Project description
Prejudice and social group membership
Prejudice and discrimination have a profound impact on people’s lives and well-being. While our understanding of stereotyping has largely been shaped by ‘us’ versus ‘them’ studies, the reality is that individuals belong to multiple social groups. The ERC-funded PREJUDICE project will introduce the differential information processing model of intergroup attitudes, which explains how impressions are formed based on individuals’ multiple group memberships. According to this model, the impressions we form depend on what kind of information we think we can infer from different social categories. The project will investigate the inferences we make from social group memberships, the reasons behind these inferences and the processes through which we arrive at them. It will also explore how socialisation influences belief about social categories and examine the neural processes linked to beliefs and status inferences.
Objective
Prejudice and discrimination have undeniable consequences for people’s lives and well-being. Our knowledge of stereotyping and prejudice is predominantly based on studies of simple dichotomies of “us” vs. “them”, whereas every person we interact with in real life will simultaneously belong to multiple social groups. In this project, I introduce the differential information processing (DIP) model of intergroup attitudes to explain how we process information about others’ multiple group memberships to form impressions of them. The key proposition of the model is that the mechanisms of impression formation depend on inferences we make from social categories: categories that are seen as informative of beliefs (e.g. religion) give rise to ingroup bias, whereas categories that are seen as informative of status (e.g. education) give rise to status bias. I propose to comprehensively test this new model by addressing three essential questions: what inferences do we make from people’s membership in different social groups? why do we make them? and how do we make them? The proposed set of studies will utilize diverse methodological approaches, including cross-cultural survey experiments to capture variation in inferences people make and type and strength of biases they show across the globe; text analysis of children’s literature and experimental work with children to understand how socialization experiences shape children’s beliefs about differential informativeness of social categories; and neuroimaging work to understand if distinct neural processes can be linked to belief and status inferences and the corresponding biases. If supported, this new theoretical model will connect disparate strands of literature and bring a step-change in how we study stereotyping and prejudice, opening new avenues for more generalizable interventions for prejudice reduction.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences sociology social issues social inequalities racial inequality
- humanities philosophy, ethics and religion religions
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
YO10 5DD YORK NORTH YORKSHIRE
United Kingdom
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