Prejudice and Discrimination: Crash Course Psychology #39

CrashCourse
17 Nov 201409:53
EducationalLearning
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TLDRThe video examines prejudice and discrimination in society. It defines key terms like prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination, explaining how they interrelate. Factors driving prejudice are analyzed, like the 'just world' phenomenon and ingroup-outgroup divisions. The implicit association test is discussed as a way to measure subtle, automatic biases people hold. Studies demonstrating real-world discrimination are cited, like in hiring practices and faculty treatment of students. The psychological underpinnings of intergroup conflict are explored, rooted in the innate human tendency towards 'ingroup' favoritism and 'outgroup' derision, which can fuel prejudice and violence.

Takeaways
  • 😀 Prejudice means pre-judging someone unjustly, often along lines of gender, ethnicity, etc.
  • 😕 Implicit bias affects behavior, even when we're unaware or won't admit our prejudices.
  • 🤔 Stereotyping overgeneralizes groups but isn't necessarily negative.
  • 😠 Discrimination acts on prejudice to deny opportunities based on group membership.
  • 😢 Overt prejudice has declined but subtle biases still impact outcomes.
  • 👩‍🔬 Faculty showed same gender biases even among women in STEM fields.
  • 👥 Ingroup favoritism springs from arbitrary group distinctions.
  • 😈 Conflict stems from ingroup-outgroup divisions and US vs THEM mentalities.
  • 😇 But people can overcome their prejudices with awareness and effort.
  • 📝 The script discusses roots and implications of prejudice in society.
Q & A

  • What happened in the incident with Amadou Diallo and the police officers?

    -Four New York City police officers shot and killed Amadou Diallo, a 23-year-old immigrant from Guinea, when they mistakenly thought he was reaching for a gun instead of his wallet as he stood in the doorway of his apartment building.

  • How are prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination related?

    -Prejudice refers to unjustified negative attitudes toward a group. Stereotyping involves overgeneralized beliefs about a group. When prejudicial attitudes and stereotypical beliefs drive discriminatory behavior toward a group, that is considered discrimination.

  • What is the purpose of the Implicit Association Test (IAT)?

    -The IAT is designed to measure implicit biases and attitudes that people may be unwilling or unable to explicitly report. For example, it can reveal biases related to age, race, gender, sexuality that participants may not be consciously aware of.

  • What did the Yale study on science faculty demonstrate regarding discrimination?

    -The Yale study found that science faculty exhibited systematic discrimination against female students in hiring decisions, offers of mentoring, and salaries, even though the students were equally qualified.

  • How can the just-world phenomenon contribute to prejudice?

    -The just-world phenomenon refers to people's tendency to believe that people generally get what they deserve. This belief can lead people to develop prejudices that justify existing social inequalities.

  • What is the ingroup-outgroup phenomenon?

    -The ingroup-outgroup phenomenon refers to people's tendency to divide the world into groups they belong to (ingroups) and groups they don't belong to (outgroups). This division promotes prejudice and conflict between groups.

  • What did the sneakers experiment demonstrate regarding ingroups and outgroups?

    -The sneakers experiment divided students arbitrarily based on whether they were wearing sneakers. This meaningless distinction quickly led students to deride the outgroup, showing how easily ingroup-outgroup divisions can inflame prejudice and conflict.

  • How has overt prejudice changed over time?

    -Overt prejudice has declined over time in many cultures. For example, willingness to vote for a qualified female president rose dramatically from 1937 to 2007 in the U.S. However, subtle implicit prejudices still persist.

  • What are some psychological roots of prejudice and discrimination?

    -Contributing factors include the just-world phenomenon, ingroup-outgroup divisions, in-group bias, and the tendency to use prejudices to justify social inequalities.

  • How can the ingroup-outgroup mentality fuel violence?

    -Dividing people into competing groups promotes prejudice, discrimination and conflict between those groups. In extreme cases, this us vs. them mentality has fueled atrocities like warfare and genocide throughout history.

Outlines
00:00
🚨 Prejudice against Diallo and Implicit Bias

Paragraph 1 discusses the 1999 fatal shooting of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed black man, by New York police officers. It recounts how the officers misjudged Diallo as suspicious and shot him while he reached for his wallet. The incident illustrates the role of implicit bias - subtle, unconscious prejudice that can drive discriminatory behaviors. The paragraph ties this to Malcolm Gladwell's exploration of the grey area between deliberate violence and accident influenced by biases. It sets up examining factors underlying society's prejudice, racism, and sexism.

05:02
📋 Measuring Subtle Prejudice with the IAT Test

Paragraph 2 introduces the Implicit Association Test (IAT) as a way to measure subtle, unconscious prejudices that people don't openly admit to. It explains the structure of the test which measures reaction times in categorization tasks that pair stereotypical vs counter-stereotypical associations. Faster responses in stereotypical pairings reveal implicit biases. Research shows the IAT can predict discriminatory behaviors. The paragraph contrasts this subtle, automatic prejudice with overt discrimination, giving weight to studying how prejudices manifest in social patterns like wage gaps.

Mindmap
Keywords
💡prejudice
Prejudice refers to pre-judgement or unjustified negative attitudes towards an individual or group, often based on stereotypes. Prejudice is a key theme in the video - it discusses different forms of prejudice like racism and sexism, their psychological roots, and how they propagate discrimination in society. For example, the police officers who shot Amadou Diallo acted based on prejudices against black men.
💡stereotype
A stereotype is an over-generalized belief about a group. While not inherently negative, stereotypes often form the basis for prejudices. The video discusses common stereotypes related to race, gender, age etc. and how they relate to prejudices and discrimination. For example, there may be a stereotype that women lack mechanical skills, leading to prejudice against female mechanics.
💡discrimination
Discrimination refers to acting upon prejudices in a way that negatively impacts others, like denying opportunities or rights. It is closely tied to prejudice and stereotypes. The video illustrates how faculty members discriminated against female science students by viewing them as less competent and offering them less pay/mentorship opportunities.
💡implicit bias
Implicit biases are automatic, unconscious associations that can influence attitudes and behaviors. The video introduces tests like the Implicit Association Test to uncover these non-conscious prejudices that people may be unwilling to explicitly report. Implicit bias helps explain subtle, lingering forms of prejudice.
💡in-group bias
In-group bias refers to the human tendency to favor one's own group over perceived "out-groups". The video demonstrates via a classroom experiment how even arbitrary group distinctions can rapidly lead to in-group favoritism and prejudices against the out-group.
💡just-world phenomenon
The just-world phenomenon refers to people rationalizing social inequalities by believing that people get what they deserve. This mindset perpetuates prejudices that serve to justify discrimination against disadvantaged groups.
💡conflict
The video relates prejudice and inter-group tensions to conflict - both verbally and physically. The history of violence fueled by an "us vs. them" mentality demonstrates how prejudice feeds into conflicts between groups.
💡psychology of prejudice
A key focus of the video is using social psychology to study the roots and manifestations of prejudice - how it arises, relates to biases/stereotypes/discrimination, and how it propagates conflict. Understanding the psychology of prejudice is key to addressing it.
💡intergroup relations
Intergroup relations refer to how social groups interact with and relate to each other. Prejudice and conflict negatively impact these relations. The video analyzes intergroup divisions, biases, discrimination to understand group interactions.
💡social inequality
Social inequality refers to unequal access to power, resources, opportunities etc. Prejudice and discrimination serve to maintain and exacerbate inequalities. Belief systems like the just-world phenomenon further entrench social inequality by rationalizing it.
Highlights

Prejudice means "prejudgment" - an unjustified, typically negative attitude toward an individual or group.

Stereotyping is a cognitive process that doesn't have to be negative, but can lead to inaccurate beliefs.

Discrimination is when prejudicial attitudes and emotions drive harmful behavior toward others.

In many cultures, certain forms of overt prejudice have waned over time.

Subtle, implicit biases still affect attitudes and behavior, even when people believe they are unprejudiced.

The Implicit Association Test measures implicit biases people are unwilling or unable to report.

Prejudice can justify social inequalities through the "just world" phenomenon.

Ingroup vs. outgroup divisions fuel prejudice through favoring your own group over others.

Even arbitrary groups can lead to ingroup favoritism and outgroup derision.

History shows how "us vs. them" thinking fuels prejudice and violence in conflict.

Prejudice affects how we interact and relate, often unconsciously.

Stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination are intimately related.

The subjects of prejudice often hold the same implicit biases.

Ingroup bias tends to turn aggressive against outgroups.

Understanding prejudice is key to improving how we relate.

Transcripts

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