Understanding Intercultural Communication Second Edition

1. Understanding Intercultural Communication Second Edition Chapter 8 What Causes us to Hold Biases Against Outgroups? Stella Ting-Toomey & Leeva C. Chung OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS PowerPoint Slides Designed by Alex Flecky and Noorie Baig

2. TODAY’S MENU I. Human Perception Tendencies: Some General Principles II. Biased Intergroup Filters: Ethnocentrism and Stereotypes III. Marking Ingroup/Outgroup Membership Boundaries IV. Shattered Lens: Prejudice, Discrimination, and Racism V. Intercultural Reality Check: Do-Ables

3. I. Human Perception Tendencies: Some General Principles Human perception: • Process of selecting cues quickly from the environment, organizing them into a coherent pattern and labeling that pattern, and interpreting that pattern in accordance with our expectation. Quick three-step process: • Selectiveattention • Selectiveorganization and labeling • Selectiveinterpretation.

4. Perception Test YouTube Perception Test How many times does the team wearing white pass the basketball?

5. II. Biased Intergroup Filters: Ethnocentrism and Stereotypes A. Ethnocentrism and Communication Ethnocentrism: derived from two Greek words: Ethno: “one’s own ethnic or cultural group” Centrism: “One’s own group should be looked upon as the center of the world” Degrees of ethnocentrism: • Distance of disparagement (high ethnocentrism) • Distance of avoidance (moderate ethnocentrism) • Distance of indifference (low ethnocentrism)

6. II. Biased Intergroup Filters: Ethnocentrism and Stereotypes Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) Developed by Janet Bennett & Milton Bennett A Popular Intercultural Training Model: • Three states of ethnocentrism • Three states in development of ethnorelativism

7. II. Biased Intergroup Filters: Ethnocentrism and Stereotypes Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity

8. II. Biased Intergroup Filters: Ethnocentrism and Stereotypes Stereotype content model (SCM): Formed along two dimensions: • Perception of warmth dimension • Perception of competence dimension

9. II. Biased Intergroup Filters: Ethnocentrism and Stereotypes A Two-Dimensional Stereotype Content Model

10. II. Biased Intergroup Filters: Ethnocentrism and Stereotypes Stereotyping is inevitable; key is to distinguish between inflexible and flexible stereotyping. • Inflexible stereotyping: holds onto negative stereotypes by operating on automatic pilot. • Flexible stereotyping: “mindfully minding our mind.”

11. II. Biased Intergroup Filters: Ethnocentrism and Stereotypes Table 8.1 Automatic pilot reaction Rigid categories Premature closure Polarized evaluations Information distortion Unwilling to change categories Mindful of categorization Open-ended categories First best-guesses Loose interpretations Information openness Willingness to change categories Inflexible Stereotyping Flexible Stereotyping

12. II. Biased Intergroup Filters: Ethnocentrism and Stereotypes Click here to view UCLA student Alexandra Wallace’s rant on Asian students in the library • What are your interpretations? • Apology accepted? Forgive & forget? Forgive but not forget? Click here to view Jimmy Wong’s reaction to Alexandra Wallace • What did you think of Wong’s response to Alex?

13. II. Biased Intergroup Filters: Ethnocentrism and Stereotypes B. Stereotypes and Communication Stereotypes: • Exaggerated pictures about a group of people on the basis of inflexible beliefs and expectations about the characteristics or behaviors of the group. • What are some factors that shape stereotypes? Click here to view a clip from The Color of Friendship

14. III. Marking Ingroup-Outgroup Membership Boundaries Ingroup and Outgroup Attribution Differences

15. III. Marking Ingroup-Outgroup Membership Boundaries A. Us versus Them Social identity theory: Study of ingroup, outgroup membership, how emotional attachment to social group plays key role in forming social/personal identity. Ingroup: feel connected to. Outgroup: feel emotionally and psychologically detached.

16. III. Marking Ingroup/Outgroup Membership Boundaries B. Group Membership Struggle C. Intergroup Attribution Biases Attributions: the explanations—the meanings of why people behave as they do. • Fundamental attribution error • Principle of negativity • Favorable self-bias and other-derogation principle • Self-effacement bias

17. III. Marking Ingroup/Outgroup Membership Boundaries Media Analysis: Crash film clip Reflection Questions: • Where did the wife acquire her fear and biases? • Do you think stereotypes—both negative and positive—have their place? How so? • Where do we learn our stereotypes?

18. IV. Shattered Lens: Prejudice, Discrimination, and Racism Prejudice: Describes an individual’s feelings and predispositions toward outgroup members in a pejorative or negative direction, but can also mean the opposite: One can be indiscriminately for or against members of a particular group. Four explanations for development of prejudice: • Exploitation theory • Scapegoating theory • Authoritarian personality approach • Structural approach

19. IV. Shattered Lens: Prejudice, Discrimination, and Racism B. Prejudiced Remarks . . .or Innocent Jokes? Click here to watch a clip on how some ingroup members treat their own members like outgroup members. Where to draw the line question is difficult to answer. . . Click here to move toward the conscious competence stage with respect to stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination. (*Caution – these clips contain offensive language).

20. IV. Shattered Lens: Prejudice, Discrimination, and Racism C. Four Discriminatory Practices Discrimination: Verbal and nonverbal actions that carry out prejudiced attitudes. Four practices: • Isolate discrimination: • Small-group discrimination • Direct institutional discrimination • Indirect institutional discrimination

21. IV. Shattered Lens: Prejudice, Discrimination, and Racism D. Different Types of Racism Racism involves three principles: • Feelings of superiority based on biological or racial differences; • Strong ingroup preferences and the rejection of outgroups, different in customs or beliefs; and • Doctrine that conveys special advantage to those in power. Three basic examples of racism: • Racial profiling • Perpetuating stereotypic images • Hate crimes

22. V. Intercultural Reality Check: Do-Ables • Be honest about your own biases. • Understand where you learn your stereotypes. • Seek accurate identity membership knowledge. • Get involved in diverse identity communities. • Cultivate constructive, intergroup contacts. • Work on positive, interdependent task goals. • Personalized the relationships & build trust. • Learn to listen and share…

23. Parting Thoughts… In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death. ~ Anne Frank