This provocative book challenges conventional thinking that stereotypes are always inaccurate, exaggerated, and generally destructive by daring to look at stereotyping empirically. The chapters provide insights into how stereotyping may help us manage information without necessarily being destructive. They also unearth the complex cognitive and attitudinal processes that underlie stereotyping, so we may harness these processes to better understand group differences and to promote greater respect for those we see as different from ourselves.
Social scientists have long known that political beliefs bias the way they think about, understand, and interpret the world around them. In this volume, scholars from social psychology and related fields explore the ways in which social scientists themselves have allowed their own political biases to influence their research. These biases may influence the development of research hypotheses, the design of studies and methods and materials chosen to test hypotheses, decisions to publish or not publish results based on their consistency with one’s prior political beliefs, and how results are described and dissemination to the popular press. The fact that these processes occur within academic disciplines, such as social psychology, that strongly skew to the political left compounds the problem. Contributors to this volume not only identify and document the ways that social psychologists’ political beliefs can and have influenced research, but also offer solutions towards a more depoliticized social psychology that can become a model for discourse across the social sciences.
Following a broad overview that defines stereotypes, the book addresses how they are formed and developed in chapters that cover the social psychology of stereotypes, the impact of physical appearance on their formation, and methods of assessing their accuracy. Internationally renowned authors consider the function and use of stereotypes, exploring their complex interrelationship with linguistic biases, prejudice and discrimination, and intergroup and interpersonal perception. Chapters then discuss how stereotypes can be undermined, detailing social psychological interventions to improve intergroup relations and examining ways that individual targets of stereotyping might motivate others to change. A concluding chapter takes a historical view of stereotype research, tracing the evolution of the field and evaluating current theories and methodologies
This Handbook is a comprehensive and scholarly overview of the latest research on prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination. The Second Edition provides a full update of its highly successful predecessor and features new material on key issues such as political activism, economic polarization, minority stress, same-sex marriage laws, dehumanization, and mental health stigma, in addition to a timely update on how victims respond to discrimination, and additional coverage of gender and race. All chapters are written by eminent researchers who explore topics by presenting an overview of current research and, where appropriate, developing new theory, models, or scales. The volume is clearly structured, with a broad section on cognitive, affective, and neurological processes, and there is inclusion of studies of prejudice based on race, sex, age, sexual orientation, and weight. A concluding section explores the issues involved in reducing prejudice. The Handbook is an essential resource for students, instructors, and researchers in social and personality psychology, and an invaluable reference for academics and professionals in sociology, communication studies, gerontology, nursing, medicine, as well as government and policymakers and social service agencies.
This title contests the received wisdom in the field of social psychology that suggests that social perception and judgment are generally flawed, biased, and powerfully self-fulfilling.
Each day, we make judgments about the personality characteristics of those around us, and we routinely rely on them to guide our behavior in interpersonal interactions and relationships. This handbook provides a review of theory and research on the accuracy of personality judgments. After a historical review, the first section presents the major theoretical models that guide research in this area and describes methodological approaches to evaluating accuracy. The second section reviews the research findings relevant to four moderators of accuracy, and the third section focuses on judgments people make of themselves. The fourth section examines various types of information used in making personality judgments, while the fifth section provides examples of some of the domains to which accuracy research can be applied, including romantic relationships and clinical practice. Learning about the process of accurate judgments can be used to help people understand when and how they are more likely to make accurate judgments, and this handbook offers a thorough, evidence-based, and up-to-date review of this research field.
This book employs a careful, rigorous, yet lively approach to the timely question of whether we can justly generalize about members of a group on the basis of statistical tendencies of that group. For instance, should a military academy exclude women because, on average, women are more sensitive to hazing than men? Should airlines force all pilots to retire at age sixty, even though most pilots at that age have excellent vision? Can all pit bulls be banned because of the aggressive characteristics of the breed? And, most controversially, should government and law enforcement use racial and ethnic profiling as a tool to fight crime and terrorism? Frederick Schauer strives to analyze and resolve these prickly questions. When the law “thinks like an actuary”—makes decisions about groups based on averages—the public benefit can be enormous. On the other hand, profiling and stereotyping may lead to injustice. And many stereotypes are self-fulfilling, while others are simply spurious. How, then, can we decide which stereotypes are accurate, which are distortions, which can be applied fairly, and which will result in unfair stigmatization? These decisions must rely not only on statistical and empirical accuracy, but also on morality. Even statistically sound generalizations may sometimes have to yield to the demands of justice. But broad judgments are not always or even usually immoral, and we should not always dismiss them because of an instinctive aversion to stereotypes. As Schauer argues, there is good profiling and bad profiling. If we can effectively determine which is which, we stand to gain, not lose, a measure of justice.
By 2030 there will be about 70 million people in the United States who are older than 64. Approximately 26 percent of these will be racial and ethnic minorities. Overall, the older population will be more diverse and better educated than their earlier cohorts. The range of late-life outcomes is very dramatic with old age being a significantly different experience for financially secure and well-educated people than for poor and uneducated people. The early mission of behavioral science research focused on identifying problems of older adults, such as isolation, caregiving, and dementia. Today, the field of gerontology is more interdisciplinary. When I'm 64 examines how individual and social behavior play a role in understanding diverse outcomes in old age. It also explores the implications of an aging workforce on the economy. The book recommends that the National Institute on Aging focus its research support in social, personality, and life-span psychology in four areas: motivation and behavioral change; socioemotional influences on decision-making; the influence of social engagement on cognition; and the effects of stereotypes on self and others. When I'm 64 is a useful resource for policymakers, researchers and medical professionals.
The acclaimed social psychologist offers an insider’s look at his research and groundbreaking findings on stereotypes and identity. Claude M. Steele, who has been called “one of the few great social psychologists,” offers a vivid first-person account of the research that supports his groundbreaking conclusions on stereotypes and identity. He sheds new light on American social phenomena from racial and gender gaps in test scores to the belief in the superior athletic prowess of black men, and lays out a plan for mitigating these “stereotype threats” and reshaping American identities.
