Discrimination

Discrimination versus Stereotypes and Prejudice

While the construct of discrimination is conceptually related to prejudice and stereotypes, several important distinctions merit consideration. Stereotyping involves placing things or people into categories in an oversimplified manner. Hence, stereotypes are overgeneralized mental representations that may carry a positive or a negative meaning. Because stereotypes are frequently acquired through hearsay, it is difficult to know if they are true or false. A number of social cognitive theorists, including Gordon Allport, believe that humans naturally place things and people in categories to create a sense of coherence in our world and to increase personal comfort. For Henri Taj fel, the exaggerations of group attributes often associated with stereotypes stem from the inability of humans to process excess information. Whereas stereotypes involve a person's positive or negative belief or opinion about the characteristics of a certain group and its members, prejudice is an individual's negative attitude toward, or tendency to make negative attributions of, a particular group. For instance, if a person perceives Asians as competitive and frugal (stereotypes), and if these attributes are viewed negatively, then this person will likely have negative attitudes (prejudice) toward Asians.

Unlike prejudice and stereotypes, which involve cognitive and affective components, discrimination entails observable behaviors, which can be blatant or subtle. Although it may be logical to assume that negative attitudes can lead to discriminatory actions, the relationship between discrimination and prejudice is not straightforward. In fact, studies that document inconsistencies between attitudes and behaviors have been in existence since the 1930s. Nonetheless, some scholars argue that these observed discrepancies may be due to measurement error rather than to actual inconsistencies between the two constructs: Whereas attitudes are usually assessed using global scales, behaviors are often measured specifically.

...