Difficulty: Intermediate | Prerequisites: Person Perception and Attribution notes
Prejudice operates through three channels: stereotyping (thinking), prejudice (feeling), and discrimination (doing). Modern bias is often implicit, automatic, and outside conscious awareness, which is why reported prejudice can decrease while discriminatory behaviour persists. The Devine dissociation model, the IAT, and the shooter task are essential studies for this exam.
Tripartite model of bias
Bias operates in three distinct ways: stereotyping (cognitive representations of groups, thinking), prejudice (affective responses to groups, feeling), and discrimination (differential treatment of people based on group membership, doing).
Stereotyping
Cognitive representations of what a group is like. Thinking that group X has attribute Y. Knowing a stereotype does not mean you endorse it.
Prejudice
An affective (emotional) response to a group. "I dislike group X." Feeling, not just thinking.
Discrimination
Behavioural: treating people differently based on group membership. Not hiring someone because they belong to group X.
Explicit attitudes
Consciously held beliefs that require thought and deliberation. They predict deliberative judgements and verbal behaviour.
Implicit attitudes
Non-conscious associations that are automatically activated. They predict non-verbal behaviour and behaviours outside of awareness. Built up over a lifetime and reinforced by the environment, making them difficult to change.
Implicit Association Test (IAT)
Measures the strength of automatic associations between concepts (e.g., race and valence). If you are faster to pair "White" with "pleasant" and "Black" with "unpleasant," you show an implicit racial bias.
Devine dissociation model
A dual-process model that separates consciously held beliefs from automatic stereotyping processes. Key hypotheses: everyone knows the same stereotypes regardless of prejudice level; stereotypes can be activated automatically in both high- and low-prejudice people; but low-prejudice people can override stereotypic responses with egalitarian ones when given the opportunity (mainly for controlled, explicit behaviour).
Shooter bias (Correll's shooter task)
Participants decide whether to "shoot" armed targets or hold fire on unarmed targets. Race influences speed and accuracy: participants shoot faster at Black targets, take longer to decide not to shoot a Black target, and are more likely to mistakenly shoot an unarmed Black target under time pressure.
Minimal group paradigm
Assigning people to arbitrary, meaningless groups (e.g., by coin flip) is enough to produce in-group favouritism and out-group bias.
Robbers Cave experiment
Sherif's study showing that intergroup competition breeds hostility, but superordinate goals (goals requiring cooperation from both groups) reduce conflict.
Jigsaw classroom
Each student teaches one section of material to the group. Increases interdependence, increases empathy, and decreases stereotypes. Works best when sanctioned by authority, with equal-status contact and common goals.
Self-fulfilling prophecy
When expectations about a person shape the perceiver's behaviour, which in turn causes the target to act in ways that confirm the original expectation.
Stereotype threat
Performance impairment that occurs when a person is aware of a negative stereotype about their group, even if they do not personally endorse it. Simply being reminded of the stereotype is enough to trigger the effect.
Contact hypothesis
Intergroup contact can reduce prejudice, but primarily for majority-group members. For minority-group members, the benefits are weaker because trust, status differences, and scepticism complicate the interaction.
Bias has three distinct components. Stereotyping is the cognitive component: believing group X has attribute Y. You can know a stereotype without endorsing it. Prejudice is the affective component: an emotional response to a group. Discrimination is the behavioural component: treating people differently based on group membership.
Explicit attitudes are conscious, deliberate, and predict verbal behaviour and deliberative judgements. Implicit attitudes are automatic, non-conscious associations that predict non-verbal behaviour. They are built up over a lifetime and reinforced by the environment, making them resistant to change. People who report positive racial attitudes but hold strong implicit biases show the greatest disconnect between what they say and what they do.
Correll's shooter task presents participants with Black or White males holding either a gun or an object. Participants must decide whether to shoot. Findings:
Participants shoot faster when the target is Black.
It takes longer to decide not to shoot a Black target.
Under time pressure, participants are more likely to accidentally shoot an unarmed Black target.
The effect is stronger for people with greater knowledge of African American stereotypes and less personal interracial contact.
African American participants and police officers showed similar patterns.
The shooter bias is driven by ambiguity: when the situation is unclear, stereotypes fill the gap.
Cognitive: We naturally categorise information into "us" and "them." The minimal group paradigm demonstrates that even arbitrary group assignments produce in-group favouritism.
Motivational: We favour the in-group over the out-group. Categorisation breeds competition. The Robbers Cave experiment showed that intergroup conflict can be reduced by introducing superordinate goals that require cooperation.
Socio-cultural: Political movements, media, and institutional structures shape prejudice. Behaviour can differ from stated attitudes.
Devine asked: if reported prejudice is decreasing, why does discrimination persist? Her dual-process model proposes that consciously held beliefs and automatic stereotyping processes are dissociable.
Three hypotheses:
Hypothesis 1: Knowledge of stereotypes is separate from endorsement. High- and low-prejudice people know the same stereotypes.
Hypothesis 2: When activated non-consciously, stereotypes affect responses of both high- and low-prejudice people.
Hypothesis 3: When given the opportunity, low-prejudice people will replace stereotype responses with egalitarian ones.
Conclusion: stereotypes operate automatically in everyone regardless of beliefs, but low-prejudice people can override the expression of bias for explicit (controlled) behaviours. It is harder to override automatic behaviours.
The Implicit Association Test measures the speed with which people pair racial categories with positive or negative words. Faster pairing of "White + pleasant" and "Black + unpleasant" indicates implicit racial bias.
Gilbert and Hixon found that when people are cognitively busy, they are more likely to rely on stereotypic associations. Cognitive load removes the resources needed to override automatic stereotyping.
Self-fulfilling prophecy: An observer's expectations shape their behaviour toward a target, which causes the target to behave in ways that confirm the original expectation. Stereotypes shape how minority groups are treated, and the resulting behaviour can confirm the stereotype.
Stereotype threat: Awareness of a negative stereotype about your group impairs performance, even if you do not believe the stereotype. Simply triggering the stereotype (mentioning race before a test, for example) is enough.
Jigsaw classroom: Students each teach one section to the group. Increases interdependence and empathy, decreases stereotypes. Works best with authority sanction, equal-status contact, and common goals.
Contact hypothesis: Intergroup contact tends to reduce negative attitudes for majority-group members. The benefits for minority-group members are weaker due to trust issues, scepticism, and status differences.
Physiological studies (facial EMG, Vanman) show that high-prejudice individuals display negative emotional responses to out-group faces. These emotional responses correlate with implicit (not explicit) measures of bias and tend to predict how people will respond emotionally to out-group members.
Students think knowing a stereotype is the same as being prejudiced. The tripartite model separates these: you can know a stereotype (cognitive) without endorsing it emotionally (prejudice) or acting on it (discrimination).
Students assume the shooter bias only affects overtly prejudiced people. Both high- and low-prejudice participants (including Black participants and police officers) show the effect, because it is driven by cultural knowledge of stereotypes, not personal endorsement.
Students believe that intergroup contact always reduces prejudice for everyone. Contact primarily benefits majority-group members. Minority-group members may not benefit as much due to trust, scepticism, and status asymmetries.
Students confuse stereotype threat with self-fulfilling prophecy. Stereotype threat is internal (your own awareness of the stereotype impairs your performance). Self-fulfilling prophecy is external (someone else's expectations change how they treat you, which changes your behaviour).
⚠️ The tripartite model (stereotyping/prejudice/discrimination = thinking/feeling/doing) is flagged as "important for exam" in the source material.
⚠️ Know the explicit vs. implicit distinction thoroughly, including which types of behaviour each predicts.
⚠️ Be able to describe the shooter task, its findings, and why ambiguity drives the effect.
⚠️ Understand all three hypotheses of the Devine dissociation model and the general conclusion.
⚠️ Know the conditions for the jigsaw classroom to work (authority sanction, equal status, common goals).
⚠️ Be able to distinguish stereotype threat from self-fulfilling prophecy with examples.
Fill in the blank: The tripartite model of bias consists of ______ (thinking), ______ (feeling), and ______ (doing).
Stereotyping; prejudice; discrimination.
True or False: Implicit attitudes are easy to change because they respond to new information.
False. They are built up over a lifetime and reinforced by the environment, making them resistant to change.
Fill in the blank: In the shooter task, the bias is strongest under conditions of ______.
Time pressure (ambiguity).
True or False: Stereotype threat only affects people who personally endorse the stereotype.
False. It affects performance even when the person does not believe the stereotype.
Q: Explain the tripartite model of bias with an example.
A: Stereotyping is thinking ("Group X tends to be Y"). Prejudice is feeling ("I feel uncomfortable around group X"). Discrimination is doing ("I will not hire someone from group X"). A person can hold the cognitive stereotype without the affective prejudice or the discriminatory behaviour, which is why the model separates the three.
Q: What did the Devine dissociation model find about the relationship between stereotypes and prejudice?
A: Everyone, regardless of prejudice level, knows the same cultural stereotypes. These stereotypes can be activated automatically in both high- and low-prejudice individuals. The difference is that low-prejudice people can override automatic stereotypic responses with egalitarian ones when they have the cognitive resources and motivation to do so, mainly for explicit, controlled behaviours.
Q: Describe the shooter task and explain why the shooter bias is so robust.
A: In Correll's shooter task, participants see Black or White males holding either a gun or a harmless object and must decide to shoot or not. Participants shoot armed Black targets faster and take longer to withhold fire on unarmed Black targets. The bias persists across demographics (including Black participants and police) because it is driven by cultural stereotypic knowledge activated under ambiguity, not by personal prejudice.
Q: What is the difference between stereotype threat and self-fulfilling prophecy?
A: Stereotype threat is an internal process: awareness of a negative stereotype about your own group impairs your performance. Self-fulfilling prophecy is an external process: another person's expectations shape their behaviour toward you, causing you to act in ways that confirm their expectations.
Q: Under what conditions does the jigsaw classroom reduce prejudice?
A: The jigsaw classroom works best when the activity is sanctioned by authority figures, when participants have equal status, when contact is collaborative, and when the group shares common goals.
Prejudice connects to the Self (terror management theory explains in-group favouritism; BIRGing and self-evaluation maintenance link to group identity), Person Perception (stereotypes as a lens for first impressions), Attribution (FAE and dispositional attributions about out-group members), and Emotion (physiological emotional responses to out-group faces).
Prejudice, stereotyping, discrimination, tripartite model, explicit attitudes, implicit attitudes, IAT, Implicit Association Test, Devine dissociation model, dual process, automatic stereotyping, shooter bias, Correll, shooter task, weapon bias, minimal group paradigm, Tajfel, Robbers Cave, Sherif, superordinate goals, jigsaw classroom, Aronson, self-fulfilling prophecy, stereotype threat, Steele, contact hypothesis, Allport, intergroup contact, in-group favouritism, out-group derogation, facial EMG, Vanman, cognitive load, Gilbert and Hixon, aversive racism, subtle bias, modern racism