Reducing prejudice and discrimination

Common goals

It has often been argued that prejudice and discrimination can be reduced if members of two groups in conflict agree to pursue some common goal. This was seen in the study by Sherif.

Aronson and Osherow tried to reduce prejudice in schools by means of co-operation on common goals. The schools in Austin, Texas had recently been desegregated, and there were concerns about the racial conflict that resulted from having black and white children in the same classes. One class of black and white children was divided into small groups for a learning task.

Within a group, each child was made responsible for learning a different part of the information. Each member of the group then taught what he or she had learned to the other group members. After that, all the children received a mark based on their overall knowledge of the topic. This approach was called the jigsaw classroom.This was because all the children had an important contribution to make, just as all the pieces in a jigsaw puzzle are needed in order to complete it.

The findings with the jigsaw classroom were promising. The children showed higher self-esteem, better school performance, more liking for their classmates, and some reduction in prejudice. However, most of the effects were rather small. There are two likely reasons for this. First, the jigsaw classroom was only used for 45 minutes a day, three days a week, for a six-week period. Second, the groups did not always work in a co­operative fashion. There was a certain amount of group hostility if one of its members was very slow at learning, because this reduced the marks of all the members of the group.

Pursuing common goals in a co-operative fashion can reduce prejudice and discrimination. However, this approach does not always work. If the common goals are not achieved, or if the groups co-operating with each other feel they are losing their own identities, then prejudice and discrimination may increase rather than decrease.

Social contact

According to the contact hypothesis, increased contact between prejudiced individuals and the group against which they are prejudiced reduces prejudice. There are various reasons why this should be the case. First, stereotypes are based on the assumption that everyone of a given group is very similiar, and frequent contact with members of that group disproves that stereotype. Second, interacting with merhbers о another group makes it clear that they are more similar in they attitudes and behaviour to the prejudiced individual than he о she had thought.

Social contact on its own is not enough, however. As we saw in the summer camp study of Sherif social contact between the two groups led to conflict rather than to harmony. This suggests that other factors need to be added to social contact If prejudice is to be reduced. One of the most ambitious attempts to do precisely this was carried out at Wexler Middle School in Waterford in the United States. A considerable amount of money Was spent on the school to provide it with excellent facilities. It was decided that the number of black and white students would be about the same, so that it was not regarded as a white school or as a black school. Much was done to make all the students feel equal, with very little streaming on the basis of ability. Co­operation was encouraged by having the students work together to buy special equipment that they could all use.

The results over the first three years were encouraging. There Were many black-white friendships, but these friendships rarely extended to visiting each other's homes. There was much less discrimination, with the behaviour of the black and white students towards each other being friendly. However, some stereotyped beliefs were still found. Black and white students agreed that black students were tougher and more assertive than '" White students, whereas white students were cleverer and Worked harder than black students.

Decategorisation

The contact hypothesis has been extended to include decategorisation and the use of positive images. Brewer and Miller (1984) were in general agreement

with the contact hypothesis. However, in their decategorisa­tion theory, they argued that social contact will mainly reduce prejudice when the₍boundaries between the conflicting groups become less rigid and blurred. When this happens, members of each group are less likely to think of members of the other group in terms of categories or group membership. Instead, they respond to members of the other group as individuals.

Some research discussed earlier in the chapter may show the value of decategorisation. Aronson and Osherow (1980) broke down racial barriers in children by having them work together in groups in the "jigsaw classroom". In general,^ teaching methods that focus on co-operative learning and the removal of group barriers are effective in reducing conflicts and prejudice between groups (Slavin, 1983).

Hewstone and Brown (1986) argued that decategorisation often works only in a limited way. Decategorisation and co­operation may work very well in the situation in which they are used; but the reduction in prejudice often does not extend tc other members of the other group or to other situations. Because the techniques used focus on treating members of the other group as individuals, there is likely to be a reduction in prejudice towards those individuals rather than towards the group as i whole.

The key issue here is how to ensure that a pleasant, co­operative experience with one or more individuals belonging to a group leads to reduced prejudice towards all members о that group. Wilder (1984) supplied at least part of the answer Students had a pleasant meeting with a student belonging to г rival college. This led to reduced prejudice towards the riva college when the student was regarded as a typical member о that college, but there was no reduction when he was regardec as atypical. In other words, it is important that individuals Ы representative of the group to which they belong for a general reduction in prejudice to occur.

Positive images

Another way in which prejudice can be reduced is by presenting positive images of minority groups. In Ihr United Kingdom, the athlete Linford Christie and the newsreader Trevor McDonald present positive images of successful and famous black individuals in high-status roles. Positive images can also be presented by the media. In the past, black actors and actresses tended to have minor roles in films, Hut more recently actors such as Eddie Murphy and Denzel Washington have starred in a number of films. Thus, there are Indications that more positive images of black people are being presented in the media, but there is still a long way to go in that direction. The indications are that presenting more positive Images of any discriminated group can reduce prejudice (Cook 1978).

Experiencing prejudice

One of the reasons why people are prejudiced is because they do not know what it feels like to be on the receiving end о prejudice. It follows that prejudice might be reduced by getting people to experience prejudice for themselves. This notion was tested by Weiner and Wright. White American children aged 9 or 10 were put at random into an orange or a green group and wore coloured armbands to identify their group membership. On the first day, the orange children were told they were clever and cleaner than the green children, and they were give privileges that were denied to the orange children. The situation was reversed on the second day. On each day, the group that was discriminated against felt inferior, showed reduced sel confidence, and did less well in their school work.

In order to see whether the experience of these children had made them less prejudiced, they were asked whether they wanted to go on a picnic with some black children. Nearly all (96%) the children agreed. In contrast, only 62% of control children who had not been exposed to prejudice agreed to go on the picnic. Thus, experiencing prejudice firsthand can subsequently reduce prejudice towards other people.
9. Bystander intervention

One of the recurring images of our time is that of someone I being attacked in the middle of a city, with no-one being willing to help them. This apparent apathy or reluctance to help was shown very clearly in the case of Kitty Genovese. She was stabbed to death as she returned home from work at three o'clock in the morning. Thirty-eight witnesses watched the murder from their apartments, but none of them intervened. Indeed, only one person called the police. Even that action was only taken after he had asked advice from a friend in another part of the city.