Discrimination is Behavioral
Discrimination refers to the act of denying equality to people based on stereotypes and the prejudices (Fiske, 2004). Allport (as cited in Fiske, 2004) divided discrimination into progressively worse steps of rejection of outgroups. He began with verbal rejection as a form of discrimination including stereotypical racial and ethnic slurs, put-downs, jokes, and other disparaging remarks of outgroups. Next, he recognized avoidance of outgroups as a method of discrimination which separates people from a more comfortable ingroup and excludes outgroups. He also identified segregation, physical attack, and finally extermination as other progressively worse methods of discrimination against outgroups.
Subtle and Blatant Bias
Blatant bias refers to overt, obvious, and bigoted expressions of social bias, whereas subtle bias refers to hidden, sometime unconscious expressions of social bias (Fiske, 2004). Subtle bias has become more prevalent over the course of the twentieth century as the expression of blatant bias has become more unacceptable in society. Subtle bias comes from an individual’s innate desire to understand the social world and the attempt to reconcile unconscious beliefs perceived from society with contradicting, anti-prejudiced personal ideals.
An example of blatant bias would be a store owner who hangs a sign in the front of his store stating “Whites Only Entrance.” A subtle bias might be the same store owner hanging a different sign that says “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.” The meaning of the signs might be the same, and the ambiguity of the second sign is more subtle and affords the store owner “plausible deniability.” Five types of subtle bias can exist together or separately depending on the situation (Fiske, 2004):
Cool and Indirect
Subtle bias is cool and indirect (Fiske, 2004). This means that people blame outgroups for their own situations believing that bad behavior is intrinsic to the outgroup, while good behavior is intrinsic to the ingroup. Racist whites with a subtle bias might claim that blacks are not educated because they do not attend school, or that blacks can pull themselves out of their troubles if they will only put forth enough effort.
Automatic
Subtle prejudice can occur in an automatic process (Fiske, 2004). Subliminal cues automatically categorize people into groups and influence contrived conclusions. These cues influence people’s perceptions, cognitions, affect, and behaviors. Two methods demonstrating automatic bias are priming methods, which use group identifying words to prime participants for ingroup words that follow, and simultaneous associations, which associate positive words with a participant’s ingroup. Having this type of automatic bias does not necessarily mean that someone agrees with it. An individual may be culturally aware of the bias but disagree with a personal belief in the bias.
Ambiguous
Subtle prejudice can be ambiguous, being hidden in responses that are abstract, unclear, vague and difficult to pinpoint (Fiske, 2004). Often the responses are ambiguous in terms of the speed of the response or the kinds of nonverbal cues that a participant displays. These items are difficult to interpret and lend themselves to ambiguity. The reason for the ambiguity could be because an individual is attempting to hide racist behaviors that are incongruous with stated beliefs.
Ambivalent
Social bias can also be manifested in racial ambivalence (Fiske, 2004). When an individual has both positive and negative feelings for a member of another group, the ambivalence causes the individual’s beliefs to be dramatically unstable. Response amplification (Fiske, 2004) occurs when an individual overemphasizes either support or antagonism for a member of another group.
The Impact of Social Bias
On the positive side, subtle forms of social bias can have a positive impact on individuals by facilitating ingroup cohesion and creating a strong sense of belonging (Fiske, 2004). An individual will develop strong ties within a group in which the individual feels accepted, appears to be similar and seems to belong. That strong cohesiveness will facilitate the individual’s productivity ensuring ingroup success.
Self-fulfilling prophecies can help individuals in different groups understand and interact more smoothly (Fiske, 2004). In a self-fulfilling prophecy (Merton, as cited in Fiske, 2004), the person perceiving a bias situation is influenced to behave in the same biased way. For example, Asian Indians observing other Asian Indians behaving in accepting, generous ways toward Pakistanis will predictably behave in a similar manner.
On the negative side, subtle bias occurs because people have difficulty reconciling their personal beliefs with the prevalent, sometimes unconscious beliefs of the society in which they live (Fiske, 2004). People struggle to overcome an internal conflict with stereotypes, prejudices, and discrimination in many aspects of their lives. The conflict, if not resolved can have a long lasting impact on the psychological health of an individual and a negative impact on health of society in general. Increased negative tensions, even if subtle or unconscious, left unresolved in society will continue to grow and manifest in progressively worse expressions of verbal aggression, avoidance, segregation, physical attacks, and extermination. Most of the time, social bias will have a negative impact on the lives of individuals when personal beliefs conflict with the beliefs of the group.
Strategies to Overcome Social Bias
Constructive contact between individual members of different social groups can help to overcome social bias (Fiske, 2004). The method of contact between members includes four key factors. According to Allport (as cited in Fiske, 2004), intergroup contact involves (1) equal status of the groups, (2) common goals, (3) cooperation, and (4) authority sanction for the contact.
Equal Status
Equality may be factual, but if groups do not perceive the equality, then the misperception will not facilitate positive interaction between different groups (Fiske, 2004). Emotional prejudice can be reduced when people perceive that they need each other. People need to perceive they are on equal ground in order to overcome hostility and discomfort with one another.
Common Goals
Working toward common goals helps eliminate social bias (Fiske, 2004). When people have common goals, they must work together to accomplish those goals. By putting aside preconceptions, they learn more about each other’s true characteristics which will help them to achieve their common goals. Learning about each other causes them to form new concepts of one another which counteract the stereotypes, thus overcoming social bias.
Cooperation
Experiments reflect that contact with other groups facilitates tolerance (Fiske, 2004). Ingroup friendship through contact also reduces emotional prejudice. Because prejudice is primarily an emotional response, forming emotional bonds through intergroup contact and cooperation can help overcome negative social bias.
Authority Sanction
Understanding that the powers in existence have authorized the equal status, common goals, intergroup contact, and cooperation of an intergroup collaboration, people can feel at ease in working together to overcoming obstacles. Feeling at ease helps people to learn more about one another’s true characteristics, ignoring previous stereotypes while remaining open to change. The authority to work together is a powerful force in society. Working together, people can overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
Conclusion
Social bias in the form of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination affects thoughts, feelings, and behaviors respectively. Those thoughts, feelings, and behaviors can be changed by understanding that subtle bias is cool, indirect, automatic, ambiguous, and ambivalent. Social bias directly impacts the lives of individuals by facilitating ingroup cohesion, creating a strong sense of belonging, and improving interaction through self-fulfilling prophecies. When subtle bias occurs, people struggle to overcome the internal conflict which, if not resolved, can impact an individual’s psychological health and the health of society. Social bias can be overcome through positive intergroup contact. The process of overcoming social bias is a worthwhile endeavor which will require commitment to change on the part of social psychologists and individuals, open-minded intergroup contact, and cooperation throughout the world.
References
Fiske, S. (2004). Social beings. Hoboken. NJ: Wiley.
