The document discusses the nature of prejudice, linking it to various psychological theories such as the scapegoat hypothesis and the authoritarian personality theory. It explores how prejudice emerges from group competition and how it can manifest through stereotypes and socialization. Additionally, it examines the persistence of prejudice across generations and contemporary forms of racism, emphasizing the role of education and intergroup contact in reducing prejudicial attitudes.

1. Chapter 3
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Prejudice and Discrimination
2
2
Individual prejudice is a set of feelings or emotions that people
attach to groups, including their own
For example, someone may have a negative view of the Irish
and call them “drunks”
This is a generalized association with an entire group
Several psychological and social-psychological research
traditions focus on the emotional or affective aspect of
prejudice
The scapegoat hypothesis and the theory of the authoritarian
personality
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Prejudice
3

2. Instructor’s Note: Ask students about a time in which they
experienced prejudice.
3
The Scapegoat Hypothesis holds that people sometimes express
their frustrations against substitute targets
When the substitutes are other groups, prejudice increases
Researchers have used this theory to explain a variety of
political, social, and economic events
For example, the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany in the 1930s
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Prejudice
4
Instructor’s Note: Ask students to provide another example.
4
The theory of the authoritarian personality links prejudice to
childhood experiences with stern, severe parents
On the surface, children of authoritarian families respect and
love their parents
Internally, they resent and fear their severe and distant parents
Prejudice provides people with authoritarian personaliti es a way
of coping with their conflicted feelings
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Prejudice

3. 5
The cognitive dimension of prejudice includes stereotypes about
people in other groups
Stereotypes are over-simplified generalizations that are said to
apply to all group members
For example, all feminists, Christians, or Southerners
Selective perception is the tendency to see only what one
expects to see
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Prejudice
6
Instructor’s Note: What is an example of selective perception?
6
Individual prejudice has an affective dimension in addition to
the cognitive
Robert Merton (1968) makes this distinction between
dimensions dramatically
Merton analyzed stereotypical perceptions of Abraham Lincoln,
Jews, and Japanese
The three “stereotypes” are identical in content but different in
emotional shading
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Prejudice

4. 7
Instructor’s Note: What is meant by emotional shading?
7
The affective and cognitive dimensions of prejudice vary not
only by race and ethnicity but also by gender and class
For example, the stereotypes and feelings attached to Black men
differ from those attached to Black women
Feelings about lower-class Mexican Americans are different
from those evoked by upper-class members of the same group
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Prejudice
8
Every form of prejudice started at some specific point in history
If we go back far enough, we can always find some instance in
which one group successfully dominates or eliminates a
perceived threat by another group
Group competition is associated with the emergence of
prejudice
Typically, prejudice doesn’t cause group competition, it results
from it
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Prejudice
9

5. Prejudice functions to mobilize emotional energy for conflict,
justify attack, and rationalize structures of domination
The relationship between prejudice and competition has been
demonstrated in a variety of settings and situations ranging
from labor strikes to international war to psychology labs
To illustrate, we will examine a classic experiment known as
Robber’s Cave
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Prejudice
10
Muzafer Sherif conducted his experiment in the 1950s at a
summer camp for 11- and 12-year-old boys
Robber’s Cave was conducted in an artificial environment with
young boys (all White) who had no previous experience with
one another
Thus, the results may be only partially generalizable to group
conflicts in the “real world”
Nonetheless, Robber’s Cave illustrates a connection between
group competition and prejudice
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Prejudice
11

6. Instructor’s Note: What does generalizability mean and why is
it important in research?
11
Many theorists have examined the dynamics of group
competition and the results for prejudice and discrimination
Marxist Analysis
Class inequality is a result of the capitalist economic system
Under capitalism, the bourgeoisie exploits the proletariat
A key reason capitalism continues is because the elites control
ideas
This results in group competition and prejudice between classes
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Theoretical Perspectives on Group Competition and Prejudice
12
Split Labor Market Theory
This theory agrees with the Marxist idea that prejudice and
racist ideologies serve the interest of a specific class
In split labor market theory, there are three actors in the
economic sector of an industrial society
The elites, the capitalists, and the working class
The economic nature of the competition and the economic self-
interests of higher-priced labor are obscured by appeals to racial
or cultural unity against the “threat” represented by the minority
group
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Theoretical Perspectives on Group Competition and Prejudice

7. 13
Group Interests
Herbert Blumer (1958) argued that prejudice is activated when
groups feel that they are threatened by other groups they see as
beneath them
The dominant group is particularly likely to use prejudice as a
weapon when it feels that its privileges are in peril
For example, the reaction of many Southern Whites to the Black
civil rights movement for the 1950s and 1960s
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Theoretical Perspectives on Group Competition and Prejudice
14
These theories share the conclusion that prejudice flows from
struggles to control or expand a group’s share of scarce
resources
No theory can explain everything and there are limitations
For example, Burns and Gimpel (2000) found that opposition to
immigration is greater when people feel economically
threatened
They also found that anti-immigration prejudice cannot be
explained by economic alone and that it persists even when
conditions improve
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Theoretical Perspectives on Group Competition and Prejudice
15

8. Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
The Persistence of Prejudice
16
Instructor’s Note: Ask students to interpret this figure.
16
Gunnar Myrdal (1944/1962) produced the idea that prejudice is
perpetuated through time by a self-fulfilling prophecy or a
vicious cycle
The dominant group uses its power to force the minority group
into an inferior status (such as slavery)
Individual prejudices are reinforced by the everyday
observation of the inferior status of the minority group
Over a few generations, an internally reinforced system of
racial inferiority becomes an integral and accepted part of
everyday life
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
The Persistence of Prejudice
17
Research on the development of prejudice in children confirms
that prejudice is learned through socialization

9. This prejudice may be acquired through direct and indirect
socialization
By age 3 or younger, children recognize the significance of
racial groups
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
The Persistence of Prejudice
18
Doyle and Aboud (1995) found that prejudice is highest for
younger children and decreases between kindergarten and the
third grade
This is related to increased awareness of racial similarities and
perspectives on race
Changing levels of prejudice in children may reflect an
interaction between children’s changing mental capacities and
their environment rather than a simple learning of racist cultural
values
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
The Persistence of Prejudice
19
Further evidence for the cultural nature of prejudice is provided
by research on the concept of social distance
Social distance is the degree of intimacy that a person is willing
to accept in his or her relations with members of other groups
Research using social distance scales demonstrates that
Americans rank other groups in similar ways across time period

10. and geographic location
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
The Persistence of Prejudice
20
A sense of social distance is part of the cultural package of
intergroup prejudices we acquire from socialization
Socialization is the process of psychological and social
development by which a person learns his or her culture
It is important to note the importanc e of the social situation in
which attitudes are expressed and behavior occurs
What people think and what they do is not always the same
Robert LaPiere’s (1934) work exemplifies this
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
The Persistence of Prejudice
21
Many social scientists argue that racism has not declined, but
has evolved
This new form of prejudice refers to modern racism, color -blind
racism, and symbolic racism
Prejudice can take forms that seem positive such as
“affectionate paternalism”
People may treat an adult with “special” care suggesting they
are weaker or less competent
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE

11. Publishing, 2018.
Recent Trends: Traditional Prejudice and Modern Racism
22
Instructor’s Note: What is color-blind racism?
22
Some of the strongest evidence that traditional prejudice is
declining comes from public opinion research
The figure on the next slide shows data gathered from White
Americans who participated in several research studies over a
64-year period
The poll shows that prejudice has not vanished
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Recent Trends: Traditional Prejudice and Modern Racism
23
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Recent Trends: Traditional Prejudice and Modern Racism
24
One possible cause of declining prejudice is education
Education is said to broaden perspectives and encourage a more
sophisticated view of human affairs

12. The figure on the next slide demonstrates the role that education
may play in decreased prejudice
It is important to remember that correlation does not equal
causation
Education and prejudice may be statistically associated, but this
does not prove that one is causing change in the other
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Recent Trends: Traditional Prejudice and Modern Racism
25
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Recent Trends: Traditional Prejudice and Modern Racism
26
Similar to education, contact and increased communication
between groups has often been suggested as remedies for
prejudice
Contact between groups is not an automatic antidote for
prejudice
The equal status contact hypothesis argues that, under certain
conditions, cooperative contacts between groups will tend to
reduce prejudice
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.

13. Recent Trends: Traditional Prejudice and Modern Racism
27
Equal status contact hypothesis specifies four conditions under
which intergroup contact can reduce prejudice:
Equal status
Common goals
They must interact intensively in noncompetitive, cooperative
tasks
Have the active endorsement of authority figures
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Recent Trends: Traditional Prejudice and Modern Racism
28
Modern racism rationalizes the status quo, thereby not just
permitting inequality, but reproducing it
Modern racists believe:
They are not prejudiced
Discrimination in American society no longer exists
Efforts to reduce inequality are unjustified and unfair because
inequality no longer exists
Any remaining racial or ethnic inequality is the fault of the
members of the minority group
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Modern Racism: The New Face of Prejudice?
29

14. Instructor’s Note: Do you know a modern racist?
29
Hate crimes are attacks or other acts of intimidation motivated
by the group membership of the victim or victims
Targets increasingly include the gay community in addition to
racial, ethnic, and religious minorities
Not all hate crimes are reported
Contemporary White supremacist groups commonly use modern
communications technology
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Hate Crimes
30
Instructor’s Note: Why aren’t all hate crimes reported?
30
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Hate Crimes
31

15. Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Hate Crimes
32
Hate crimes are often fueled by:
Perceived threats, frustration, fear, anger, and scapegoating
An undeserved rise in the status of minority groups
Fear of job loss, decreased income, deteriorated neighborhoods,
and inferior schools
The idea that many hate crimes involve scapegoating is
supported by the spontaneous, unplanned, and highly emotional
nature of these crimes
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Hate Crimes
33
Prejudice is more a result of group competition, rather than a
cause
Personality-centered prejudice is difficult to reduce and likely
impossible to eliminate
Culture-based or “traditional” prejudice differs not in intensity
but in the extent to which it is resistant to change
It is easier for a person to unlearn prejudice through education
and contact with members of other groups
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE

16. Publishing, 2018.
The Sociology of Prejudice
34
The reduction of intergroup conflict for societal resources by
reducing inequities in the distribution of resources and
opportunities can prove most beneficial for reducing stereotypes
and negative attitudes
Reducing prejudice will not necessarily change the situation of
minority groups
Individual prejudice and discrimination are not the same as
ideological racism and institutional discrimination
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
The Sociology of Prejudice
35
Chapter 3
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Prejudice and Discrimination
2

17. 2
Individual prejudice is a set of feelings or emotions that people
attach to groups, including their own
For example, someone may have a negative view of the Irish
and call them “drunks”
This is a generalized association with an entire group
Several psychological and social-psychological research
traditions focus on the emotional or affective aspect of
prejudice
The scapegoat hypothesis and the theory of the authoritarian
personality
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Prejudice
3
Instructor’s Note: Ask students about a time in which they
experienced prejudice.
3
The Scapegoat Hypothesis holds that people sometimes express
their frustrations against substitute targets
When the substitutes are other groups, prejudice increases
Researchers have used this theory to explain a variety of
political, social, and economic events
For example, the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany in the 1930s
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Prejudice

18. 4
Instructor’s Note: Ask students to provide another example.
4
The theory of the authoritarian personality links prejudice to
childhood experiences with stern, severe parents
On the surface, children of authoritarian families respect and
love their parents
Internally, they resent and fear their severe and distant parents
Prejudice provides people with authoritarian personalities a way
of coping with their conflicted feelings
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Prejudice
5
The cognitive dimension of prejudice includes stereotypes about
people in other groups
Stereotypes are over-simplified generalizations that are said to
apply to all group members
For example, all feminists, Christians, or Southerners
Selective perception is the tendency to see only what one
expects to see
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.

19. Prejudice
6
Instructor’s Note: What is an example of selective perception?
6
Individual prejudice has an affective dimension in addition to
the cognitive
Robert Merton (1968) makes this distinction between
dimensions dramatically
Merton analyzed stereotypical perceptions of Abraham Lincoln,
Jews, and Japanese
The three “stereotypes” are identical in content but different in
emotional shading
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Prejudice
7
Instructor’s Note: What is meant by emotional shading?
7
The affective and cognitive dimensions of prejudice vary not
only by race and ethnicity but also by gender and class
For example, the stereotypes and feelings attached to Black men
differ from those attached to Black women
Feelings about lower-class Mexican Americans are different
from those evoked by upper-class members of the same group

20. Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Prejudice
8
Every form of prejudice started at some specific point in history
If we go back far enough, we can always find some instance in
which one group successfully dominates or eliminates a
perceived threat by another group
Group competition is associated with the emergence of
prejudice
Typically, prejudice doesn’t cause group competition, it results
from it
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Prejudice
9
Prejudice functions to mobilize emotional energy for conflict,
justify attack, and rationalize structures of domination
The relationship between prejudice and competition has been
demonstrated in a variety of settings and situations ranging
from labor strikes to international war to psychology labs
To illustrate, we will examine a classic experiment known as
Robber’s Cave
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Prejudice

21. 10
Muzafer Sherif conducted his experiment in the 1950s at a
summer camp for 11- and 12-year-old boys
Robber’s Cave was conducted in an artificial environment with
young boys (all White) who had no previous experience with
one another
Thus, the results may be only partially generalizable to group
conflicts in the “real world”
Nonetheless, Robber’s Cave illustrates a connection between
group competition and prejudice
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Prejudice
11
Instructor’s Note: What does generalizability mean and why is
it important in research?
11
Many theorists have examined the dynamics of group
competition and the results for prejudice and discrimination
Marxist Analysis
Class inequality is a result of the capitalist economic system
Under capitalism, the bourgeoisie exploits the proletariat
A key reason capitalism continues is because the elites control
ideas
This results in group competition and prejudice between classes

22. Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Theoretical Perspectives on Group Competition and Prejudice
12
Split Labor Market Theory
This theory agrees with the Marxist idea that prejudice and
racist ideologies serve the interest of a specific class
In split labor market theory, there are three actors in the
economic sector of an industrial society
The elites, the capitalists, and the working class
The economic nature of the competition and the economic self-
interests of higher-priced labor are obscured by appeals to racial
or cultural unity against the “threat” represented by the minority
group
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Theoretical Perspectives on Group Competition and Prejudice
13
Group Interests
Herbert Blumer (1958) argued that prejudice is activated when
groups feel that they are threatened by other groups they see as
beneath them
The dominant group is particularly likely to use prejudice as a
weapon when it feels that its privileges are in peril
For example, the reaction of many Southern Whites to the Black
civil rights movement for the 1950s and 1960s
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.

23. Theoretical Perspectives on Group Competition and Prejudice
14
These theories share the conclusion that prejudice flows from
struggles to control or expand a group’s share of scarce
resources
No theory can explain everything and there are limitations
For example, Burns and Gimpel (2000) found that opposition to
immigration is greater when people feel economically
threatened
They also found that anti-immigration prejudice cannot be
explained by economic alone and that it persists even when
conditions improve
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Theoretical Perspectives on Group Competition and Prejudice
15
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
The Persistence of Prejudice
16
Instructor’s Note: Ask students to interpret this figure.
16
Gunnar Myrdal (1944/1962) produced the idea that prejudice is

24. perpetuated through time by a self-fulfilling prophecy or a
vicious cycle
The dominant group uses its power to force the minority group
into an inferior status (such as slavery)
Individual prejudices are reinforced by the everyday
observation of the inferior status of the minority group
Over a few generations, an internally reinforced system of
racial inferiority becomes an integral and accepted part of
everyday life
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
The Persistence of Prejudice
17
Research on the development of prejudice in children confirms
that prejudice is learned through socialization
This prejudice may be acquired through direct and indirect
socialization
By age 3 or younger, children recognize the significance of
racial groups
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
The Persistence of Prejudice
18
Doyle and Aboud (1995) found that prejudice is highest for
younger children and decreases between kindergarten and the
third grade

25. This is related to increased awareness of racial similarities and
perspectives on race
Changing levels of prejudice in children may reflect an
interaction between children’s changing mental capacities and
their environment rather than a simple learning of racist cultural
values
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
The Persistence of Prejudice
19
Further evidence for the cultural nature of prejudice is provided
by research on the concept of social distance
Social distance is the degree of intimacy that a person is willing
to accept in his or her relations with members of other groups
Research using social distance scales demonstrates that
Americans rank other groups in similar ways across time period
and geographic location
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
The Persistence of Prejudice
20
A sense of social distance is part of the cultural package of
intergroup prejudices we acquire from socialization
Socialization is the process of psychological and social
development by which a person learns his or her culture
It is important to note the importance of the social situation in

26. which attitudes are expressed and behavior occurs
What people think and what they do is not always the same
Robert LaPiere’s (1934) work exemplifies this
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
The Persistence of Prejudice
21
Many social scientists argue that racism has not declined, but
has evolved
This new form of prejudice refers to modern racism, color -blind
racism, and symbolic racism
Prejudice can take forms that seem positive such as
“affectionate paternalism”
People may treat an adult with “special” care suggesting they
are weaker or less competent
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Recent Trends: Traditional Prejudice and Modern Racism
22
Instructor’s Note: What is color-blind racism?
22
Some of the strongest evidence that traditional prejudice is
declining comes from public opinion research
The figure on the next slide shows data gathered from White
Americans who participated in several research studies over a

27. 64-year period
The poll shows that prejudice has not vanished
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Recent Trends: Traditional Prejudice and Modern Racism
23
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Recent Trends: Traditional Prejudice and Modern Racism
24
One possible cause of declining prejudice is education
Education is said to broaden perspectives and encourage a more
sophisticated view of human affairs
The figure on the next slide demonstrates the role that education
may play in decreased prejudice
It is important to remember that correlation does not equal
causation
Education and prejudice may be statistically associated, but this
does not prove that one is causing change in the other
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Recent Trends: Traditional Prejudice and Modern Racism
25

28. Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Recent Trends: Traditional Prejudice and Modern Racism
26
Similar to education, contact and increased communication
between groups has often been suggested as remedies for
prejudice
Contact between groups is not an automatic antidote for
prejudice
The equal status contact hypothesis argues that, under certain
conditions, cooperative contacts between groups will tend to
reduce prejudice
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Recent Trends: Traditional Prejudice and Modern Racism
27
Equal status contact hypothesis specifies four conditions under
which intergroup contact can reduce prejudice:
Equal status
Common goals
They must interact intensively in noncompetitive, cooperative
tasks
Have the active endorsement of authority figures
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE

29. Publishing, 2018.
Recent Trends: Traditional Prejudice and Modern Racism
28
Modern racism rationalizes the status quo, thereby not just
permitting inequality, but reproducing it
Modern racists believe:
They are not prejudiced
Discrimination in American society no longer exists
Efforts to reduce inequality are unjustified and unfair because
inequality no longer exists
Any remaining racial or ethnic inequality is the fault of the
members of the minority group
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Modern Racism: The New Face of Prejudice?
29
Instructor’s Note: Do you know a modern racist?
29
Hate crimes are attacks or other acts of intimidation motivated
by the group membership of the victim or victims
Targets increasingly include the gay community in addition to
racial, ethnic, and religious minorities
Not all hate crimes are reported

30. Contemporary White supremacist groups commonly use modern
communications technology
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Hate Crimes
30
Instructor’s Note: Why aren’t all hate crimes reported?
30
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Hate Crimes
31
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Hate Crimes
32
Hate crimes are often fueled by:
Perceived threats, frustration, fear, anger, and scapegoating
An undeserved rise in the status of minority groups
Fear of job loss, decreased income, deteriorated neighborhoods,
and inferior schools
The idea that many hate crimes involve scapegoating is

31. supported by the spontaneous, unplanned, and highly emotional
nature of these crimes
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Hate Crimes
33
Prejudice is more a result of group competition, rather than a
cause
Personality-centered prejudice is difficult to reduce and likely
impossible to eliminate
Culture-based or “traditional” prejudice differs not in intensity
but in the extent to which it is resistant to change
It is easier for a person to unlearn prejudice through education
and contact with members of other groups
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
The Sociology of Prejudice
34
The reduction of intergroup conflict for societal resources by
reducing inequities in the distribution of resources and
opportunities can prove most beneficial for reducing stereotypes
and negative attitudes
Reducing prejudice will not necessarily change the situation of
minority groups
Individual prejudice and discrimination are not the same as
ideological racism and institutional discrimination

32. Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
The Sociology of Prejudice
35
Chapter 3
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE
Publishing, 2018.
Prejudice and Discrimination
2
2
Individual prejudice is a set of feelings or emotions that people
attach to groups, including their own
For example, someone may have a negative view of the Irish
and call them “drunks”
This is a generalized association with an entire group
Several psychological and social-psychological research
traditions focus on the emotional or affective aspect of
prejudice
The scapegoat hypothesis and the theory of the authoritarian
personality
Healey, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class 8e. © SAGE

33. Publishing, 2018.
Prejudice
3
Instructor’s Note: Ask students about a time in which they
experienced prejudice.
3
The Scapegoat Hypothesis holds that people sometimes express
their frustrations against substitute targets
When the substitutes are other groups, prejudice increases
Researchers have used this theory to explain a variety of
political, social, and economic events
For example, the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany in the 1930s
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Prejudice
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Instructor’s Note: Ask students to provide another example.
4
The theory of the authoritarian personality links prejudice to
childhood experiences with stern, severe parents
On the surface, children of authoritarian families respect and
love their parents
Internally, they resent and fear their severe and distant parents

34. Prejudice provides people with authoritarian personalities a way
of coping with their conflicted feelings
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Prejudice
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The cognitive dimension of prejudice includes stereotypes about
people in other groups
Stereotypes are over-simplified generalizations that are said to
apply to all group members
For example, all feminists, Christians, or Southerners
Selective perception is the tendency to see only what one
expects to see
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Prejudice
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Instructor’s Note: What is an example of selective perception?
6
Individual prejudice has an affective dimension in addition to
the cognitive
Robert Merton (1968) makes this distinction between
dimensions dramatically
Merton analyzed stereotypical perceptions of Abraham Lincoln,

35. Jews, and Japanese
The three “stereotypes” are identical in content but different in
emotional shading
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Prejudice
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Instructor’s Note: What is meant by emotional shading?
7
The affective and cognitive dimensions of prejudice vary not
only by race and ethnicity but also by gender and class
For example, the stereotypes and feelings attached to Black men
differ from those attached to Black women
Feelings about lower-class Mexican Americans are different
from those evoked by upper-class members of the same group
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Prejudice
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Every form of prejudice started at some specific point in history
If we go back far enough, we can always find some instance in
which one group successfully dominates or eliminates a
perceived threat by another group
Group competition is associated with the emergence of
prejudice

36. Typically, prejudice doesn’t cause group competition, it results
from it
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Prejudice functions to mobilize emotional energy for conflict,
justify attack, and rationalize structures of domination
The relationship between prejudice and competition has been
demonstrated in a variety of settings and situations ranging
from labor strikes to international war to psychology labs
To illustrate, we will examine a classic experiment known as
Robber’s Cave
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Muzafer Sherif conducted his experiment in the 1950s at a
summer camp for 11- and 12-year-old boys
Robber’s Cave was conducted in an artificial environment with
young boys (all White) who had no previous experience with
one another
Thus, the results may be only partially generalizable to group
conflicts in the “real world”
Nonetheless, Robber’s Cave illustrates a connection between
group competition and prejudice

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Prejudice
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Instructor’s Note: What does generalizability mean and why is
it important in research?
11
Many theorists have examined the dynamics of group
competition and the results for prejudice and discrimination
Marxist Analysis
Class inequality is a result of the capitalist economic system
Under capitalism, the bourgeoisie exploits the proletariat
A key reason capitalism continues is because the elites control
ideas
This results in group competition and prejudice between classes
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Theoretical Perspectives on Group Competition and Prejudice
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Split Labor Market Theory
This theory agrees with the Marxist idea that prejudice and
racist ideologies serve the interest of a specific class
In split labor market theory, there are three actors in the
economic sector of an industrial society
The elites, the capitalists, and the working class
The economic nature of the competition and the economic self-

38. interests of higher-priced labor are obscured by appeals to racial
or cultural unity against the “threat” represented by the minority
group
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Theoretical Perspectives on Group Competition and Prejudice
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Group Interests
Herbert Blumer (1958) argued that prejudice is activated when
groups feel that they are threatened by other groups they see as
beneath them
The dominant group is particularly likely to use prejudice as a
weapon when it feels that its privileges are in peril
For example, the reaction of many Southern Whites to the Black
civil rights movement for the 1950s and 1960s
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Theoretical Perspectives on Group Competition and Prejudice
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These theories share the conclusion that prejudice flows from
struggles to control or expand a group’s share of scarce
resources
No theory can explain everything and there are limitations
For example, Burns and Gimpel (2000) found that opposition to
immigration is greater when people feel economically
threatened
They also found that anti-immigration prejudice cannot be
explained by economic alone and that it persists even when

39. conditions improve
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Theoretical Perspectives on Group Competition and Prejudice
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The Persistence of Prejudice
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Instructor’s Note: Ask students to interpret this figure.
16
Gunnar Myrdal (1944/1962) produced the idea that prejudice is
perpetuated through time by a self-fulfilling prophecy or a
vicious cycle
The dominant group uses its power to force the minority group
into an inferior status (such as slavery)
Individual prejudices are reinforced by the everyday
observation of the inferior status of the minority group
Over a few generations, an internally reinforced system of
racial inferiority becomes an integral and accepted part of
everyday life
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The Persistence of Prejudice
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40. Research on the development of prejudice in children confirms
that prejudice is learned through socialization
This prejudice may be acquired through direct and indirect
socialization
By age 3 or younger, children recognize the significance of
racial groups
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The Persistence of Prejudice
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Doyle and Aboud (1995) found that prejudice is highest for
younger children and decreases between kindergarten and the
third grade
This is related to increased awareness of racial similarities and
perspectives on race
Changing levels of prejudice in children may reflect an
interaction between children’s changing mental capacities and
their environment rather than a simple learning of racist cultural
values
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The Persistence of Prejudice
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Further evidence for the cultural nature of prejudice is provided

41. by research on the concept of social distance
Social distance is the degree of intimacy that a person is willing
to accept in his or her relations with members of other groups
Research using social distance scales demonstrates that
Americans rank other groups in similar ways across time period
and geographic location
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The Persistence of Prejudice
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A sense of social distance is part of the cultural package of
intergroup prejudices we acquire from socialization
Socialization is the process of psychological and social
development by which a person learns his or her culture
It is important to note the importance of the social situation in
which attitudes are expressed and behavior occurs
What people think and what they do is not always the same
Robert LaPiere’s (1934) work exemplifies this
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The Persistence of Prejudice
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Many social scientists argue that racism has not declined, but
has evolved
This new form of prejudice refers to modern racism, color -blind
racism, and symbolic racism

42. Prejudice can take forms that seem positive such as
“affectionate paternalism”
People may treat an adult with “special” care suggesting they
are weaker or less competent
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Recent Trends: Traditional Prejudice and Modern Racism
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Instructor’s Note: What is color-blind racism?
22
Some of the strongest evidence that traditional prejudice is
declining comes from public opinion research
The figure on the next slide shows data gathered from White
Americans who participated in several research studies over a
64-year period
The poll shows that prejudice has not vanished
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Recent Trends: Traditional Prejudice and Modern Racism
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Recent Trends: Traditional Prejudice and Modern Racism
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43. One possible cause of declining prejudice is education
Education is said to broaden perspectives and encourage a more
sophisticated view of human affairs
The figure on the next slide demonstrates the role that education
may play in decreased prejudice
It is important to remember that correlation does not equal
causation
Education and prejudice may be statistically associated, but this
does not prove that one is causing change in the other
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Recent Trends: Traditional Prejudice and Modern Racism
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Recent Trends: Traditional Prejudice and Modern Racism
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Similar to education, contact and increased communication
between groups has often been suggested as remedies for
prejudice
Contact between groups is not an automatic antidote for
prejudice

44. The equal status contact hypothesis argues that, under certain
conditions, cooperative contacts between groups will tend to
reduce prejudice
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Recent Trends: Traditional Prejudice and Modern Racism
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Equal status contact hypothesis specifies four conditions under
which intergroup contact can reduce prejudice:
Equal status
Common goals
They must interact intensively in noncompetitive, cooperative
tasks
Have the active endorsement of authority figures
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Recent Trends: Traditional Prejudice and Modern Racism
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Modern racism rationalizes the status quo, thereby not just
permitting inequality, but reproducing it
Modern racists believe:
They are not prejudiced
Discrimination in American society no longer exists
Efforts to reduce inequality are unjustified and unfair because
inequality no longer exists

45. Any remaining racial or ethnic inequality is the fault of the
members of the minority group
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Modern Racism: The New Face of Prejudice?
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Instructor’s Note: Do you know a modern racist?
29
Hate crimes are attacks or other acts of intimidation motivated
by the group membership of the victim or victims
Targets increasingly include the gay community in addition to
racial, ethnic, and religious minorities
Not all hate crimes are reported
Contemporary White supremacist groups commonly use modern
communications technology
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Hate Crimes
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Instructor’s Note: Why aren’t all hate crimes reported?
30
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46. Hate Crimes
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Hate Crimes
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Hate crimes are often fueled by:
Perceived threats, frustration, fear, anger, and scapegoating
An undeserved rise in the status of minority groups
Fear of job loss, decreased income, deteriorated neighborhoods,
and inferior schools
The idea that many hate crimes involve scapegoating is
supported by the spontaneous, unplanned, and highly emotional
nature of these crimes
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Hate Crimes
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Prejudice is more a result of group competition, rather than a
cause
Personality-centered prejudice is difficult to reduce and likely
impossible to eliminate

47. Culture-based or “traditional” prejudice differs not in intensity
but in the extent to which it is resistant to change
It is easier for a person to unlearn prejudice through education
and contact with members of other groups
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The Sociology of Prejudice
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The reduction of intergroup conflict for societal resources by
reducing inequities in the distribution of resources and
opportunities can prove most beneficial for reducing stereotypes
and negative attitudes
Reducing prejudice will not necessarily change the situation of
minority groups
Individual prejudice and discrimination are not the same as
ideological racism and institutional discrimination
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The Sociology of Prejudice
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