Attitudes are affective feelings towards objects that lead to behaviors. Attitudes have cognitive, affective, and behavioral components. Prejudice refers to unjustified negative attitudes towards groups. Stereotypes are generalized beliefs about groups that distinguish them from others and can lead to prejudice and discrimination. Sources of attitudes include exposure, conditioning, and socialization from various social agents.

1. Attitudes and prejudice

2. An attitude is an affective (affect) the
feeling of liking or disliking based on beliefs
(cognitions) about an object which leads to a
readiness to behave (behaviour) in a certain
manner.

3.  “I hate tennis”
 “ I love red”
 “Mmmm. Chinese food”
 “Ewwww. Dust bunnies”
 Emotions in our attitudes
 The feeling of like or dislike that causes us to
evaluate an object as good or bad
 Emotional reactions make up the affective
component of an attitude , can be positive
(like, love, desire, wanting) , negative
(dislike, hatred, rejection, contempt) or neutral
(disinterest uncertainty)

4.  Thecognitive component of an attitude
forms beliefs and assumptions about aspects
of our social world.
 These assumptions can be as unfair as the
affects.

5.  As
a result of affect and cognition, we
behave in a certain way.
A racist white man can object to work under
a black but highly qualified person.

6.  Some basic attitudes are instinctive which is
rare
 We build our likes and dislikes based on our
experiences
 Or we are conditioned
 Or people around us may teach us the
attitudes directly or indirectly
 Sources of attitudes are
 Exposure
 Conditioning
 Socialization

7.  Repeated exposure to an idea may change
your attitude towards the positive side or
occasionally to the negative side.
 E.g.
 Non sense words repeated many times
 Reverse image of our own picture is more
appealing because that’s how we see us in the
mirror.

8.  Classic conditioning
 Emphasizes the link between an environmental
stimulus and the person’s response.
 E.g. associating fanta with fun in an ad
 Mountain dew with adventure
 A certain song with a situation
 Operant conditioning
 Behaviors which are rewarded are
reinforced, punished ones are not.

9.  Various social agents teach us attitudes to
adopt.
 Do not play with her, she is a bad child
 Do watch Hamsafar, it’s amazing!!!
 You ate a bun kabab from a thela, how gross.
 Designer lawn is thing girl, all others are rubbish,

10.  An intergroup attitude – unjustifiable feeling
of like or dislike towards the members of the
group.
 Generallynegative, hence negative
connotation associated with the word
prejudice.

11.  Stereotype (belief) that leads to prejudice
(attitude), makes people discriminate
(behavior).
 Stereotypeis “A generalization about a group
of people that distinguishes those people
from others”

12.  Stereotypes are generalizations
 Some stereotypes may include a trace of
truth
 Stereotypes are usually evaluative
 Stereotyping is not a wholly rational activity.

13.  Racial
prejudice
 Gender based prejudice

14.  Peopleof same race prefer to interact with
each other.
A dislike for other races
 Demeaning behavior towards other races

15.  Men’s prejudice against women
 Women’s prejudiced against women
 Glass ceiling effect

16.  Social Inequalities
 Unequal status breeds prejudice
 Maybe due to wealth, strength, family, nationality etc.
 Prejudice seem to justify the hurtful and insulting
behavior against the prejudiced.
 Leads to dehumanizing, a prejudiced person is not a
human with individual qualities, but a
race, nationality, social status etc.
 Religion and Prejudice
 People belonging to one religion are prejudiced
against others
 Lesser tolerance for people with different views.

17.  Ingroups and Outgroups
 Ingroup
 A group of people who share a sense of belonging, a
feeling of common identity.
 Outgroup
 A group that is perceived distinctively different from
or apart from the ingroup.
 Ingroup bias
 Tendency to favor one’s ingroup.
 Leads to
 Liking of one’s ingroup
 Dislike for outgroup
 Not necessarily leads devaluing of outgroup
members.

18.  Conformity
 Prejudice maybe maintained to conform to the
social norms of society.
 The need might not exactly be bias against
people, rather the need to be accepted in
society.

19.  Frustration and aggression
 Cause of frustration too intimidating (strong) or
too vague, it is redirected towards someone else.
 Intensifies dislike for the already disliked
 Another source is competition.
 Competition for the same thing, when one group
gets it the other group dislikes them
 Personality dynamics
 Need for status and group identification – allows
a feeling of superiority over others when
belonging to a group.

20.  Stereotypes are result of simplification of the
complex world.
 Categorization
 Organizing the world by making clusters of
people and objects.
 Makes it easier to think and remember about
them.
 Similarities within groups and differences
between groups are exaggerated due to
categorization.

21.  Distintive Stimuli in people
 People having something distinctive stand out
more.
 You read more into their behavior than happens.
 You might notice more things that may otherwise
be unnoticed.

22.  Attribution
 Attributing behavior to the inner personalities
and ignoring situational forces.
 This happens due to focusing more on people and
not on the constraints of their situations.
 Attribution error – when actions are described of
people in groups.
 The just world phenomenon – The tendency of
people to believe that the world is just and
therefore people get what they deserve and
deserve and what they get. (strengthened
through moral stories) – encourages attribution.