Page 355 - The Social Animal

Prejudice 337

Venice both depict the Jew as a conniving, money-hungry, cringing
coward. We might be tempted to conclude that Marlowe and Shake-
speare had had some unfortunate experiences with unsavory Jews,
which resulted in these bitter and unflattering portraits—except for
one thing:The Jews had been expelled from England some 300 years
before these works were written. Thus, it would seem that the only
thing Marlowe and Shakespeare came into contact with was a lin-
gering stereotype. Tragically, their works not only reflected the
stereotype but undoubtedly contributed to it, as well.
Even casual exposure to bigotry can affect our attitudes and be-
havior toward a group that is the victim of prejudice. For example,
research has demonstrated that merely overhearing someone use a
derogatory label, such as a racial or ethnic epithet, toward a given
group can increase our likelihood of viewing someone from that
group—or someone merely associated with that group—in a nega-
tive light. In one experiment,Shari Kirkland and her co-researchers 79
asked subjects to read a transcript of a criminal trial in which a white
defendant was represented by a black attorney, whose picture was at-
tached to the trial transcript. While reading the transcript, the sub-
ject “overheard” a brief exchange between two experimental
confederates who were posing as subjects. Some subjects heard the
first confederate call the black lawyer a “nigger,” while other subjects
heard the confederate call him a “shyster.” In both conditions, the
second confederate expressed agreement with the first confederate’s
derogatory opinion of the black lawyer. With this conformity dy-
namic in place, the experimenters then asked the subject to evaluate
the attorney and the defendant. An analysis of these ratings revealed
that subjects who overheard the racial slur rated the black lawyer
more negatively than those who overheard a derisive comment un-
related to the lawyer’s race. Moreover, the white defendant received
particularly harsh verdicts and highly negative evaluations from sub-
jects who heard the racial slur against the black attorney. This latter
finding indicates that conformity to the prejudiced norms can have
damaging effects that even extend beyond the initial target of racism.
Bigoted attitudes can also be fostered intentionally by a society
that institutionally supports these attitudes. For example, a society
that supports the notion of segregation through law and custom is
supporting the notion that one group is inferior to another. In the
days of apartheid, one investigator 80 interviewed white South