Synonyms
Definition
Treating individuals in a systematic manner based on their group membership.
Introduction
Social scientists, and psychologists in particular, have long been interested in examining the way that people treat others. This interest has led to a large amount of research examining discrimination. Discrimination occurs when individuals are treated in a systematic and often negative manner because of their group membership (Dovidio and Gaertner 2010; Sidanius and Pratto 1999). Importantly, discrimination should be distinguished from other related concepts such as stereotyping and prejudice, which respectively concern the mental content and affective (i.e., emotional) reactions that people possess toward different social groups.
Discriminatory behavior is frequently directed toward highly salient and socially charged categories, such as treating a person in a systematic manner on the basis of their race and sex (i.e., racism and sexism; Crocker...
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References
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Dovidio, J. F., & Gaertner, S. L. (2010). Intergroup bias. In S. T. Fiske, D. Gilbert, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (Vol. 2, 5th ed., pp. 1084–1121). New York: Wiley.
Dovidio, J. F., Kawakami, K., & Gaertner, S. L. (2002). Implicit and explicit prejudice and interracial interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 62–68.
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Stern, C. (2018). Discrimination. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_654-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_654-1
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