Prejudice and Patriotism I

Video Summary

It can be pretty easy for us to roll our eyes at people who try to pass off what seems to be their clear bias not as the prejudice it is but as something desirable (e.g., “White pride”). It seems obvious to us that this is just a cover for a socially undesirable attitude. But what happens when the cover is something that appeals to us—like being a proud American? Social psychologist Jack Dovidio describes when as Americans we feel threatened from the outside, we may create rigid beliefs about who is part of our group and who is against us, leading us to prejudices and discriminatory behavior.

Questions

Question 1

The employee at the shop tells the woman “We don’t serve Muslims here,” and when she asks him what he thinks she is, he replies, “Well, you’re a terrorist.” What aspect of prejudice is being demonstrated here?

A. Discrimination.

B. Stereotypes.

C. Bigotry.

D. Ingroup bias.

Correct!

Sorry, your answer is incorrect. The correct answer stereotypes.

Discrimination is behavior based on membership in a group, and while the employee’s refusal to sell the woman a strudel is discrimination, his equating Muslins with terrorists is not.

Bigotry is how the narrator describes the action at the beginning of the clip, but it’s not a psychological term.

Ingroup bias involves a generally positive feeling towards one’s own group(s) and a negative feeling towards a group(s) one is not a part of. It does not involve specifically associating a group (Muslims) with a negative characteristic (terrorist).

Question 2

The employee tells the strudel-seeking woman “We don’t serve your kind,” meaning Muslims. He is demonstrating what aspect of prejudice?

A. Ingroup bias.

B. Discrimination.

C. Stereotypes.

D. Frustration-related hostility.

Correct!

Sorry, your answer is incorrect. The correct answer is discrimination.

Ingroup bias involves a generally positive feeling towards one’s own group(s) and a negative feeling towards a group(s) one is not a part of. It may give rise to discriminatory behaviors, but it’s not an action in itself.

A stereotype is an overgeneralized belief about members of a group, and while the employee may have them, the refusal of service is an action, not a belief.

Allport did contend that a hostility born of frustration is a cause of prejudice, but that isn’t applicable to this situation.

Question 3

The bakery employee says that he doesn’t want to serve his Muslim customer because “We’re at war with your people.” This belief might be the basis of the employee’s prejudice based on which theory of the origins of prejudice?

A. Allport’s hostility-categorization pairing.

B. Intergroup anxiety theory.

C. Realistic group conflict theory.

D. Ethnocentrism.

Correct!

Sorry, your answer is incorrect. The correct answer is intergroup anxiety theory.

Perceptions of threat combined with a recognition of outgroup status is a cause for prejudice by Allport’s lights, but it is unlikely that asking for strudel evokes feelings of frustration or threat on the part of the employee.

Realistic group conflict theory requires a conflict over scarce resources, which is not a factor in this interaction.

Ethnocentrism involves using one’s own cultural system to understand and judge others; the comment above does not reflect this.

Question 4

The employee makes reference to the Muslim woman’s dress as being somehow un-American, at one point implying her headscarf is like a Halloween costume. This equation of the Muslim woman’s religiously-mandated hijab with costumes worn on a popular American holiday reflects:

A. Symbolic Racism.

B. Prejudice.

C. Ethnocentrism.

D. Stereotyping.

Correct!

Sorry, your answer is incorrect. The correct answer is ethnocentrism.

The symbols in symbolic racism are social policies or laws that benefit an outgroup, not cultural/religious identifiers like the hijab.

Prejudice, a negative attitude toward someone based on presumed group membership, is probably applicable here in a broad sense, but not as specifically applies to the issue of the headscarf.

Stereotyping deals with beliefs about traits and attributes of a person, not about items of clothing.

Question 5

The psychologist in the video clip, Jack Dovidio, says that people will close up and define their group (in this case, Americans) in a very rigid fashion when what happens?

A. When people are harmed by outgroup members.

B. When people are approached by outgroup members.

C. When people think about outgroup members.

D. When people are threatened by outgroup members.

Correct!

Sorry, your answer is incorrect. The correct answer is when people are threatened by outgroup members.

There doesn’t seem to need to be any actual harm involved; the perception of threat is all that Dovidio mentions.

While an approach may be seen as threatening, such is not necessarily the case, and threat is the critical factor Dovidio mentions.

Just thinking about outgroup members may call to mind stereotypes that are threatening, but not all will be, and the perception of threat is the factor that Dovidio mentioned.

Introduction

Prejudice and Patriotism I

Introduction

Video Summary

Video

Questions

Question 1 of 5

Question 2 of 5

Question 3 of 5

Question 4 of 5

Question 5 of 5

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Question 5