Role of Stereotype in Forming Prejudice

Question: Critically Explore the role of stereotyping in forming prejudice and critically explore the use of Implicit Association Tests (IAT) in detecting prejudice. Answer: Role of stereotype in forming prejudice The generalization about the individual or group of individual is called stereotype. It is generally formed when the required information about the person is unable to obtain. It is a kind of fill in the blank when there is absence of total picture. In our society there is unfair discrimination on stereotypes and it our society only who creates these stereotypes. Comics, movies, books, television are the various sources of stereotyped character (McGarty, Spears, Yzerbyt, 2002). Most of the movies displays African-American as being lazy, unintelligent and violence prone which has resulted into forming prejudice for African-American people. It is a kind of discrimination when a person or a group of judges on stereotypes and prejudice, they are likely to treated differently. Minority group people, women are often discriminated and victimized for education and employment. Women are excluded from high positions in business. Clubs provide restrictive membership based on caste and economic status. Criminal and civil justice is often not applied to everyone equally. The product of adaptive process is considered as prejudice and stereotyping. The people use their mental shortcuts while making decisions regarding these. There are few positives also attached with stereotypes and prejudice like maintaining the charter of women, preserving the culture of a particular society etc. but still harsh realities, biased decisions are attached with stereotype group of people (Cox, Abramson, Devine, Hollon, 2012). Implicit Association Test The implicit association test is used to measure the social psychology to detect the persons strength of association with mental representation of object in the mind. It was introduced by the Anthony Greenwald, Debbie McGhee, Joyce Sherry, and Jordan Schwartz in 1998. It is used in social psychology research and in cognitive, development psychology and clinical research. It is linked with peoples brain. This test has caught the attention of social psychologist as well as general public. It is developed to primarily understand the unconscious cognition and social cognition and measure the implicit group attitudes, stereotypes. (Nosek, Greenwald, Banaji, 2005). As a part of the process it includes attitudes, perception, stereotypes, and memory. Users are required to make judgment and reflect the attitude of people which they are not ready to revel publically. It helps in getting around the difficult problem and that is why it is extensively used to judge attitude of people. An importan t aspect of an effective Implicit Association Test is that it should be performed on people without telling them what the purpose of this procedure is. In stereotype IAT it measures the link between the thoughts that people hold for particular stereotypes, basically understanding the strength of stereotypes. For example- Gender-science IAT shows that people link women more with art and men with science. (Nosek, Hansen, 2008). IAT has also attracted its fair share of criticism at the same time. The most common and obvious criticism is that it is difficult to draw positive associations with things/people you are less familiar with. This is as simple as lack of knowledge on something and hence an ineffective conclusion. References McGarty, Craig; Spears, Russel; Yzerbyt, Vincent Y. (2002). "Conclusion: stereotypes are selective, variable and contested explanations".Stereotypes as explanations: The formation of meaningful beliefs about social groups. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp.186199. Cox, William T. L.; Abramson, Lyn Y.; Devine, Patricia G.; Hollon, Steven D. (2012)."Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Depression: The Integrated Perspective"(PDF).Perspectives on Psychological Science7(5): 427449. Nosek, B. A., Greenwald, A. G., Banaji, M. R. (2005). Understanding and using the Implicit Association Test: II. Method variables and construct validity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 166180. Nosek, B. A., Hansen, J. J. (2008). Personalizing the Implicit Association Test increases explicit evaluation of the target concepts. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 25, 226-236.