Prejudice and Discrimination: Crash Course Psychology #39

Summary

This script from Crash Course Psychology delves into the complex issue of prejudice, exploring its roots in implicit biases and societal impacts. It discusses the distinction between prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination, and how they can lead to unfair treatment. The script highlights the role of ingroup and outgroup dynamics, and the just-world phenomenon in perpetuating prejudice. It also introduces the Implicit Association Test as a tool to measure unconscious bias, emphasizing the importance of understanding these psychological aspects to combat discrimination.

Takeaways

• 🔍 The case of Amadou Diallo illustrates the tragic consequences of implicit biases, where non-conscious prejudice can lead to fatal misunderstandings.
• 🧠 Implicit biases are subtle, automatic, and often non-conscious forms of prejudice that can significantly influence our behavior and decisions without our awareness.
• 🔗 Prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination are distinct but interconnected concepts, with prejudice being an unjustified negative attitude, stereotyping an over-generalized belief, and discrimination the action resulting from these attitudes.
• 📉 Over time, some forms of overt prejudice have decreased, as evidenced by the increase in Americans' willingness to vote for a qualified female president from 1937 to 2007.
• 🧪 The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is a tool used to measure implicit attitudes and biases that people may not be aware of or willing to admit.
• 🏆 Even in the absence of conscious prejudice, people can still exhibit discriminatory behavior, as demonstrated by a study showing science faculty's bias against female applicants.
• 🌐 Prejudice can be a result of justifying social inequalities, where people believe that the status quo is deserved, known as the just-world phenomenon.
• 👥 The ingroup-outgroup phenomenon leads to in-group bias, where individuals favor their own group over others, even when the basis for division is arbitrary.
• 🔑 Understanding the roots of prejudice, such as the just-world belief and ingroup-outgroup dynamics, is crucial for addressing and reducing discrimination.
• 🌟 This episode of Crash Course Psychology was sponsored by Shane Barr, highlighting the intersection of educational content and support from the community.

Q & A

What is the significance of the Amadou Diallo case mentioned in the script?

The Amadou Diallo case is significant as it illustrates the tragic consequences of implicit bias and the grey area between deliberate violence and accidental harm caused by non-conscious prejudices. Diallo, an innocent immigrant, was mistakenly perceived as a threat by police officers, leading to his wrongful death.

How does the script define prejudice?

Prejudice is defined in the script as an unjustified, typically negative attitude toward an individual or group, often directed along the lines of gender, ethnic, socioeconomic status, or culture.

What is the difference between prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination as discussed in the script?

Prejudice is a pre-judgment or an unjustified negative attitude. Stereotyping is a cognitive process of over-generalization about a group, which can be positive or negative, but doesn't necessarily involve negative attitudes. Discrimination is the act of making distinctions against individuals based on prejudiced attitudes, leading to unfair treatment.

What is the implicit association test (IAT) and how is it used?

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is a psychological test that measures a person's implicit biases by gauging their reaction times in sorting words or images associated with different groups. It is used to reveal unconscious attitudes and biases that individuals may not be aware of or willing to report.

How does the script explain the concept of ingroup and outgroup bias?

The script explains ingroup and outgroup bias as a powerful tendency to favor one's own group (ingroup) at the expense of others (outgroup). This bias can lead to prejudice and discrimination, even when the basis for the division between groups is arbitrary or irrational.

What is the just-world phenomenon as it relates to prejudice?

The just-world phenomenon is a cognitive bias where people believe that individuals get what they deserve and deserve what they get. This can lead to prejudice as it justifies social inequalities by assuming that certain groups' positions are due to their inherent characteristics rather than systemic factors.

How does the script suggest that implicit bias can affect real-world outcomes like job opportunities?

The script suggests that implicit biases can affect real-world outcomes like job opportunities by influencing decisions such as hiring, promotions, and salary negotiations. For example, the 2012 Yale study mentioned in the script showed that science faculty members were less likely to hire a female applicant compared to a male applicant with the same qualifications.

What role does the 'us vs. them' mentality play in fostering prejudice according to the script?

The 'us vs. them' mentality, or ingroup-outgroup phenomenon, plays a significant role in fostering prejudice by creating divisions and enhancing the perception of differences between groups. This mentality can lead to in-group bias, where individuals favor their own group and discriminate against outgroups.

How does the script connect prejudice to broader social issues like wage inequality and job opportunity gaps?

The script connects prejudice to broader social issues by suggesting that discriminatory behaviors rooted in prejudice can perpetuate wage inequality and job opportunity gaps. It cites research studies that demonstrate how unconscious biases can lead to systemic discrimination in hiring practices and wage offers.

What is the purpose of the social psychology research discussed in the script?

The purpose of the social psychology research discussed in the script is to understand the roots of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination, and how they shape society. This research aims to uncover the cognitive, emotional, and social factors that contribute to these phenomena and to inform strategies for reducing their negative impact.

Outlines

00:00

🔍 Implicit Bias and Prejudice

The first paragraph discusses the case of Amadou Diallo, a young black man from Guinea who was mistakenly shot by New York City police officers due to implicit bias. The incident is used to illustrate the concept of implicit bias, which is subtler than overt racism and can lead to tragic consequences. The paragraph also introduces the broader themes of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination, explaining how these phenomena are interconnected but distinct. It emphasizes the importance of understanding these social psychological concepts to address their impact on society.

05:02

🧠 Measuring Implicit Bias with the IAT

The second paragraph delves into the Implicit Association Test (IAT), a tool designed to measure implicit biases that individuals may not be consciously aware of. It describes how the IAT works, using the example of an age-related IAT that sorts images of faces and objects based on age and valence. The paragraph explains that the test measures reaction times to determine if there is a quicker response to stereotypical pairings, suggesting an implicit association. The IAT's predictive power in experimental settings is noted, along with its ability to reveal biases that can influence discriminatory behavior. The paragraph also touches on the persistence of overt prejudice and the importance of studying discrimination in social psychology.

Keywords

💡Prejudice

Prejudice refers to a preconceived opinion or judgment that is not based on reason or actual experience. In the context of the video, prejudice is discussed as an unjustified attitude, often negative, directed towards individuals or groups. It is highlighted as a common human condition that can lead to discrimination, affecting areas such as employment and social interactions. The video uses the example of Amadou Diallo to illustrate how prejudice can have severe, even fatal, consequences.

💡Implicit Bias

Implicit bias, also known as unconscious or hidden bias, refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. The video explains that implicit biases can influence behavior without our conscious knowledge, such as the police officers' reaction to Diallo, suggesting their actions were driven by subtle, non-conscious prejudices rather than overt hatred.

💡Stereotyping

Stereotyping is the act of assigning fixed, overgeneralized beliefs or attributes to a group of people. The video clarifies that while stereotyping is often discussed negatively, it is essentially a cognitive process that can be both positive and negative. It is related to prejudice in that stereotypes can fuel prejudicial attitudes, as seen in the example of distrusting a female mechanic due to gendered stereotypes.

💡Discrimination

Discrimination is the unfair treatment of individuals or groups based on prejudice. The video distinguishes discrimination from prejudice and stereotyping, noting that it involves active behavior. An example given is the historical apartheid system in South Africa, which was a systemic form of racial discrimination.

💡Ingroup-Outgroup Phenomenon

The ingroup-outgroup phenomenon refers to the tendency to favor one's own group (ingroup) over another group (outgroup). The video explains how this phenomenon can drive prejudice and discrimination, creating an 'us versus them' mentality that can escalate into conflict, as illustrated by the exercise where an arbitrary division can lead to significant bias and derogatory views between groups.

💡Implicit Association Test (IAT)

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is a psychological test designed to measure implicit biases and attitudes. The video describes the IAT as a tool that can reveal biases that individuals may not be aware of, such as associating youth with goodness and old age with badness. It is highlighted as a method for gauging attitudes that people are unwilling or unable to report directly.

💡Just-world Phenomenon

The just-world phenomenon is the belief that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get. The video suggests that this belief can lead to prejudice by justifying social inequalities, as people may rationalize the status quo by assuming that those in disadvantaged positions must have done something to deserve their situation.

💡Ingroup Bias

Ingroup bias is the tendency to give preferential treatment to members of one's own group and discriminate against those who are not members. The video uses the example of a social psychology exercise where even an arbitrary division can lead to ingroup bias, showing the power of group identity to create favoritism and discrimination.

💡Dual-process Theories

Dual-process theories propose that human cognition involves two separate processes: System 1 (fast, intuitive, and automatic) and System 2 (slow, deliberate, and logical). The video mentions these theories in relation to prejudice, suggesting that implicit, non-conscious biases are part of System 1, operating outside of conscious awareness and potentially influencing discriminatory behavior.

💡Social Inequality

Social inequality refers to the unequal distribution of resources, opportunities, and privileges among different groups in society. The video connects social inequality to prejudice, indicating that prejudices can be used to justify and maintain these inequalities, such as the historical gender pay gap or racial disparities in employment.

💡Systematic Discrimination

Systematic discrimination refers to the consistent and widespread discrimination against certain groups, often embedded in social institutions and practices. The video cites a study showing how science faculty members systematically discriminated against female students, reflecting how prejudice can be embedded in systems and affect opportunities like hiring and pay.

Highlights

The case of Amadou Diallo is recounted as an example of implicit biases leading to fatal outcomes.

Implicit biases can affect our behavior without conscious intent, influencing interactions and decisions.

Prejudice is defined as an unjustified, typically negative attitude, often linked to stereotypes and discrimination.

Stereotyping is a cognitive process that can be both positive and negative, influencing our attitudes.

Discrimination is the behavioral manifestation of prejudice, where attitudes translate into actions.

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) measures unconscious biases and attitudes.

The IAT is a timed categorization task that reveals implicit associations and biases.

Social psychology research shows that even subtle prejudices can have significant impacts on society.

A 2012 Yale study demonstrated discrimination against female science students by faculty members.

Prejudices can stem from justifying social inequalities, known as the just-world phenomenon.

Ingroup-outgroup dynamics can drive prejudice and discrimination, even among arbitrary group divisions.

The psychological nature of conflict is often fueled by the us vs. them mentality.

Prejudice can be non-conscious and automatic, affecting how we interact and relate to one another.

The episode discusses the pervasive nature of stereotypes and their impact on discriminatory behavior.

The episode concludes with a call to understand the roots of prejudice to combat discrimination.

Transcripts

In February 1999, four New York City police officers were on patrol in the Bronx when

they saw a young black man standing on a stoop. They thought he looked suspicious. When they

pulled over, he retreated into the doorway and began digging in his pocket. He kept digging

as the police shouted at him to show his hands; a few seconds later, the man, Amadou Diallo,

a 23-year-old immigrant from Guinea, was dead, hit by 19 of the 41 bullets that the

police fired at him. What Diallo was reaching for was his wallet. He was going for his ID

as he stood on the steps of his own apartment building.

Diallo's story, and the officer's fatal pre-judgment of him, is recounted in Malcolm Gladwell's

2005 bestseller Blink. Gladwell, and the social psychologists whose

work he draws upon, explores Diallo's case as an example of that grey area between deliberate

violence and an accident, propagated by non-conscious, or implicit biases.

The officers did discriminate against Diallo, but the prejudice they acted on may have been

driven by something more subtle than simple hatred.

And that's an important thing to think about. Yes, there are lots of overtly bigoted people

and policies at work all over the world, but what we're interested in today is the more

insidious, non-conscious automatic bias, and how it can affect our behavior.

The fact is, our implicit biases affect the way we relate to others in a very real way.

Our race, gender, age, religion, or sexual orientation can make the difference between

whether we get a job or not, a fair paycheck, or a good rental, or whether we get randomly

pulled over or shot and killed for reaching for a wallet.

In the last two episodes, we've examined how we think about and how we influence one another,

but social psychology is also about how we relate to one another.

Like what factors might cause us to help another person, or harm them, or fear them? What are

the social, and cognitive, and emotional roots of prejudice, racism, and sexism, and how

do they shape our society? These are some of the aspects of ourselves that are the hardest

and most uncomfortable for us to explore, which is why they're so important to understand.

We've all been unfairly judged in our time, and let's not pretend that we haven't done

our fair share of uninformed judging too.

Like it or not, prejudice is a common human condition.

Prejudice just means "prejudgment." It's an unjustified, typically negative attitude toward

an individual or group. Prejudicial attitudes are often directed along

the lines of gender, ethnic, socioeconomic status, or culture, and by definition, prejudice

is not the same thing as stereotyping or discrimination, although the three phenomena are intimately related.

People may distrust a female mechanic. That's a prejudicial attitude, but it's rooted in

a stereotype, or over-generalized belief about a particular group.

Although it's often discussed in a negative way, stereotyping is really more of a general

cognitive process that doesn't have to be negative. It can even be accurate at times.

Like, I have the stereotype that all crows have wings, injuries and birth defects aside.

And that happens to be true.

But on the negative end, your prejudice against female mechanics may be rooted in some inaccurate

stereotype about women's skills with a socket wrench.

And when stereotypical beliefs combine with prejudicial attitudes and emotions, like fear

and hostility, they can drive the behavior we call discrimination.

So a prejudiced person won't necessarily act on their attitude. Say you believe in the

stereotype that overweight people are lazy. You might then feel a prejudiced distaste

when you see someone who appears overweight.

But if you act on your prejudice, and, say, refuse to hire them for a job or don't let

them sit at your lunch counter, then you've crossed over into discriminating against them.

The former apartheid system of racial segregation in South Africa, the Nazis' mass killing of

Gypsies, Jewish people, and other groups, and centuries of bloodshed between Protestants

and Catholics, are all extreme examples of violent prejudice and discrimination.

The good news is that in many cultures, certain forms of overt prejudice have waned over time.

For example, in 1937 only 1/3 of Americans said that they'd vote for a qualified woman to

be president, while in 2007, that figure was up to nearly 90 percent.

But of course more subtle prejudices can still linger.

In the past, we've talked about dual-process theories of thought, memories, and attitudes,

and that while we're aware of our explicit thoughts, or implicit cognition still operates

under the radar, leaving us clueless about its effect on our attitudes and behavior.

In the same way, prejudice can be non-conscious and automatic. And I mean it can be so non-conscious

that even when people ask us point-blank about our attitudes, we unwillingly or unknowingly

don't always give them an honest answer.

Do you think that men are better at science the women? Or that Muslims are more violent

than Christians? Or that overweight people are unhealthy?

Our tendency to unwittingly doctor our answers to questions like these is why we have the

implicit association test, or IAT. The test was implemented in the late 1990s to try to

gauge implicit attitudes, identities, beliefs, and biases that people are unwilling or unable to report.

You can take the IAT online and measure your implicit attitudes in all kinds of topics,

from race, religion, and gender to disability, weight, and sexuality. It's basically a timed categorization task.

For example, the age-related IAT looks at implicit attitudes about older vs. younger

people. In it, you might be shown a series of faces, old and young, and objects, pleasant

and unpleasant, like pretty flowers vs. a pile of garbage.

You're then asked to sort these pictures, so you'd press the left key if you see a young

face or a pleasant object, and press the right key if you see an old face or an unpleasant

object. That's the stereotypic condition. Your keystrokes correspond to stereotypical

pairs; in this case, associating good stuff with youth and bad stuff with older age.

Then the test asks you to do the same thing in a counter-stereotypic condition, pressing

the left key if you see a young face or an unpleasant object and the right key if you

see an old face or a pleasant object.

The core of the test is your reaction time. Are you faster at sorting when you're working

with a stereotypical pairing than you are with counter-stereotypical pairings? If that's

the case, even though you may think you're unprejudiced, you've got an implicit association

between youth and goodness, which, as you might guess, may have some implications about

how you think and act toward older people.

The test is widely used in research, and contrary to what some critics think, it's surprisingly

predictive of discriminatory behavior in all kinds of experimental settings.

So that's one way to measure subtle, implicit prejudice. But obviously, overt prejudice

is far from dead. That's why discrimination studies are prominent in social psychology

research, and they can also predict, sometimes with scary accuracy, how discrimination might

show up in broad social patterns, like wage inequality and job opportunity gaps.

For instance, the 2012 Yale study led by social scientist Corinne Moss-Racusin demonstrated

that science faculty across the country systematically discriminated against female science students.

In a double-blind study, a representative sample of science faculty members were asked

to hire a fictional student applicant for a lab-manager job.

When the applicant's name was Jennifer, instead of John, they viewed her as less competent,

were less likely to hire her, offered her less money, and were less likely to mentor her.

And this prejudice was even exhibited by women faculty members.

And that's an important point. People on both sides of the stereotype tend to respond similarly,

with the subjects of prejudice themselves often holding the same stereotypical implicit

attitudes or engaging in the same discriminatory behavior.

So when we say that stereotypes are pervasive, we mean pervasive.

Now it's all too easy to hold up examples of how people are prejudiced, but the real

root of the issue is why they are.

Here are a few possibilities:

For one, prejudices can come up as a way of justifying social inequalities. This happens

when people on both sides of the power and wealth spectrum start believing that people

get what they deserve, and they deserve what they get. This is called the just-world phenomenon.

Prejudices can also be driven by the "us vs. them," or as social psychologists often call

it, the ingroup-outgroup phenomenon. Whether you're in a soccer stadium, or the political

arena or school lunchroom, or, you know, in the comments of this video, dividing the world

into in-groups and out-groups definitely drives prejudice and discrimination.

But an in-group identity also gives its members the benefits of communal solidarity and a

sort of safety in numbers. This in-group bias, or tendency to favor your own group at the

expense of others, is powerful, even when it's totally irrational. One common social

psychology exercise on in-group favoritism involves dividing a class into two arbitrary

groups, say, those wearing sneakers and those not wearing sneakers. Each person sits with

his or her group and is told to list differences between themselves and the opposing group.

The lists usually start out pretty tame, but become more strident as they grow longer. Eventually,

you have sneaker-wearing kids saying that they're just smarter than the people without

sneakers. The kids who don't have sneakers say that the other kids are trashy and low-class.

Soon enough, each group has inflated itself and derided the opposing group, even though

the division between the two was essentially meaningless to begin with.

Little exercises like this illustrate the power of any ingroup-outgroup distinction

in creating conflict between groups, and that brings us to the psychological nature of conflict itself.

History is littered with examples of how the us vs. them mentality has fueled violence

in warfare, which is exactly what we'll be talking about next time.

Today, you learned about how prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination affect how we interact

and relate to one another. You learned how prejudice can often be non-conscious and automatic

and how tools like the Implicit Association Test help reveal and measure it. We also looked

at the implications of the ingroup-outgroup phenomenon, and how it can lead to strong

in-group bias that often turns aggressive.

This episode of Crash Course Psychology was sponsored by Shane Barr, whose young adult

sci-fi adventure book, Reset, is available on Amazon.

Thanks for watching, especially to all of our Subbable subscribers who make Crash Course

possible. To find out how you can become a supporter or lead sponsor like Shane, just

go to Subbable.com/CrashCourse.

This episodes was written by Kathleen Yale, edited by Blake de Pastino, and our consultant

is Dr. Ranjit Bhagwat. Our director and editor is Nicholas Jenkins, the script supervisor and sound

designer is Michael Aranda, and the graphics team is Thought Cafe.