Psychology 2070A/B Lecture 9: lecture #9 - prejudice.docx

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2070A/B
• Professor: James M Olson

Document Summary

Stereotype - a set of characteristics that a perceiver associates with members of a group; they are cognitive beliefs, informational; they can be either positive or negative. 2011 hate crimes in canada: 52% due to race/ethnicity, 25% religion, 18% sexual. The total number of hate crimes was 1332. The internet is becoming problematic with this as it allows hate messages to spread more. Cognitive perspective prejudice results from normal" thinking processes. We are more likely to notice stereotype consistent information. We are more likely to interpret ambiguous information as consistent with the stereotype. It is easier to retrieve stereotype consistent information from memory: because we process information in a biased way: erroneous negative stereotypes may not be disconfirmed when they should be; in fact, erroneous negative stereotypes may even get stronger. This is a fundamental aspect of the cognitive aspect of prejudice: research example: stereotypes affect how we interpret information (sagar &