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.