Main content
MCAT
Course: MCAT > Unit 12
Lesson 2: Perception, prejudice, and bias- Perception, prejudice, and bias questions
- Attribution Theory - Basic covariation
- Attribution theory - Attribution error and culture
- Stereotypes stereotype threat and self fulfilling prophecies
- Emotion and cognition in prejudice
- Prejudice and discrimination based on race, ethnicity, power, social class, and prestige
- Stigma - Social and self
- Social perception - Primacy recency
- Social perception - The Halo Effect
- Social perception - The Just World Hypothesis
- Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism in group and out group
© 2023 Khan AcademyTerms of usePrivacy PolicyCookie Notice
Prejudice and discrimination based on race, ethnicity, power, social class, and prestige
Created by Brooke Miller.
Want to join the conversation?
- Can you please define and distinguish prejudice vs. discrimination?(9 votes)
- prejudice is the feeling or emotional components while discrimination is the behavioral aspect when people act based on those feelings (for example not allowing certain races into institutions)(32 votes)
- in Asia, being a teacher is the most prestigious occupation. why in the USA is being a doctor or lawyer a prestigious occupation compared to teachers?(3 votes)
- Teacher vs Professor there's a difference. The amount of schooling matters too I think. A lot of Asian countries you need a Master's degree or even doctorate in your subject just to teach at the high school level.(5 votes)
- Has there ever been a society in which eye color took on social significance?(2 votes)
- During the Nazi regime, those with blue eyes were considered to be more likely to belong to the Master Race. Those with brown eyes were looked upon as potentially racially inferior. Let us NEVER FORGET the genocide of millions based on this insane notion of a Master Race!(6 votes)
- Does the Just World Phenomenon relate to psychology? Is there something in our mind which tries to convince us that the world around us is fair and just?(2 votes)
- From a cultural perspective, the Just World Phenomenon is kind of like Fundamental Attribution Error: those of a higher social class (e.g. the rich) tend to attribute their wealth or success to working hard, while considering those who are unsuccessful or poor to be lazy. By this reasoning, the world is fair and just, since people get what they work for. In reality, there can be external factors, such as parental support through higher education, or needing to stop said education to care for a loved one, which can influence these outcomes.(6 votes)
- How would you differentiate ethnocentrism and discrimination?(2 votes)
- define sexism in the educational sysem(1 vote)
- Can somebody show the meaning of prejudice please?(1 vote)
- Prejudice is essentially a bias against a certain group of people without good reason. It's comparable to a stereotype.(1 vote)
- For prestigious jobs that are more likely to go to dominant group members, it's surprising how there are a ton of physicians in this country who are of Asian or South Asian (Indian) descent. Clearly, they are not the dominant groups in the USA, so why such an influx of them? Why are there a ton of internationally trained physicians coming into the country? Should we put a stop or a blockade on that?(0 votes)
- NO; everyone should have a right to be and live wherever they want, regardless of their birthplace. It would actually technically be discrimination to do this.(4 votes)
Video transcript
- [Voiceover] Normally when
we talk about prejudice and discrimination, we're
often talking about it in reference to different racial groups or different ethnic groups. And by racial group, I mean
a group that's been set apart because of some kind of
physical characteristics that have taken on social significance. And I think that this
last part is really key, because as a society, we
really do behave as though some physical characteristics
have more meaning than other physical characteristics. For example, skin color. We make a lot of judgements about people, and we have a lot of
stereotypes based on the color of people's skin. But the same is not true of eye color. And remember that both of
these things, both eye color and skin color, are
both genetically driven. But we've attached a kind
of meaning to skin color that we haven't attached to eye color. When we talk about ethnic
groups, we mean groups that are set apart
because of national origin or distinctive cultural patterns. So, this would include
Puerto Rican, Irish, and Japanese Americans. But this also includes
groups like the Jews, who are defined more by cultural
traditions and practices than nation of origin. But while prejudice can be
based on race and ethnicity, it can also be based on
other factors like power, social class, or prestige. By power, we mean economic
and political power or even the power to
control your own life. Groups with a lot of
political power can get their candidates in office. And those candidates can
then protect their interests. The same cannot be said
of minority groups. These groups don't have as many
members as majority groups, and therefore, can't always
swing the vote in their favor. At the same time, unfair hiring policies may lead to only low wage jobs being available for minority groups. Laws might also limit where people live or eat or go to school. And all these things can
limit the sense of control that people have over their own lives. And that's actually not a very good house. Hold on, I'm gonna take
a moment to redraw that. When we talk about social
class, there's always one important point to consider, and that's that status is relative. In order for people to
be of a higher status, by definition, there
need to be people of a lower status beneath them. And this unequal status
in society can often set the stage for prejudice. One of the ways that this
can happen is that the people on the top are often
motivated to try to justify and maintain the differences
between themselves and the lower class. And this is related to
what psychologists refer to as the Just World Phenomenon, which is an assumption that
people make that the world is just, and therefore, people
often get what they deserve, which means that good things
happen to good people, and bad things happen to bad people. So people of a high social
class might try to justify their own position in
society by saying that people who are poor must be lazy, that if they just worked harder, they might be successful, too. So, it's pretty easy to
see how this phenomenon might result not only in prejudice, but also in discrimination. For example, this belief
might result in someone voting against welfare programs
that might aid the poor. But what about prestige? Well, prestige is often
based on occupation. And as it turns out, high prestige jobs, like being a doctor of a lawyer, often go to dominant group members, while lower prestige jobs,
like sanitation workers or the service industry,
are more likely to go to minority group members.