Quiz — Chapter 36: Prejudice, Stereotyping, and Group Identity

Instructions

25 multiple-choice questions. Select the single best answer for each. Answer key with explanations follows the questions.

Questions

1. According to Henri Tajfel's Social Identity Theory, in-group favoritism occurs because:

A) In-group members are objectively more capable or trustworthy B) In-group membership supports positive self-evaluation through positive group comparison C) Evolutionary pressures selected for specific prejudices against identified threat groups D) In-group favoritism is learned from parents and cultural transmission

2. The Minimal Group Paradigm experiments demonstrated that:

A) Intergroup conflict requires a long history of resource competition B) People only favor in-group members when in-group membership provides material benefits C) Trivial, arbitrary categorization is sufficient to produce in-group favoritism D) Children show stronger in-group favoritism than adults

3. Muzafer Sherif's Robbers Cave experiment primarily supported which theoretical framework?

A) Social Identity Theory B) Realistic Group Conflict Theory C) Self-Categorization Theory D) Contact Hypothesis

4. The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is designed to measure:

A) Explicit prejudice that people are unwilling to admit in surveys B) The speed of associative links between social categories and attributes C) Actual discrimination in behavioral decision-making D) Genetic predispositions toward particular social biases

5. Gaertner and Dovidio's "aversive racism" model describes:

A) People who hold explicitly racist views but conceal them in public B) People who consciously endorse equality but harbor unconscious negative associations that influence behavior in ambiguous situations C) The psychological discomfort that explicitly racist people experience when confronted about their views D) Racism directed at groups perceived as culturally threatening

6. Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson's stereotype threat research showed that:

A) Negative stereotypes reduce performance only in people who believe the stereotypes are accurate B) Performance deficits associated with negative stereotypes occur only in lower-achieving group members C) Situational pressure not to confirm a negative stereotype impairs performance by consuming cognitive resources D) Stereotype threat effects are limited to academic domains

7. The out-group homogeneity effect refers to the tendency to:

A) Attribute out-group members' positive behaviors to luck rather than ability B) Perceive out-group members as more similar to each other than in-group members are to each other C) Assume that all members of an out-group hold the same political views D) Overestimate the numerical size of out-group minorities

8. Gordon Allport's Contact Hypothesis specifies which conditions for prejudice-reducing contact?

A) High frequency of contact, shared cultural background, and institutional reward for cooperation B) Equal status, common goals, intergroup cooperation, and institutional support C) Competition followed by resolution, equal numbers in each group, and absence of authority figures D) Personal friendship, geographic proximity, and voluntary participation

9. Thomas Pettigrew and Linda Tropp's 2006 meta-analysis of the Contact Hypothesis found:

A) Contact rarely reduces prejudice; the conditions required are almost never met in practice B) Contact generally reduces prejudice, and more so when Allport's specified conditions are met C) Contact is effective for reducing prejudice only when the groups have no prior history of conflict D) Contact effects are limited to the immediate interaction and do not generalize to out-group attitudes

10. Derald Wing Sue's "microinvalidations" are particularly harmful because they:

A) Are more explicit and intentional than other forms of microaggression B) Deny the reality of the target's experience, adding gaslighting to the original injury C) Target the most psychologically vulnerable members of marginalized groups D) Are delivered by authority figures rather than peers

11. Gordon Allport's scale of prejudice describes escalating levels of discriminatory behavior. Which of the following represents the correct order from least to most extreme?

A) Antilocution → avoidance → discrimination → physical attack → extermination B) Avoidance → discrimination → antilocution → physical attack → extermination C) Discrimination → avoidance → antilocution → physical attack → extermination D) Antilocution → discrimination → avoidance → physical attack → extermination

12. In Self-Categorization Theory, at the "superordinate" level, people categorize themselves as:

A) Members of a specific social group B) Unique individuals with distinctive personal characteristics C) Members of the human species D) Representatives of their national or cultural heritage

13. Kimberlé Crenshaw's intersectionality framework primarily argues that:

A) Race and gender are the two most important social identity categories B) Multiple social identities interact to produce qualitatively distinct forms of discrimination that additive analysis misses C) Discrimination is best understood by analyzing each category of identity separately D) People with more intersecting marginalized identities experience proportionally more discrimination

14. Research on stereotype threat interventions shows that which of the following reduces threat effects?

A) Eliminating all references to group differences in testing environments B) Telling individuals that their group has historically performed well on this test C) Values affirmation exercises and reframing the test as diagnostic of effort rather than ability D) Reducing group size so that minority members are less visible

15. The "extended contact effect" refers to:

A) Prejudice reduction through prolonged, repeated contact with out-group members B) Reduced prejudice from knowing that an in-group member has a friendship with an out-group member C) The spreading of contact-based attitude changes to other out-group members not directly encountered D) Prejudice reduction through written or media representations of positive intergroup contact

16. Gaertner and Dovidio's Common In-Group Identity Model proposes reducing prejudice by:

A) Teaching people to recognize and suppress their automatic bias B) Separating conflicting groups until hostility dissipates C) Recategorizing competing groups into a more inclusive superordinate identity D) Emphasizing the unique contributions of each group to a shared culture

17. Patricia Devine's work on prejudice reduction suggests that implementation intentions are effective because they:

A) Provide motivation to be non-prejudiced in general B) Target the specific decision points where bias operates, engaging deliberate processing there C) Suppress stereotypic thinking before it can influence behavior D) Increase awareness of the prevalence of bias in society

18. In Jennifer Crocker's research on contingent self-esteem, members of low-status groups who disidentify from stereotyped domains are demonstrating:

A) An ineffective coping strategy with no self-esteem benefits B) A self-protective response that preserves self-esteem at the potential cost of development in that domain C) Evidence that the stereotype is accurate and the group members have recognized it D) Internalized prejudice against their own group

19. Research by Czopp and colleagues on confronting prejudice found that:

A) Direct confrontation of prejudiced remarks always increases defensive hostility B) Members of targeted groups are most effective at reducing prejudice through confrontation C) Non-hostile confrontations by third parties (particularly dominant group members) produce guilt and increased motivation to control prejudice D) Confrontation is effective only in private settings where social costs are minimal

20. The "perpetual vigilance" cost of microaggressions refers to:

A) The legal monitoring systems required to document discrimination B) Cognitive resources consumed by constantly evaluating whether ambiguous events reflect bias C) The social cost to people who confront microaggressions in public D) The attention paid by majority group members to avoiding discriminatory behavior

21. Sherif's Robbers Cave experiment reduced intergroup hostility through:

A) Forced desegregation and mandatory contact between groups B) Superordinate goals requiring cooperation from both groups C) Explicit training in the harms of prejudice and discrimination D) Competition structured to produce equal outcomes for both groups

22. Which statement best describes the relationship between explicit and implicit bias?

A) People with high explicit prejudice invariably have high implicit prejudice B) Implicit bias is simply the real attitude that explicit surveys fail to measure C) Explicit and implicit attitudes can diverge, and both predict different aspects of discriminatory behavior D) Implicit biases become explicit attitudes over time as they are acted upon

23. Research on structural interventions for reducing discrimination (compared to psychological interventions) generally shows:

A) Structural interventions are effective only when accompanied by individual attitude change B) Structural interventions are generally more reliable at changing behavior than psychological interventions alone C) Psychological interventions outperform structural interventions for long-term attitude change D) Neither type of intervention is consistently effective across different domains

24. The concept of "positive distinctiveness" in Social Identity Theory refers to:

A) The preference for in-group members who have achieved high social status B) The motivation to establish that one's in-group compares favorably to relevant out-groups C) The positive self-image that supports honest acknowledgment of one's biases D) The tendency to remember positive in-group behavior more vividly than negative behavior

25. Which of the following MOST accurately describes the psychological state of someone experiencing stereotype threat?

A) They believe the stereotype about their group is true and are anxious about confirming it for themselves B) They are consciously resentful of being placed in a stereotyped situation C) They are experiencing divided cognitive attention between the task and managing the social threat, impeding performance D) They have temporarily adopted the stereotype's expectations as their own performance standard

Answer Key

1. B — Social Identity Theory: social identities are part of self-concept, and self-esteem is partly maintained through favorable evaluations of in-groups. In-group favoritism supports positive social identity, which supports positive self-evaluation. Answers A, C, and D reflect alternative explanations not central to Social Identity Theory.

2. C — The minimal group paradigm's striking finding: trivial, arbitrary categorization (alleged Klee vs. Kandinsky preferences) was sufficient to generate in-group favoritism and out-group discrimination, even when no real interests were at stake. This established that conflict of interest is not necessary for intergroup discrimination.

3. B — The Robbers Cave experiment demonstrated intergroup conflict arising from real resource competition (zero-sum competition for prizes), supporting Realistic Group Conflict Theory. Superordinate goals then reduced the conflict — consistent with the theory that shared interests reverse the conflict mechanism.

4. B — The IAT measures reaction times for associating category-attribute pairings. Faster associations indicate stronger associative links. It is not a measure of behavioral discrimination (answer C), which requires additional steps between attitude and action.

5. B — Aversive racism: people who sincerely hold egalitarian values but harbor unconscious negative associations that influence behavior specifically in ambiguous situations — where there is a legitimate non-racial explanation available. This is the now-dominant form of racial bias in societies with strong anti-racism norms.

6. C — Stereotype threat impairs performance regardless of whether targets believe the stereotype. The mechanism is cognitive resource depletion from managing the threat. The key finding: it operates through situational pressure (salience of the stereotype in context), not through acceptance of the stereotype.

7. B — Out-group homogeneity effect: out-group members are perceived as more similar to each other ("they all look/think/act alike") than in-group members, even when objective variability is identical. This supports stereotyping by making individual variation within the out-group less salient.

8. B — Allport's four conditions: equal status within the contact situation, common goals, intergroup cooperation, and institutional support (norms and authority sanctioning the contact). Contact lacking these conditions often increases rather than reduces prejudice.

9. B — Pettigrew and Tropp's meta-analysis confirmed the Contact Hypothesis: contact generally reduces prejudice (effect found in 94% of 515 studies), with larger effects when Allport's conditions are met. The effect generalizes beyond the individuals directly in contact.

10. B — Microinvalidations deny or dismiss the reality of the target's experience ("You're too sensitive," "That wasn't about race"). They compound the original communication by making the target question their own perception — the defining harm of gaslighting added to the original microaggression.

11. A — Allport's scale: antilocution (prejudiced talk) → avoidance → discrimination → physical attack → extermination. Each level makes the next psychologically more accessible, though the progression is not inevitable.

12. C — At the superordinate level in Self-Categorization Theory, categorization is at the level of the human species — all people as "us." This level becomes salient when the relevant contrast is human vs. non-human, and can be deliberately invoked to reduce intergroup conflict.

13. B — Intersectionality's core analytical claim: multiple social identities produce qualitatively distinct forms of discrimination at their intersections that cannot be captured by adding up single-category effects. A Black woman faces discrimination targeting the intersection of race and gender, which is distinct from either racism or sexism alone.

14. C — Effective stereotype threat interventions include values affirmation exercises (which restore psychological resources), test reframing (diagnostic of effort, not fixed ability), and reducing the salience of the stereotyped identity in the test context. Simply eliminating references to group differences (answer A) has mixed evidence.

15. B — Extended contact: merely knowing that a fellow in-group member has a friendship with an out-group member reduces prejudice toward that out-group, even without direct contact. This extends the contact effect beyond those who can directly participate in inter-group contact.

16. C — Common In-Group Identity Model: recategorizing competing groups under a superordinate identity reduces discrimination between the newly unified group members. "Us vs. them" becomes "all of us." The challenge is maintaining subgroup identities to avoid erasure concerns.

17. B — Devine's work: implementation intentions are effective because they target specific decision points where bias is most likely to operate. "If I'm evaluating a candidate, then I will list qualifications before reviewing the name" engages deliberate processing exactly where bias occurs, rather than trying to suppress bias generally.

18. B — Crocker's contingent self-esteem research: disidentification protects self-esteem by removing the domain as a source of self-evaluation. Short-term cost: some protection from stereotype threat. Long-term cost: reduced investment in the domain may limit development. It is a rational self-protective strategy, not evidence of internalizing the stereotype.

19. C — Czopp et al.: non-hostile confrontations by third parties (especially dominant group members confronting in-group prejudice) produce guilt and increased motivation to control bias, without triggering the defensive hostility that often accompanies confrontation by targeted group members. The social cost to the confronter is lower when they share the perpetrator's group membership.

20. B — Perpetual vigilance: the cognitive cost of constantly evaluating whether ambiguous events reflect bias — "Was that racist? Am I overreacting? Should I respond?" — consumes cognitive resources that would otherwise be available for other purposes, producing a cumulative cognitive tax.

21. B — Sherif resolved the intergroup conflict by introducing superordinate goals (the water supply problem, pulling the truck). Tasks that required cooperation from both groups to achieve a shared desired outcome reduced hostility and built cross-group relationships. Simply increasing contact (answer A) had not been sufficient.

22. C — Explicit and implicit attitudes can diverge substantially, and they predict different aspects of behavior: explicit attitudes better predict deliberate, controlled responses in explicit-attitude-aware situations; implicit attitudes better predict automatic, immediate, and ambiguous-situation behavior. Both are real; neither is simply the "true" attitude.

23. B — Research on structural interventions (blind auditions, diverse hiring pools, standardized evaluation criteria) generally shows more reliable behavior change than psychological interventions alone. Structural changes make discriminatory behavior harder and constrain the decision-making environments where bias operates, regardless of individual attitude change.

24. B — Positive distinctiveness: the Social Identity Theory concept that people are motivated to establish favorable comparisons between their in-group and relevant out-groups, because positive in-group evaluation supports positive self-evaluation. This motivation drives both in-group favoritism and out-group derogation.

25. C — Stereotype threat's mechanism: divided cognitive attention between task performance and managing the social threat (monitoring performance, suppressing anxiety about confirming the stereotype). This divided attention impairs performance on cognitively demanding tasks. The person does not need to believe the stereotype is true; the threat is situational, not attitudinal.

Score: 23–25 = Excellent | 19–22 = Strong | 15–18 = Review flagged sections | Below 15 = Re-read the chapter