“Racism and prejudice”…seem to have always been part of our nature and history. Referring to a negative view of others based solely on their membership in a group, “racism” specifically involves prejudice (negative stereotyping) toward folks who happen to belong to another ethnic group. “Ethnicity” involves people originating from a specific continent, such as European, Asian or African descent. The term “stereotype,” formerly used in the printing business, was first introduced by a journalist in 1922 (Walter Lippman). Basically, it means that we attribute a few traits to people, based on only one trait-given that they belong to a certain group. Asians are good at math; Latinos are “hot-blooded;” librarians are shy, etc. When these assigned traits become unduly derogatory, they become “prejudice.” I would argue that we all have a tendency to create categories in order to make sense of our environment; think about how confusing it would be if we didn’t. Everyone naturally divides “in-group” (a group to which we belong) from members of “out-groups.” Psychologically, it’s been demonstrated that we tend to evaluate out-group people more negatively than in-group. This becomes accentuated if FEAR/THREAT is added to the equation. Because of this, social categories are particularly amenable to negative stereotypes. In-group favoritism (termed “chauvinism”) appears to be a universal way of thinking and it has been created in experimental research. A bunch of studies conducted in the 50’s and 60’s demonstrated this natural tendency. For example, 12 year old boys, attending summer camp, consistently rated their own team’s performance as superior to the other team’s despite object evidence to the contrary; and 90% of the boys identified their best friends from within their own group even though, prior to group assignment, a lot of them had best friends in the other groups! Gordon Allport, a well-known psychologist in the 50’s, came up with the “Intergroup Contact” hypothesis. He found ways to reduce societal prejudice by encouraging positive intergroup contact, such as cooperation in shared goals. Wright and Taylor (2003) found identification with a super-ordinate group (groups coming together as part of one overarching group), like one community, can help reduce prejudice and animosity. Furthermore, Wright, and others, discovered that positive emotional experiences with members of different groups can reduce negative stereotypes. Having close friends from different groups can REALLY be effective in reducing those negative stereotypes! It’s almost impossible to hold onto a simplistic, negative stereotype of someone you know well. In other words, your relationships with other people become part of who you are. In this time of ever increasing racial and ideological tension, my hope is that there will be individuals who rise above the media hype and set a higher bar for us as Americans. DrBobDeYoung ;-)
Posted on: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 12:33:34 +0000
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