Rejecting Minorities Lectures

College aantekeningen van alle hoorcolleges van Tobias Stark voor het vak Rejecting Minorities. Dit document bevat ook uitleg van verschillende onderzoeken die in de colleges werden besproken. Alles is erg duidelijk uitgelegd, met veel gebruik van voorbeelden.

Lecture notes from all the lectures given by Tobias Stark for the course Rejecting minorities. This document also contains explanations of differens researches that were discussed in the lectures. Everything is explained very cleary, while using a lot of examples.

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Rejecting Minorities Lectures
When the text is green, this means that a research or experiment is explained/used
Lecture 1: Social Identity Theory

Group formation
Categorization process is a central component of SIT (we put everything into categories)
o Evolutionary perspective: necessary to distinguish friend and enemy
o Cognitive perspective: necessary to process large amount of information
People always search actively for information, to comprehend what’s going on
People simplify processing all that information by ignoring certain differences and
emphasizing (or even exaggerating) certain similarities of that information
o Example: Missing hammer when camping. You ignore other things about a stone that
are in this case irrelevant.
SIT experiment 1: non-social stimuli
Tajfel: How do people deal with categories?
Line experiment: guessing the length of the lines, with or without a letter underneath them.
Conclusion: we use categories to comprehend what is going on and to judge certain things
Non-social versus social stimuli
Categorization of non-social stimuli: similarities within groups and differences between
groups are over-emphasized
Can this be generalized to social stimuli?
SIT experiment 2: minimal group experiment
Tajfels goal: manipulate social categorizations as an independent variable
Step 1: Generate social categorization on basis of a trivial criterion
Step 2: Let participants give rewards to members of their own and the other group
Part 1: dot estimation task: how many dots do you estimate are on this picture?
Part 2: rewarding people, according to the table
Conclusion minimal-group experiments
Group formation leads to discriminatory behavior (in-group favoritism)
Even is groups are formed on basis of trivial category
Tajfel: “Social categorization per se is a sufficient condition for the development of
intergroup bias” (=discrimination in favor of the own group)
SIT: four central concepts
1. Social categorization
“Process of bringing together social objects or events in groups which are equivalent with
regard to an individual’s actions, intentions and system of beliefs” (Tajfel, 1981)
Similar to categorization of non-social stimuli:
Use of any characteristic available
Perceive more similarity within and more difference between categories Can lead to dehumanization… Not just the basis of how we perceive the world, but also whom we perceive ourselves… 2. Social identity
Social identity is based on the realization that one belongs to a social category and the
positive or negative evaluation associated with this membership. (for example: German
soccer pride vs holocaust guilt)
Divisive and exclusive: you either belong or you don’t
Context dependent; you identify with different groups in different situations. (for example:
student in a classroom, girl in the women’s toilet)
Have a cultural component (wearing brown shoes = not a social identity) : with certain
behaviors and normative expectations, this turns a category into an identity
Include a judgement of the nature of people in a certain group (“black people are inferior”)
 This is more than a minimal group. Social identities may thus have even more powerful
consequences in intergroup interaction!
3. Social comparison
Trough social comparison with other groups, people try to evaluate their group’s relative
status. Why? Because you want to feel good about yourself, this is achieveable by concluding
that you (your group) is better than another group.
People strive for a positive social identity
o People are motivated to belong to a positively evaluated group. So we think of other
groups as worse, so we can feel better.
They value their own group more than other groups. (social identification versus contra-
identification)
4. Psychological group distinctiveness
-
On the one hand, people want to belong to a positively evaluated group
On the other hand, people have the need to be distinct from others (we want to be special)
(just realizing you’re Dutch, doesn’t make you feel special, so it doesn’t make you feel happy)
People thus try to achieve a position of their group that is distinct and positive
SIT scheme:
Examples/explanation of the SIT scheme:
Attempt to maintain/extend superiority: (discriminate) give them less access to school systems, don’t
hire them
Are there cognitive alternatives? Can you persuade an alternative in which your groups comes out
better than they do know?
No: situation stable/legitimized. The society is not open to change. What can you do? Individual
strategy.
Individual strategy:
Social mobility: you try to leave your group and join the majority group (difficult when you
have a darker skin or a very foreign name)
Intra-group comparison: “I am doing much better than the rest of my group”
Yes: situation not stable/legitimized. The society is open to change. What can you do? Group
strategy.
Group strategy:
Absorption: you and your group try to absorb in the majority (for example: Irish, German
immigrants in the US)
Redefine characteristics: (for example: the black is beautiful movement) You change the
characteristics as something positive instead of something negative