We begin to learn of the atrocities committed by mankind to other fellow humans, as schoolchildren. When I was in fourth grade, I learned that a horrendous man rose to power in Germany during World War II, and killed millions of innocent civilians. As my teacher explained the very basics of the Holocaust, I saw my classmates eyes widen with disbelief. “How could anyone be so evil?” I thought. In middle school, I learned of the United States history on slavery. I did not understand how even one individual could have the capacity to enslave, beat, and torture another human, let alone garner the support of these actions from the majority of a nation. These are just two examples in our recent history of how prejudice behaviors have led to severe consequences.
Physical oppression, including murder, genocide, and enslavement are parts of history that no one should be proud of. These specific types of oppression are especially atrocious, but oppression can come in many different forms. Denying an individual rights that other individuals possess, through an unfair authority of power is a simple definition of oppression. The female suffrage movement, African-American civil rights movement, and LGBTQ rights are recent examples of movements in response to oppressed groups that experienced, and in some cases still experience inequality. Even today women experience income inequality, African-Americans are still victims of racial discrimination, and the LGBTQ community continues to fight for basic rights. Oppression usually stems from prejudice ideals that support the notion that one group, race, gender, etc. is better than another. This type of thinking is obviously very problematic.
Consequences of prejudice go beyond how it affects the targeted group as a whole. Each individual has their own unique experiences in regard to being the victim of prejudice. Social psychologists realize this, and have shifted a lot of attention on how prejudice acts affect the well-being of the person being targeted. Victims of prejudice may report feeling anxious, depressed, or stressed. Anytime there are multitudes of people that are experiencing distressing symptoms, action must be taken in an effort to decrease those symptoms.
Another consequence of prejudice behavior is stereotype threat. Stereotype threat occurs when someone feels fearful or nervous that their behavior will worsen a negative stereotype held towards a particular group they belong to. Their concern with trying to avoid confirming a stereotype becomes a distraction, therefore increasing the likelihood that the target’s performance will be affected (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). Our text gives the example of a woman taking a math exam. She is under the impression that women are not expected to do well in math, causing her to feel nervous about the exam. Since she is going into this exam with the mindset that she will not do as well because she is a woman and since she is experiencing anxiety, she is not likely to perform as well as she could have if this stereotype did not exist.
So, where these prejudice behaviors come from? Social psychologists have worked to study this particular question, because understanding prejudice behavior is critical in decreasing it. There is a tendency for individuals to mistakenly believe that two things are related if they are seen occurring together (Jones, 1997). This process leads to the creating of stereotypes. Stereotypes attempt to predict the behavior and characteristics of a certain group. Failing to resolve the formation of negative and inaccurate stereotypes becomes dangerous, because it is completely impractical to generalize an entire group of people. Making associations is how we learn, but we will assimilate new information to our existing schemas. We will even accommodate new information by changing our schemas, if the schema no longer makes sense. Stereotyping is largely due to a lack of assimilation and accommodation of new information. Stereotypes can also be developed through the environment an individual is exposed to.
Personally, the best way to decrease prejudice would be to understand that many stereotypes do not hold consistent accuracy. Individuals that develop negative stereotypes about certain groups, should seek examples that defy their previous beliefs. Prejudice behavior, which stems from stereotypical ideals, has been shown to bring on a number of unfavorable consequences. Our goal as a diverse species should be to reduce this behavior in order to avoid unnecessary conflict.
References
Jones, J.M. (1997). Prejudice and racism (2nd ed.). New York. McGraw-Hill.
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied social psychology: understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Los Angeles: Sage.
I agree with you that stereotype threat is an important factor that must be considered as it relates to prejudice behavior. I completely agree that stereotype threat effect a person’s performance, and they cause issues that would not have existed otherwise. For example, while driving one day with one of my friends, he mentioned that men are better drivers than women. As a result, I became really anxious thinking that he is judging my driving because I am a woman. Due to this anxiety, I found myself making mistakes that I would never have made prior to becoming aware of my friend’s prejudiced opinion. How do you think theories such as social identity theory help to explain these prejudice behaviors and stereotypical thinking? Do you think theories such as group-contact theory could be used to decrease these issues in our society?