Read Chapter One in Understanding Prejudice and
Discrimination. Answer the questions below: (Please note that the chapter ends
on page 62)
1. How do most social scientists agree that prejudice should be defined?
2. What is the origin of the term “Stereotype” and what does it mean now?
3. Describe the “Authoritarian Personality.”
4. What type of authoritarianism is associated with prejudice? Page 6.
Right-wing authoritarianism.
5. What percentage of African Americans has White ancestry?
6. What percentage of the genes carried by American Whites are from African
ancestors?
7. How does categorical thinking distort perceptions?
8. Research shows that outgroup members tend to be viewed as more similar, known
as the “outgroup homogeneity effect.” How does this lead to stereotyping of
outgroup members?
9. What is “ingroup bias?”
10. Research indicates that when people experience a drop in self-esteem, they
are more likely to express prejudice. This indicates that prejudice may
represent a way for some people to maintain their self-esteem. What does this
suggest about ways of dealing with prejudice?
11. Describe three ways in which causal attributions can be used to promote
prejudice against outgroup members?
12. When is subtle racism most likely to be seen?
13. What component of ambivalent sexism may actually seem positive and thus is
even harder to detect?
14. What was the result of a study about violent rap music in relation to
stereotypes?
15. In addition to priming, what is a second burden faced by people who are
stereotyped?
16. Studies of stereotypes in the media indicated what result when a group of
male interviewers who had watched sexist television commercials and then saw a
female job applicant?
17. Self-perpetuating stereotypes may lead individuals to perform more poorly in
what condition?
18. What is one of the most effective ways to successfully reduce stereotypes
and increase the accuracy of social perceptions?
19. Besides empathy and role-playing exercises, name at least two other powerful
methods for reducing prejudice and discrimination.
20. What similarity can be found in the lives of Lena Horne, Vanessa Williams, and Adam Clayton Powell?
21. What is the "one drop rule?"
22. In the Plessy vs. Ferguson case, the Supreme Court upheld Louisiana’s Jim Crow Laws and reinforced what rule that even today affects the legal definition of who is Black?
23. Do Black Americans generally apply the one drop rule to themselves?
24. What happens with American Indians with some Black ancestry, who leave reservations?
25. What kind of phenomenon is “passing?”
26. How can ethnic group be defined?
27. What state has the highest percentage of Blacks with no White lineage?