Social Biases Paper

Social Biases Paper

Describing a certain way of thinking or the manner in which someone is viewed is called bias. Biases can lead to people being judged incorrectly. In society today problems arise because of social biases. They can affect a person's life in many different areas such as their career, socially and at times where they live. There are different forms of bias which include stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. All of which can have a negative influence on a person's life. Social biases can get in the way people interact with each other and damage a person's life. According to Fiske (2010),"Just as aggression research reveals the basic social psychology of processes that can prove deadly, the research on bias reveals processes that are demonstrably unhealthy and sometimes deadly for both agents and targets of bias" (p. 428). Many people do not realize they are bias until others tell them that they are being bias.

Concepts of Prejudice, Stereotyping, and Discrimination.

Prejudice involves untrue and generally negative feelings or attitudes towards an individual or group formed without knowing the facts. According to McLeod (2008), "A prejudiced person may not act on their attitude. Prejudice includes all three components of an attitude (affective, behavioral and affective)," There are many different reasons for prejudice such as race, gender, sexual orientation and age to name a few.

According to "Changing Minds" (2013), "Stereotypes are generalizations about a group of people whereby we attribute a defined set of characteristics to this group. These classifications can be positive or negative, such as when various nationalities are stereotyped as friendly or unfriendly." Some people think that stereotypes aid in helping people know how to relate to others. They can also change the way a person thinks about others. Stereotypes can influence how people judge each other and how they behave around each other.

Discrimination refers to the way people treat others based on different things such as race, age, gender and sexual orientation. According to Fiske (2010), "Discrimination entails acting on the basis of one's stereotypes and prejudices, denying equality of treatment that people wish to have." The difference between discrimination and prejudice and stereotyping is that discrimination is not a belief but the action taken because of a person's beliefs.

Differences between Subtle and Blatant Bias.

There are several different kinds of bias, subtle and blatant. Subtle biases, for example, are not displayed forcefully (Sritharan & Gawronski, 2010). Subtle biases can stay hidden or unnoticed while still existing. A subtle bias can be hard to detect or, and they express a person's belief in a delicate way. Whereas blatant biases cannot be denied (Sritharan & Gawronski, 2010). Blatant biases are exhibited for everyone to see. Blatant is obvious. They proclaim a person's dislike for others. These biases are founded on the core social motive of belonging (Fiske, 2010). Hate crimes are the best example of blatant bias where people hurt others because they are different in some way.

Impact of Bias on the Lives of Individuals.

Social biases can be damaging for anyone person or group of people the reason being they introduce fear and hatred which causes people to harm others and regard others that are different than themselves negatively anyone different from him or her in a negative and disrespectful way. Social biases are not new they have influenced people for a long time and will keep on influencing people as long as people continue to fear others and to exist as long as there are individuals who remain fearful and reject the idea

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