Social Categorization and Prejudice
The first article targets to examine the potential of increasing perceived variability of an outgroup will help in reducing discrimination and prejudice towards the other group’s members (Brauer and Er-rafiy). It begins by taking an open approach to discuss perceived variability and stereotyping, illustrating how the terms can be sometimes used interchangeably even though they are different. The perceived variability and stereotyping section offers relevant knowledge to help understand how increased variability is useful in reducing the perception that another group possesses a particular trait. For the next section, an initial discussion tries to use a mathematical analogy explain the relationship between perceived variability, prejudice and discrimination even though it is unnecessary since these are theoretical concepts being discussed (Brauer and Er-rafiy). For the overview of present studies section, the authors ought to have acknowledged that some studies concerning lab experiments can have a bias, where the internal results could differ when it comes to reality. Therefore, this ought to have been considered as a challenge to the lab experiments. A total of four experiments were done in the study, and this is an indication that it is highly sensitive and there is need to maintain high level of accuracy so as to acquire meaningful results.
In the second study, the goal was to determine whether prejudice develops from the perceived dissimilarities and similarities in political ideologies, which has a significant effect on value conflicts (Chambers, Schlenker and Collison). Race was not found to have an effect on perceived prejudice because the focus is on values supported by political ideologies. What is gained from the literature review is that conservatives and liberals can be placed on a scale, with former and the latter forming the extreme opposites. My understanding is that there can be liberal conservatives and conservative liberals, as one moves from one extreme side of the scale to another (Chambers, Schlenker and Collison). Study 1 looked into the impressions that would be developed when prejudice was shown from each selected side to the other. Study 2 isolated participants who are politically neutral because the focus was on people who held political ideas. This reveals that at the most center part of the scale as discussed above, one is considered not to be leaning towards any specific side of political ideology. Studies 2 and 3 do recognize a confounding variable to the results of the overall study, which is the variable of race. At the conclusion, this study emphasizes on the need for empathy for the conservatives because, as they may appear to show prejudice against minority. It could be that policies of the minorities conflict heavily with their deeply held values.
Sociology
