed thought is unconsciously active.

What is stereotype rebound?

Sometimes stereotype rebound may not occur. One factor that can control for this is low prejudice. Low prejudiced people are less likely to experience stereotype activation. Without activation, there are no stereotypes to be suppressed. Also, when stereotypical thoughts are experienced, these people are highly motivated to suppress them. Research shows that when a thought is being suppressed this processes primes suppressed thoughts such as stereotypes, making them more readily available to use when suppression is lifted. 

What is self-regulation?

According to the self-regulation model people who see themselves as unprejudiced become sensitized to environmental cues that warn them when they might respond in a prejudiced manner. These people suppress their prejudiced responses and replace them with appropriate responses. When somebody has acted in a prejudiced manner he or she will learn from it. This person will remember the cues and the next time he or she encounters the cues, he or she will try to control the prejudice. When people have cues to warn them they search in their minds for information to make an appropriate nonprejudiced response. When somebody does this a lot the self-regulation of prejudice becomes automatic over time.

What is intergroup contact theory?

The intergroup contact theory says that groups that interact with each other will hold more positive beliefs about each other. This does not always result in the positive effects. Sometimes groups will only show hostility towards each other.

What are conditions for success?

There are some conditions that improve intergroup attitudes while having intergroup contact:

1. Members of each group must have equal status in the situations.
2. The groups must work together to achieve common goals.
3. Participants must get to know each other.
4. The intergroup effort must have to support of authorities.

Research has found that contact had a moderate effect on reducing prejudice. Intergroup contact can make people engage in new behaviours and this can lead to attitude change. Intergroup contact reduced prejudice in some people. One factor that influences this is the pre-existing intergroup attitudes. People who are low in prejudice have already positive intergroup attitudes and their attitudes towards the other group will probably change in a positive way. People who are high in prejudice are more likely to avoid intergroup contact.

Another factor is intergroup anxiety. People who have anxiety to intergroup contact avoid contact with others and therefore will not come to know how these people really are. The final factor that influences reducing prejudice is the normative climate. If someone’s friends had positive attitudes towards a group, one will also be more likely to have contact with this group.

How do you go from personalization to common social identity?

There are a couple of models that explain how contact reduced prejudice.

The personalization model proposes that intergroup contact reduces prejudice by leading people to see members of the outgroup as individuals and not as members of social groups. When groups work together they will see the characteristics of the individual group members. They will notice that these people have multiple social identities and that they are complex human beings. One shortcoming of this study is that an increase in liking for the outgroup members doesn’t increase the liking for the outgroup in general.

The salient categorization model proposes that generalization occurs if group members are seen as typical of their group. The outgroup has to be seen in nonstereotypic terms and group membership must remain salient during intergroup contact.

The common ingroup identity proposes that one must induce ingroup and outgroup members into a single group with a common identity. Because they form one group they will see each other in a more favourable light. They share beliefs and attitudes and this may lead to liking. There is much support for this model.

There are, however, two conditions that will not lead to positive outcomes. The first one is when the ingroup thinks that the outgroup will take on their values and beliefs, instead of creating a common identity. This can increase bias. The second factor is that creating a common group can create a new outgroup.

Pettigrew’s combined model shows that all three models are correct. The three models don't seem to contradict each other. The personalization model concentrates on decategorization, the salient categorization model focuses on maintaining group categories and the common identity model focuses on recategorization. The Pettigrew’s combined model thinks that all these models are correct and represent a different stage of the prejudice reduction process.

What are workplace interventions?

To reduce workplace-discrimination couple of things can be done. The first one is affirmative action. These are voluntary actions taken by the company to reduce discrimination and to be more equal towards different groups. This action is not necessarily to reduce prejudice, but to create a divorce workforce consisting out of majority group members, minority group members and women. Affirmative action can also have economic benefits for companies. Sometimes affirmative action programs can lead to more prejudice against a group. One person might feel angry, because someone else has indeed benefited from affirmative action.

What are diversity programs?

Another way to reduce prejudice in the workplace is carrying out diversity programs. This means that employees learn how to work more effectively with colleagues of different backgrounds. Research is divided about the results of diversity programs. Some research shows that they are effective while others show that they are not. This might be because some diversity programs are poorly conducted while others are not.

Another important thing to do is managing diversity. This is changing organizational policies to make them more responsive to the needs of women and minority group members.

What is racial color-blindness and its alternatives?

The color-blind perspective holds that people act as if racial and ethnic groups don’t exist when acting with others. Acknowledging racial membership leads to discrimination, whether against somebody or in the favour of somebody else. Some people, however, don’t like this view, because people think that by pretending something doesn’t exist, all is solved. It’s a case of misrepresenting the reality. You are ignoring other people and their experiences of life.

What is the assimilationist perspective?

Another perspective one could take is the assimilationist perspective. This perspective holds that minority groups should take on the behaviours, language and values of the majority group and give up their own culture. People think that by sharing the same culture, there will be no intergroup differences and no conflicts.

What is the multicultural perspective?

The multicultural perspective beliefs that different ethnic identities should not be eclipsed together, but stay preserved and coexist harmoniously. Some people think that this bad, because it encourages separation. Psychologists, however, say there are two important components of multicultural perspective. The first one is that it encourages salient categorization, which can undermine group stereotypes. The second one is that it encourages people to view themselves simultaneously in terms of their ethnic identities and national identities. People should be proud of their ethnic background, as well as their national one. Their common identity is important.

What is the polycultural perspective?

The polycultural perspective emphasizes that there is no such thing as a 'pure culture'. Culture is not determined by one's race or nationality and, within countries, there can be many cultural and subcultural groups. Thus, people of all cultures are interconnected by their history of mutual interaction and influence. 

Polyculturalism recognizes and celebrates al individual cultures, but emphasizes the links among cultures rather than the differences between them. 

Which perspective is best, the colour-blind perspective or the multicultural perspective? Research has found that higher rates on a measure for colour-blind racial attitudes go together with higher rates on racial prejudice. These people are also less likely to support affirmative action. The multicultural perspective values both the majority groups and minority groups and because of that people feel more secure about their identity and feel less animosity toward other groups. Polyculturalism has the strongest association with nonprejudice, but is still a relative new concept and should be investigated further. Research encourages people to adopt a multicultural rather than a colour-blind perspective.

What can you do to reduce prejudice?

We can do a lot to change our own attitudes, but such change is not an easy process, because attitudes are resistant to change. As a starting point you need to engage in self-awareness and introspection about our own biases and prejudices and how they affect intergroup relations. 

How to reflect on thoughts and behavior?

1. Understand your own social identities: race, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status.
2. Acknowlegde that you have prejudices, and that is doesn't make you a bad person.
3. Think about the nature of your prejudices, especially the beliefs and emotions they are based on.
4. For every negative belief about a group, search for an example to contradict that thought.
5. Pay attention to your behavior.
6. If someone suggests that you've acted in a biased way, ask them why your behavior gave them that impression.
7. If you find yourself thinking why that member is 'acting just like a typical X', think about other factors that might influence the behavior of that person.
8. Resist the tendency, to judge an entire group by the actions of one of its members.
9. Think about intergroup issues in intergroup terms, such as, 'our issues, to which we all contribute'.

How to put the intergroup contact theory into practice?

1. Seek out contact with members from other groups.
2. Intergroup contact may arouse anxiety at first.
3. When interacting, personalize them.
4. Invite members of other social groups to your social events.
5. Be persistent.
6. Learn more about other groups.

How to influence other people's attitudes?

1. Help people become aware of their attitudes and behavior
2. Encourage intergroup contact.
3. Help others become better informed.
4. Be a role model for your children and younger siblings.