Psychology of Diversity and Unconscious Bias

Stereotypes are beliefs about the attributes of other groups, forming automatic, culture-driven expectations that shape how we view individuals, even if we don’t endorse them.

Prejudice is negative feelings toward groups, an attitude or evaluation distinct from stereotypes, often measured by the IAT, capturing implicit associations, and ranging from old-fashioned to aversive and ambivalent.

Differentiate discrimination from prejudice by focusing on behavior. Discrimination is unequal treatment, as shown by hiring gaps between white and Latino Americans.

Engage in an exercise that distinguishes stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination through a quiz of scenarios, clarifying beliefs about people, how much we like them, and how we treat others.

Explore how stereotypes shape judgments of others, interpretation of information, and self-perception, revealing the automatic cultural associations behind bias.

Explore how stereotypes bias interpretation and perception by shaping judgments under ambiguity, using examples of gender norms in medicine and class background effects on perceived intelligence.

Stereotypes bias our evaluations of individuals, seeping into judgments when the stereotype matches the task, as shown by studies on Asian female candidates and Arab and American names.

Discover how stereotypes bias memory and reconstruct past selves, as age and gender differences shape recalled math and arts test scores.

Define stereotype threat and explore its nuances, showing how stereotypes influence the people they target. A major focus in social psychology, stereotype threat shapes broader discussion.

Stereotype threat is the fear of confirming stereotypes about one’s group that can lower test and task performance when intelligence or ability is framed, affecting racial and gender groups.

Explore how stereotype threat arises when individuals know negative group stereotypes, when tasks are diagnostic and difficult, and when they care about their group or the task.

Explore solutions to stereotype threat through role models like the Obama effect, a mindset that intelligence is malleable, and value-based self-affirmation to reduce performance gaps.

Explore how social identity theory explains prejudice through ingroups and outgroups, highlighting ingroup bias, outgroup homogeneity, and the formation of stereotypes.

Explore how meaningless group boundaries foster prejudice by showing ingroup bias in minimal group paradigms, where arbitrary colors or art preferences trigger biased money and resource sharing.

Explore how increasing societal diversity signals benefits and challenges, reveals dynamics between advantaged in-groups and out-groups, and suggests strategies for approaching a diverse society.

Explore how diversity reduces prejudice through intergroup contact and boosts group performance by bringing varied perspectives, while preventing groupthink and highlighting organization-wide benefits and challenges.

Examine how rising diversity and minority-majority shifts can bring benefits yet trigger negative attitudes and status threat among white Americans, and learn how to navigate demographic changes.

Compare colorblindness and multiculturalism as approaches to diversity, and learn that all-inclusive multiculturalism better promotes positive relations and equitable outcomes in diverse settings.

Explore how stereotypes drive prejudice and how evidence-based strategies from psychology can reduce it, including implicit processes, over the long term.

Demonstrates that education and training with five bias-reduction strategies reduce implicit prejudice, with effects persisting for eight weeks, showing lower implicit association test scores than a control group.

Adopt contact theory to reduce prejudice through cooperative intergroup interaction toward a common goal. Foster one-on-one friendships across groups to lower negative expectations, increase empathy, and reduce stereotyping.

Common ingroup identity reframes rivals as members of a larger we, with evidence from step-families, a university study, and Christian–Muslim dialogue showing reduced prejudice.

Identify moments of automatic stereotyping and reflect on why they happen. Use stereotype replacement to label, rethink, and replace judgments with non-stereotypical interpretations via if-then plans.

Practice perspective taking to reduce bias by seeing the world through another's eyes. Studies like Galinsky and Moskowitz (2000) show perspective taking lowers stereotypes and reveals individuals' unique qualities.

Explore how exceptions to the rule and counter-stereotypical exemplars reduce stereotypes and prejudice by highlighting role models who defy social group expectations.

Apply strategies from this course on the psychology of diversity and unconscious bias to address stereotypes and prejudice and promote equality in your community and workplace.