PSYC1004 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Symbolic Racism, Cognitive Load, Henri Tajfel
Lecture 4
04 August 2017
09:06
Right wing authoritarian scale
Authoritarian submission - submission to legitimate authority
Authoritarian aggression - aggression toward a lower group
Conventionalism - adherence to social convention
Modern racism scale
Cognitive approach
Stereotypes we have might be useful to us in making sense of the world around us
oGood reason for why we stereotype?
oWould it require too much of our cognitive resources to process every person as an
individual
oIt’s a cognitive shortcut
Necessary but problematic
Stereotyping is a part of "normal" or universal cognitive processes rather than "abnormal"
personalities
Stereotypes are learned through socialisation and therefore, are relatively enduring, stable
across contexts
Help to understand what to expect from our surroundings - including other people
Lippmann (1922)
Human’s information processing capacity is limited by virtue of the fact that the social world
is far too complex to make sense of in detail
To avoid information overload, people are forced to summarize and be selective
Rely on generalizations to form impressions of groups, rather than forming impressions of
individuals
Stereotype more when under a cognitive load
View humans as faulty information-processing devices
oMany errors in perception of social stimuli
Cognitive Miser (Fiske and Taylor, 1984)
oLimited information processing capacity
oPeople often forced to make decisions that are quick and easy (often wrong), rather
than ones that are time consuming and onerous (more often right)
oAttributional errors, due to a lack of mental resources which would enable a
consideration of all factors involved
Critique Cognitive approach
It neglects the role which group membership and intergroup relations play in stereotyping
(as noted by Sherif).
It gives undue weight to the view that stereotyping is driven by a need to save cognitive
resources (e.g., attention) and not enough to the idea that stereotyping is driven by a need to
make sense of the social world.
It over-emphasises the extent to which stereotyping is determined by psychological
processes, rather than just has a psychological dimension.
It downplays the political aspects of stereotypes: as expressions of group ideology and
justifications of collective action.
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Document Summary
Authoritarian submission - submission to legitimate authority. Authoritarian aggression - aggression toward a lower group. Stereotyping is a part of normal or universal cognitive processes rather than abnormal personalities. Stereotypes are learned through socialisation and therefore, are relatively enduring, stable across contexts. Help to understand what to expect from our surroundings - including other people. Human"s information processing capacity is limited by virtue of the fact that the social world is far too complex to make sense of in detail. To avoid information overload, people are forced to summarize and be selective. Rely on generalizations to form impressions of groups, rather than forming impressions of individuals. Stereotype more when under a cognitive load. View humans as faulty information-processing devices: many errors in perception of social stimuli. Cognitive miser (fiske and taylor, 1984) o o. It neglects the role which group membership and intergroup relations play in stereotyping (as noted by sherif).
