PSY322 - Thought Paper: Exploring Racial Bias in Intergroup Relations

This thought paper delves into intergroup relations, drawing upon the arguments of Dovidio, Kawakami, & Gartner (2002) regarding the function of attitudes in organizing the environment and the distinction between explicit and implicit biases. It explores racial bias towards Black individuals and the priming effects on social interaction, referencing research on nonverbal behavior and implicit attitudes. The paper also incorporates Fiske's (2018) stereotype content model (SCM), focusing on the dimensions of warmth and competence in social cognition and how these dimensions contribute to the formation and maintenance of stereotypes. The analysis connects these concepts to understand the complexities of prejudice and discrimination within intergroup dynamics.

Running head: THOUGHT PAPER
THOUGHT PAPER
Name of student:
Name of university:
Author note:

1
THOUGHT PAPER
The arguments put forth by Dovidio, Kawakami & Gartner (2002), argues that attitudes
serve an indispensable function by subjectively organizing the environment and through the
orientation of the perceivers to the objects. However, it has been found that it is not necessary for
people to be aware of the operation of the attitudes. Attitudes have been found to be both explicit
as well as implicit. Explicit attitudes are characterized by the attitudes that are evaluated through
traditional self-report measures whereas implicit attitudes are the assessments that are activated
through the mere presence. The scope of this research lies in its ability to draw from previous
research and expound on the different types of racial bias exist towards the Blacks and the
priming effects on the social interaction processes. The former research work in the same issue
has been able to identify the relationship between nonverbal behavior and the activation of the
implicit attitudes. The white participants who participated in the study conducted by the authors
and their partners are dependent on the different kinds of information and the impression. It has
been found that explicit racial attitudes of the whites are manifested in the verbal behaviours
towards the Black partners. On the other hand, the implicit evaluations made by the whites are
associated with the nonverbal friendliness of the observers and the confederates. It is ensued that
the reliance and the different perspectives, perceptions of the participants about their won racial
biases and the perception of the bias of the participants and the perceptions of the bias of the
participant’s partners have been found to be weakly related.
According to the arguments made by Fiske (2018), there are two dimensions that exist in
the social cognition in case people strive to make sense of the groups or the individuals. This is
the stereotype content model (SCM) that refer to these terms as the two key dimensions – one is
warmth (friendliness and trustworthiness) and the second one is competence (capability and
assertiveness). These twin dimensions of the stereotype content have multiple precedents, the

2
THOUGHT PAPER
most salient among it being communion and agency that is in the context of psychology and
religion. At present, the most active parallel revolves around the aspect of self-concept. Building
on the warmth-competence twin model and the communion[-agency model as the conceptual
frameworks, it has been found that the two dimensions demonstrate consistent dynamics. If one
individual is found to be high on the dimension, then the other individual would be of the group
would be low in comparison in the other dimension. This leads to the creation the creation and
sustenance of stereotypes. Therefore, conclusions are made that rich people are cold and
competent whereas poor people are warm and incompetent. The trade-off is applicable pertaining
to these two conditions and not for the dimensions related to social comparisons. Compensation
has effect on the sampling in case of the comparative analysis. When the participants generate
group, they generate those who could be managed along with the dimensions of competence,
warmth and the political beliefs.

3
THOUGHT PAPER
Reference
Dovidio, J. F., Kawakami, K., & Gaertner, S. L. (2002). Implicit and explicit prejudice and
interracial interaction. Journal of personality and social psychology, 82(1), 62.
Fiske, S. T. (2018). Stereotype Content: Warmth and Competence Endure. Current directions in
psychological science, 27(2), 67-73.