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Prejudice, Stereotypes & Discrimination Cheat Sheet
A printable reference covering prejudice, stereotypes, discrimination, implicit bias, social identity, scapegoating, and reducing bias for grades 9-12.
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Prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination are key social psychology concepts that explain how people think about, feel toward, and act toward members of social groups. This cheat sheet helps students separate attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors so they can use the terms accurately. It also explains why bias can be learned, automatic, and influenced by groups, culture, and social situations. Understanding these ideas supports better reasoning about fairness, conflict, and real-world social issues. The core pattern is stereotype = belief, prejudice = attitude, and discrimination = behavior. Important concepts include implicit bias, in-group favoritism, out-group homogeneity, scapegoating, and stereotype threat. Psychologists study bias using surveys, experiments, reaction-time tasks, and observations of behavior. Reducing bias often requires equal-status contact, cooperation, perspective-taking, and awareness of social norms.
Key Facts
- Stereotype = a generalized belief about a group, such as assuming all members share the same trait or behavior.
- Prejudice = a negative or positive attitude toward a person mainly because of that person's group membership.
- Discrimination = an unfair action or behavior toward a person or group based on category membership.
- The attitude-behavior link can be summarized as prejudice may lead to discrimination, but social norms and laws can weaken or strengthen that link.
- Implicit bias = automatic associations that can influence judgment and behavior even when a person rejects prejudice consciously.
- In-group favoritism occurs when people give better treatment, trust, or resources to members of their own group.
- Out-group homogeneity bias is the tendency to see members of another group as more alike than they really are.
- The contact hypothesis states that prejudice is most likely to decrease when groups interact with equal status, shared goals, cooperation, and support from authorities.
Vocabulary
- Prejudice
- An attitude, often negative, toward a person based mainly on that person's membership in a social group.
- Stereotype
- A generalized belief about the traits, abilities, or behaviors of members of a group.
- Discrimination
- An action that treats people unfairly because of their group membership rather than their individual qualities.
- Implicit Bias
- An automatic and often unconscious association that can affect perception, decisions, or behavior.
- Stereotype Threat
- The stress or performance pressure people may feel when they fear confirming a negative stereotype about their group.
- Scapegoating
- Blaming a person or group unfairly for problems, especially during frustration, stress, or competition.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Using stereotype, prejudice, and discrimination as if they mean the same thing is wrong because they refer to belief, attitude, and behavior.
- Assuming only openly hateful people can show bias is wrong because implicit bias can influence decisions without conscious intent.
- Calling every group difference discrimination is wrong because discrimination requires unfair treatment based on group membership, not just any difference in outcome.
- Believing stereotypes are accurate because they feel familiar is wrong because repetition, media exposure, and limited experience can create false confidence.
- Trying to reduce prejudice with simple exposure alone is often incomplete because contact works best with equal status, cooperation, shared goals, and authority support.
Practice Questions
- 1 In a survey of 200 students, 60 agree with a negative statement about a social group. What percentage of students agreed with the statement?
- 2 A hiring review finds that 48 out of 120 qualified applicants from Group A received interviews, while 30 out of 120 qualified applicants from Group B received interviews. What is the interview rate for each group?
- 3 A student says, 'People from that school are all rude,' then refuses to sit with a new student from that school. Identify the stereotype, the prejudice, and the discrimination in this example.
- 4 Why might cooperative group work with equal roles reduce prejudice more effectively than simply placing students from different groups in the same room?