Study Questions for Prejudice

Peffley, PS 474, Political Psychology

1. Define prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination and discuss a few general reasons why prejudice and stereotyping are so important in studying mass political behavior.

2. Although there have been many signs of progress in race relations in the U.S. there are also disturbing disappointments Discuss the contrast between Whites’ support for racial equality in the abstract and the results of field experiments of racial discrimination in employment.

3. In Spencer Piston’s study of explicit racial prejudice and voting in the 2008 Election, first describe how he measures prejudice in his study and then describe at least three of his major findings with respect to the role that racial prejudice played or did not play in the 2008 election.

4. Describe briefly Kuklinski’s 1991 “list experiment” and what it says about the convergence thesis of the “New South” (with South defined as the confederate South; KY was a border state), and what groups show greater or lesser levels of racial prejudice and why.

5. What is the difference between explicit and implicit attitudes and what are their advantages and disadvantages for studying prejudice?

6. Describe Keith Payne’s Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP) measure of racial prejudice, what role the “Warning manipulation” plays in increasing confidence in his measure, and what role his measure of implicit prejudice played in the 2008 election, compared to explicit measures of racial prejudice. What are the general implications of his study?

7. Describe one of Jennifer Ebberhardt’s experiments (YouTube material linked on the syllabus) and what it demonstrates about how crime and race are linked in the minds of Whites.