Social Psychology W6 P1

Introduction to Social Psychology, University of Queensland, EdX.

-Almost within the moment that we meet someone, we form an opinion of them. Sometimes, this is a positive impression, but when our prejudgment is negative, this is a prejudice.
-All prejudgments are done by schemas; they're easy ways to group a person so we can better understand them.
-There are three main components to a prejudice: the cognitive component, which is where we draw upon stereotypes to judge a person, the affective component, which is the emotion connected with the stereotype (disgust, fear, anger), and then the behavioral component, which essentially plays out to be discrimination.

-Stereotypes tend to survive for a variety of reasons. The first is the kernel of truth; where a person sees a person who embodies a stereotype, and concludes that this is what all of this 'category' of people are like.
-People also interpret a person's behavior through the lens of a stereotype. Based off of the actions of a person, one might expect them to act a certain way. When they see them do anything, they will interpret their actions as what the stereotype suggests.
-People may even buy into stereotypes because it's easy, and because they want to believe it because it legitimizes their view on a group of people.
-The media also likes to use stereotypes to their advantage. If a person sees a behavior on tv, all people in the applicable group must be like that.

-While people have become more politically correct over the past century when it comes to racism, it doesn't exactly mean that the stereotypes of different racial groups have improved or dissipated. While most people prefer to keep a neutral image regarding stereotypes, plenty have negative feelings towards one group or another.
-Overall, people are less likely to give racial 'minority groups' the benefit of the doubt when it comes to situations of uncertainty.
-When people view others through the lens of a stereotype, completely non-aggressive behaviors can be interpreted as quite violent. It's easy to see how easily this can lead to catastrophic misinterpretation of actions.