Reduction of prejudice

SIGNIFICANCE: Several approaches to the reduction of prejudice have been studied over the years. Intergroup contact, the introduction of a common enemy, the crossing of social categories, and the presentation of information in the media are all strategies that have been considered in the effort to reduce prejudice. Evidence regarding the effectiveness of these strategies is mixed, and research has been directed toward examining the specific mechanisms underlying prejudice reduction.

Gordon Allport defined prejudice as an attitude toward the members of an out-group in which the evaluative tendencies are predominantly negative. The reduction and elimination of prejudice stands as one of the largest and most pressing real-world problems confronting psychology. Several different approaches to the reduction of prejudice have been examined.

Each of these approaches to prejudice reduction is derived from one or more of the suspected root causes of prejudice. Numerous explanations have been offered in attempts to account for prejudice. For example, some people believe that individuals develop negative attitudes toward other groups that are perceived as competing with their own group. Alternatively, it is possible that differences in familiarity with one’s own group and other groups can lead to differential perceptions and evaluations of the two groups. Prejudice might also develop as people grow up and learn from others about the features of different groups, especially if the features depict negative characteristics for certain groups. Finally, social thinking might inherently involve categorization processes that often lead people to divide the world into “us” and “them.” The different strategies designed to reduce prejudice generally focus on one of these concerns and try to reduce that specific concern in the hope of reducing prejudice.

The Contact Hypothesis

One of the most obvious and most heavily researched techniques for reducing prejudice is exemplified by what is called the “contact hypothesis”: that association with persons from a disliked group will lead to a growth of liking and respect for that group. Scholarly considerations of this basic idea can be traced back at least to the 1940s; for example, it can be found in Robin Williams’s 1947 book The Reduction of Intergroup Tensions. It is the seminal work of Allport, however, that is generally credited with being the classic formulation of the contact hypothesis. Allport, in 1954, developed a taxonomy of relevant factors necessary for contact to be successful in reducing prejudice. These factors emphasized the nature of the contact experience, and they included the frequency and duration of contact, the relative status of the two groups, and the social atmosphere of the contact experience. Some studies have demonstrated a reduction of prejudice toward the out-group, whereas other studies have shown that contact actually increases prejudice among members of the majority group along with causing a decrease in self-esteem and an increased sense of isolation among members of the minority group. Part of the difficulty may stem from the differences between intended contact and actual levels of contact. For example, Donald Taylor and his colleagues have argued that intergroup contact is often avoided. One study showed that Black and White students in a desegregated school “resegregated” themselves into ethnic groups during classroom activities and recess. Thus, the general emphasis has shifted from “whether the contact hypothesis is valid” to “under what conditions, and in what domains, is the contact hypothesis valid.”

A variant of the contact hypothesis in the context of desegregated schools is the cooperative team intervention. In this type of intervention, small groups of school children, including children of two ethnic groups, are assigned to complete a task in which they need to cooperate in order to succeed. Sometimes these small groups are later put into competition with other similar groups. Norman Miller and Gaye Davidson-Podgorny (1987) have shown that this type of cooperative team intervention is generally effective in reducing prejudice, at least in terms of attitudes toward out-group classmates.

Belief Congruence Intervention

An alternative approach is known as the belief congruence intervention. According to this strategy, prejudice and intergroup hostility are driven by the assumption that members of the out-group hold beliefs that are different from those held by the in-group. Therefore, if in-group members learn they share similarities with out-group members, the knowledge of this common ground may improve intergroup relationships and decrease prejudice. This approach is illustrated by Rachel Dubois’s (1943) “neighborhood festival,” in which members of different ethnic groups talk about nostalgic memories of childhood, holidays, and so on. The goal is for participants to recognize that group experiences, customs, and meanings are, in fact, remarkably alike and that different ethnic groups actually share membership in a broader commonality. Although this intervention sounds very appealing, its success rests upon a problematic assumption: The perceived differences between groups are illusory, and learning about intergroup similarities in beliefs will bring people to a more enlightened enjoyment of one another. If there are fundamental differences between the central beliefs of two groups (for example, Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland or Arabs and Jews in the Middle East), then the belief congruence approach is unlikely to be successful.

Some research has indicated positive results from empathy training. When individuals can imagine themselves in another person's situation, they can better understand their motives, actions, and priorities. This method is more effective with groups of individuals who share traits or a common goal. Individuals who regularly interact with different groups of people may empathize with others more easily.

Finally, the role of the media in maintaining or reducing prejudice should be considered. Research has shown that ethnic minority groups are commonly portrayed in negative ways or in ways that perpetuate stereotypes in the news media and popular entertainment. More positive portrayals of ethnic minorities in the media can make a substantial contribution to the reduction of prejudice. Research by Fletcher Blanchard and his colleagues found that exposure to the normative influence of other people expressing antiracist views can increase an individual’s expression of antiracist views. As diverse narratives and positive, accurate representations of marginalized groups appear more often in the media, viewers consume less content with misguided negative perceptions of different social groups.

Studying Prejudice

Understanding prejudice and developing strategies to reduce it have long been major concerns of social psychologists. Techniques used for studying prejudice, however, have changed over the years. Earlier research relied heavily on observing the outward behavior of one group’s members toward another group’s members and analyzing people’s responses on surveys. The development of computers and other sophisticated experimental techniques has enabled researchers to probe more deeply into the specific cognitive workings that may result in prejudice. This has helped illuminate a number of intriguing features about prejudice.

For example, Patricia Devine (1989) has shown that what distinguishes unprejudiced people from prejudiced people is not that unprejudiced people automatically respond in nonprejudiced, egalitarian ways. Rather, both prejudiced people and unprejudiced people may engage in automatic, learned responses of negative evaluation toward stereotyped out-groups. The unprejudiced people, however, are able to engage controlled cognitive processes that thwart the expression of these undesirable prejudiced responses. Viewed in this way, Devine suggests, prejudices may be likened to bad habits, and the replacement of prejudiced responses with nonprejudiced responses can be likened to the breaking of such a habit.

The work by Devine illustrates a key ingredient in all the various efforts to reduce prejudice. The way people learn and process information about groups may inherently lead to differential perceptions and evaluations of these groups. Because of a need to simplify and organize information, these differential perceptions and evaluations may be incorporated into stereotypes, which may be negative for some groups. As discussed by Brian Mullen (1991), in order for a technique for reducing prejudice to be successful, it must take this cognitive processing of information about different groups into consideration.

There is no magic solution to the problem of prejudice. It seems apparent, however, that people need to be aware at some level of the cognitive biases that can develop. Therefore, becoming consciously aware of the biases in thinking about certain groups may be an important first step in reducing prejudice.

Bibliography

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