Is there prejudice and discrimination between groups?

Unit 1 – Making sense of other people.Topic 4 – Stereotyping, prejudice and

discrimination.

Lesson objectives

By the end of the lesson you will be able to:• Describe and evaluate the work of Sherif.• Describe and evaluate the work of Tajfel.• Give explanations of prejudice and

discrimination.

Keywords.

Robbers cave – The name given to Sherifs experiment on prejudice.In group – A group of people believe you have something in common with, for example your psychology group.Out group – a group of people whom you believe you have nothing in common with.

What's the difference between prejudice and discrimination?

The Robbers Cave experiment.

Sherif showed interest in finding out what led people within a society to become prejudiced towards others. He believed that it could be because groups within society were competing for scarce resources. To test his hypothesis he designed an experiment, which he conducted on teenage boys at a summer camp.

Sherif 1961Aim – To find out if prejudice develops when groups are in competition for scarce resourcesMethod – An American summer camp was organised for a group of 22 boys. The boys were randomly split into 2 teams and the teams were kept away from each other. They were not aware that the other team existed. The boys were given time to settle in to their camps and form a group identity. After a while, the 2 groups discovered each other and the camp staff introduced a series of competitions with the prize for the winning team being a silver cup.Results – Very quickly, the teams began unpleasant name calling towards each other and tried to attack each otherConclusion – Competition is a cause of prejudice

Sherif organised his camp as a typical American summer camp. The boys were aged 12, white and from stable middle class homes. For the first few days of the camp, normal summer camp activities took place and each group gave themselves a name. One group called themselves ‘rattlers’ another ‘Eagle’.Once the groups became aware of each other, the competitions for the silver cup began. These included the tidiest camp and sporting event. Sherif also arranged situations that left one group gaining at the expense of others. A picnic was set up and one group was delayed getting there. When they did arrive there was hardly any food left. Things got so bad between 2 groups that the camp staff had to break up fights.

Evaluation• The groups and competitions were artificial and so don’t always

reflect real life.• He used 12 yr. old boys, white, middle class can it be

generalised to females?• The boys were American – can it be generalised to other

nationalities.• It has real life implications. The study demonstrated how

quickly prejudice can arise within a society when they are competing for the same thing.

• It showed how quickly people form alliances with others when they feel they have something in common with them. It also showed how quickly they can turn against others they see are different from themselves.

Levine (2002)Aim – To show that, if people believed they had a relationship with a stranger, they would be more likely to help themMethod – A situation was set up that a stunt man fell over in front of Manchester United Fans. Half the time he was wearing a Manchester United shirt; the rest of the time he was wearing the Liverpool shirt.Results – When he was wearing the Manchester United shirt, he was helped to his feet every time. However, when he was wearing the Liverpool shirt, he was left to help himself every time.Conclusion – When we feel we have something in common with others, we are more likely to help them. We are less likely to help out-group members

Tajfel (1970)

Aim – To show how easily people discriminate against their out-groupsMethod – 14-15 year old boys were randomly assigned to 2 groups. Each boy was given a game to play where he had to award pairs of points. They were told the points could be swapped for prizes at the endResults – The boys awarded points by choosing the pairings that created the biggest difference between the groups, not the pairings that gave them the most points.Conclusion – People will discriminate against others just because they are members of an out-group

Evaluation• Tajfel used boys aged 14-15 years old. Should we

really generalise the results to females?• The groups were artificially created so this

doesn’t reflect real life, in real life being part of a group means something to us.

• Other research, using participants of both sexes and all ages, has supported his findings. Just assigning people to groups is enough to enough discriminating behaviour.