Lectures Understanding Prejudice: an interdisciplinary perspective on intergroup
relations
Week 1: Introduction
Video lecture 1: Introduction
Today’s topics
- Introduction to our topics
- The importance of using theory
- Practicalities of the course
Introduction to our topics
A picture of a comic strip that appeared in 2017. Led to a lot of public discussion. The way
the men is shown is a negative stereotypical way of showing Black people: big lips, so big
that it’s unhuman an resembles more monkey than human.
An artist went to twitter to show how this person could be drawn without making use of
negative stereotypes
,Increasing polarization
August 2017
After a council at the University of Virginia (USA) decided to remove a statue of a general of
the federal army because it seemed to be glorifying slavery. Following, there were a lot of
protests from nationalists, and counter-protests. This came to an end when a White nationalist
drove a car into a counter-protest and killed a woman. Interesting about this incident is that it
took quite a while for the media and politicians to call this a terrorist attack. While this
language is used immediately when a similar attack is done by a Muslim.
A videoclip shows the protest of the White nationalists. We don’t have to go all the way to the
United States or all the way back to 2017 to know about other examples of negative reactions
to newcomers.
They happen in the Netherlands too:
Anti-refugee protests 2021
Some of these protests used very aggressive language like “Dutch people first” but also things
like “Auswitch back for Blacks”
Anti-refugee protests 2022
,In this course theories will be talked about that provide explanations for these reactions. We
will talk about theories that help us understand what’s going on there, but also theories that
provide a way out of these situations.
Prejudice 2023
There are controversies with at least three members of the radical right-wing Fins party that’s
part of the government in Finland. First there was a scandal with a member that made Heil
Hitler jokes and post swastikas on his social media. After this he survived a vote of
confidence in parliament but later was forced to resign when it got known that his suggestions
to tackle the climate crisis was to enforce mass abortion among African women.
Then the party leader of the Fins party came under fire because old blog posts resurfaced
where she said things like “is anyone up for spitting on beggars and beating their n-word
children today in Helsinki.” But so far she is still the party leader.
Later the minister of economic affairs got under fire because private messages from 2016
which said things like that he would rather ban the headscarf-wearers than the headscarf. Or
that when his partner suggested they give their children Hebrew names he said “we nazis
don’t like that kind of stuff”
A lot of examples in the public and public news about prejudice and intergroup relations. In
this course we will discuss these kind of instances and try to understand them.
Understanding Prejudice: Course topics
- Understand majority groups’ reaction to minorities
- The central theories explaining intergroup relations (from sociology, political science
and psychology)
o Social Identity Theory
o Realistic Group Conflict Theory
o Contact Theory
o Social Dominance Orientation
o Right-Wing Authoritarianism
o Integrated Threat Theory
o Socialization Theory
Course topics
- How to measure prejudice?
, - Voting for radical right-wing and radical left-wing parties – who’s most attracted to
this parties and why are these parties attractive to some people
- Bias of the left – there are a lot of examples of radical right-wing people being
prejudice to minorities, that gives the impression that only these people are prejudiced
to those that are different to others. But if you look below, democrats give similar or
maybe even more biased answers to the same questions. Also the left is biased and
prejudiced against those that are other.
Learning goals of the course
After following this course, you will be able to …
- explain the most important theories on intergroup prejudice and intergroup relations.
- apply various theories about intergroup behavior to societal problems.
- analyze to what extent these theories contradict or complement each other.
- derive concrete, testable hypotheses and develop appropriate research designs to test
them.
The importance of using theory
Audit test (experiment in the field) in retail market
An example to show the importance of using theory.
relations
Week 1: Introduction
Video lecture 1: Introduction
Today’s topics
- Introduction to our topics
- The importance of using theory
- Practicalities of the course
Introduction to our topics
A picture of a comic strip that appeared in 2017. Led to a lot of public discussion. The way
the men is shown is a negative stereotypical way of showing Black people: big lips, so big
that it’s unhuman an resembles more monkey than human.
An artist went to twitter to show how this person could be drawn without making use of
negative stereotypes
,Increasing polarization
August 2017
After a council at the University of Virginia (USA) decided to remove a statue of a general of
the federal army because it seemed to be glorifying slavery. Following, there were a lot of
protests from nationalists, and counter-protests. This came to an end when a White nationalist
drove a car into a counter-protest and killed a woman. Interesting about this incident is that it
took quite a while for the media and politicians to call this a terrorist attack. While this
language is used immediately when a similar attack is done by a Muslim.
A videoclip shows the protest of the White nationalists. We don’t have to go all the way to the
United States or all the way back to 2017 to know about other examples of negative reactions
to newcomers.
They happen in the Netherlands too:
Anti-refugee protests 2021
Some of these protests used very aggressive language like “Dutch people first” but also things
like “Auswitch back for Blacks”
Anti-refugee protests 2022
,In this course theories will be talked about that provide explanations for these reactions. We
will talk about theories that help us understand what’s going on there, but also theories that
provide a way out of these situations.
Prejudice 2023
There are controversies with at least three members of the radical right-wing Fins party that’s
part of the government in Finland. First there was a scandal with a member that made Heil
Hitler jokes and post swastikas on his social media. After this he survived a vote of
confidence in parliament but later was forced to resign when it got known that his suggestions
to tackle the climate crisis was to enforce mass abortion among African women.
Then the party leader of the Fins party came under fire because old blog posts resurfaced
where she said things like “is anyone up for spitting on beggars and beating their n-word
children today in Helsinki.” But so far she is still the party leader.
Later the minister of economic affairs got under fire because private messages from 2016
which said things like that he would rather ban the headscarf-wearers than the headscarf. Or
that when his partner suggested they give their children Hebrew names he said “we nazis
don’t like that kind of stuff”
A lot of examples in the public and public news about prejudice and intergroup relations. In
this course we will discuss these kind of instances and try to understand them.
Understanding Prejudice: Course topics
- Understand majority groups’ reaction to minorities
- The central theories explaining intergroup relations (from sociology, political science
and psychology)
o Social Identity Theory
o Realistic Group Conflict Theory
o Contact Theory
o Social Dominance Orientation
o Right-Wing Authoritarianism
o Integrated Threat Theory
o Socialization Theory
Course topics
- How to measure prejudice?
, - Voting for radical right-wing and radical left-wing parties – who’s most attracted to
this parties and why are these parties attractive to some people
- Bias of the left – there are a lot of examples of radical right-wing people being
prejudice to minorities, that gives the impression that only these people are prejudiced
to those that are different to others. But if you look below, democrats give similar or
maybe even more biased answers to the same questions. Also the left is biased and
prejudiced against those that are other.
Learning goals of the course
After following this course, you will be able to …
- explain the most important theories on intergroup prejudice and intergroup relations.
- apply various theories about intergroup behavior to societal problems.
- analyze to what extent these theories contradict or complement each other.
- derive concrete, testable hypotheses and develop appropriate research designs to test
them.
The importance of using theory
Audit test (experiment in the field) in retail market
An example to show the importance of using theory.
