Scapegoat theory in Psychology

 

Scapegoat theory is based on findings that people tend to blame their mistakes, failures, poor judgments, or negative circumstances on outgroups. A politician might blame another party or nation for economic woes.

Read more about the related concepts of discrimination and prejudice

Conscious override

 

Conscious override occurs when people work to overcome their admitted prejudices. The effort to override requires self-control and cognitive effort, which can be draining.

Classism as Prejudice

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Classism refers to prejudicial attitudes toward people based on their social class. Classism can lead to discrimination based on locally defined social class.

Researchers divide social classes in various ways. The classifications people use may include different attributes such as economic, cultural, and social capital / social influence.

Thinking of people in terms of class is a common experience. People seem to naturally classify people as rich, important, attractive, and intelligent, which has the effect of setting up contrasting categories as less than the valued class.

Some writers use a variation of a traditional five-part system:

Upper class or elite

Upper middle class

Lower middle class

Working class

Poor

A UK study classified people in the following classes (O'Brien, 2013)

Precariat- most deprived of economic, cultural, social capital

Traditional working class

Emergent Service Workers

Technical Middle Class

New Affluent Workers

Established Middle Class

Elite

Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination

Prejudice is a negative feeling or attitude toward an individual or class of people based on assumptions about the cultural group to which they are assigned based on some presumed feature of the people in that group.

Prejudice involves an evaluation process directed at a social group and therefore, toward the members of that group. There is a negative emotional component to the evaluation.

Discrimination is a negative action toward a person because of their association with a particular group. Acts of discrimination include avoiding, excluding, and ignoring people. Discrimination also involves biased treatment of group members.

ABC theory of discrimination

The ABC theory of discrimination describes the connections among the three concepts of stereotype, prejudice, and discrimination. A represents affect or the emotional component, which is prejudice. B represents behavior, which is an act of discrimination. C represents cognition. Stereotypes are cognitive beliefs. 

The combination of a negative stereotype and the negative feelings of prejudice lead to acts of discrimination under certain conditions.

Discrimination functions to promote the groups with which we identify. We feel connected to the members of our group, which results in a favorable ingroup bias. We tend to think our group is better than other groups and treat members of other groups less favorably than our own. In short, we tend to discriminate. 

Scapegoating is blaming an outgroup for a problem our ingroup has experienced.

Self-fulfilling prophecy can occur when one group treats another based on a stereotype. Then the stereotyped person begins to act in the way they were treated, which confirms the stereotype.

Reducing Prejudice

Some research supports the value of social contact and diversity within schools in reducing ethnic prejudice according to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) (www.equalityhumanrights.com).

Persuasive messages in public media have not been effective in reducing prejudice according to EHRC. Sometimes messages backfire by increasing prejudice among people who were ambivalent in their feelings toward an outgroup before reading the message.

Values that are widely accepted are treated as fact and are often not questioned.

Diversity training research suggests a negative outcome when people are confronted with their own prejudices become angry and defensive or feel guilty and avoid the issue (Pendry et al., 2007 cited in the EHRC report).

Empathy and perspective-taking may be helpful. Students who were asked to take the perspective of the elderly reduced stereotypes.  A study of Walking Through White Privilege, which describes the advantages of the white majority risks increasing resentment and social distance between groups. The advantaged group can be limited in progress by their guilt and/or anger. The minority group may strengthen their views of the inequality and discrimination in society (EHRC).

Awareness programs such as using the Implicit Association Test have been a problem because participants have difficulty understanding the results. In addition, psychologists question exactly what the test measures.

A bottom line is that programs are likely to fail when participants are not motivated.

 EHRC report address: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/research-report-56-processes-of-prejudice-theory-evidence-and-intervention.pdf 

Related Books

The Psychology of Prejudice: From Attitudes to Social Action by Lynne Jackson (2019)

The Cost of Racism for People of Color: Contextualizing Experiences of Discrimination by Alvin Alvarez et al. (2016)

Perspectives on Hate: How It Originates, Develops, Manifests, and Spreads by Robert Sternberg (2020)

Criminality in Context: The Psychological Foundations of Criminal Justice Reform

by Craig Haney (2020)

Sutton, G. W. (2020). Counseling and psychotherapy with Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians: Culture & Research | Assessment & Practice. Springfield, MO: Sunflower.  ISBN-13 : 979-8681036524 AMAZON  See chapters 7 and 8.

See also a related concept

Psychology of Stereotypes

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