Prejudice Study Report
Soc 260
Dr. Johnson
Spring Semester 2006
Based on their social class, parent’s
attitudes, and amount of contact with another race, a random sample of
students were used to discover how prejudice students are at Ball State
University. The sample came from a large Sociology 100 class in which
157 people, all of whom were white, were asked to fill out a survey.
85%, of the 157 students, were freshman or sophomores and 15% juniors
or seniors. The majority of the students were female at 61%, while the
minority, consisting of 39% of the 157 students, were male. This was a
convenient sample in that it was easy to get access to these students
to be used for research.
The students were asked to answer three questions
from the survey that focused on social class and how it has an effect
on prejudice. Each question had five possible choices to choose from,
with the first option worth one point, the second option worth two
points, and so on up to five. When all the answers were combined and
weighted, 60% (30 students) of the students who come from a working
class family, were found to have low prejudice, and 40% (20 students)
were moderately to highly prejudice. Similarly, 53.2% (50 students) of
students from a middle class family were found to be low in prejudice,
while 46.8% (44 students) were found to be moderately or highly
prejudice. From these calculations, no real relationship can be
observed between social class and prejudice.
When trying to understand the effect social class
has on prejudice tendencies, it’s important to ask what the
relationship between the two is and why this relationship exists. From
the survey given to the sample of Ball State students we found no real
relationship between the two. Some reasons for this could be that white
middle and working class families are coming into the same amount of
contact with African Americans in the work place, school, and places
that they choose to live, middle class and working class families have
the same social influences, and personal attitudes between the classes
may be similar.
The survey results indicate that students from the
middle and working class backgrounds similarly were lower in their
tendencies to be prejudice, thus indicating no definite relationship
between social class and prejudice. A reason for this could be that
these students have similar social realities. The students who come
from working and middle class backgrounds may see African Americans in
the same light. From the results after the cross tabulation, this light
is more positive then negative. Seeing people from a different race in
a positive light may also be attributed to the amount of contact
students have with those of another race. Now days, working and middle
class families are coming into more contact with African American
families, as they pull themselves up the socioeconomic ladder. This
means African Americans are moving into the same neighborhoods, holding
the same jobs, and schooling their children in the same schools as
white working and middle class families, leading relationships to be
developed between the two races. According to the tabulation, these
relationships are heading in a positive direction.
Another reason suggesting the unclear relationship
between social class and prejudice is the similarity in social
influences between the two classes. The book, “Social Psychology”
mentions that our cultures shape our situations. How we view people of
another race depends on our culture, so this could suggest that the
students who participated within the survey, despite their social class
differences, share the same cultural beliefs when it comes to their
views on race. Society may have the same influence on the students
despite their difference in social classes, resulting in the lack of a
relationship between social class and prejudice.
Despite their difference in social classes, the
students may have indicated about the same amount of prejudice towards
those of another race because of their similar personal attitudes. We
are all social beings, but there is a side of us that is affected by
our personal attitudes and views. When students were asked questions
regarding race relations and prejudice, the social forces were kept to
a minimum in the sense that only the surveyor and researchers would see
their results. This allowed students to freely give their personal
opinion without others being able to see it or react to it. Therefore
this factor could be a reason why there wasn’t a huge difference
between the two social classes and their view of prejudice. This could
also be a factor in why the results between the social classes were so
similar. Students were free to step out of their social barriers and
give their personal opinions, beliefs, and attitudes, leaving their
social class behind to find that they are similar to other social
classes in their feelings of prejudice.
Students were also asked three questions on the survey that focused on
the amount of contact they have with people from another race. Two of
the questions had five possible choices to choose from, with the first
option being worth one point, second option being worth two points and
so on. The third question only had two options with the first option
being worth 1 point and the second option being worth 5 points. When
all the answers were combined and added together, 31.7% of the students
(13 students) who have had neutral contact with people of another race
indicated they had low prejudice, while 68.3% (28 students) of the
students indicated having moderate to high amounts of prejudice.
63.3% (69 students) of those students who indicated having positive
contact with people of another race were found to be low in prejudice,
while 36.7% (40 students) were moderate to high in prejudice. From this
information a definite relationship exists between the amount of
contact a person has with someone of another race and how prejudice
they are towards people of another race.
When looking at the results from the survey, a clear
relationship can be established between the amount of contact a person
has with a member of the opposite race and the prejudices they have
about that race. The results show that the more positive the
relationship with someone of another race, the less prejudice a person
is towards that member of another race. A few factors that could be
responsible for this relationship are social norms, culture, and our
attitudes towards those of another race.
Within society there are social norms that should be
followed. One of those social norms could be that you aren’t allowed to
associate with a person of a different race. This norm may seem
ridiculous today, but fifty years ago, it wasn’t that far off. Today
within society, it is becoming more and more expectable to associate
with someone of another race. Today the norm is that if you openly
discriminate you are looked down upon. To follow this norm, we may
surround ourselves with people of another race, contributing to
stronger more positive relationships with people of another race.
However, within some societies and family units, it’s a norm to
disassociate yourself with people of a different race. This
disassociation can lead some people to form negative opinions towards
people of another race, solely on the basis of never having an
engagement with someone of another race. Students who participated in
this survey may have come from communities where it was not normal to
associate with someone of another race, however when they came to
college and began encountering students and teachers of another race,
their opinion and view may have started to change. I think the
relationship between contact and prejudice would have been even greater
if we looked at more upperclassmen, since they would have had more
years to develop stronger relationships with those of another race.
Our attitudes also affect how we connect ourselves
with those of another race and how we feel about those connections. We
evaluate people as favorable or unfavorable, thus shaping our attitude
towards them. This evaluation is hard to do without spending quality
time with that person. The quality of the time we spend with someone,
helps determine if the contact we have had with them is positive or
negative. For example; a white college student decides to hang out with
an African American student he met in class. They go to the African
American student’s house and while they are there, two of the African
American student’s roommates try to sell the white college student
dope. The white college student may form a negative opinion of all
African Americans because of this one negative experience he had with
an African American classmate. The tabulation chart shows that those
students who have had negative experiences with those of another race
are moderate to higher in prejudice feelings towards another race while
those students who have had positive experiences have lower prejudice
feelings towards those of another race. The quality of time spent
definitely affects our attitude towards other people, which in turn,
affects the prejudices we hold towards them.
Because we live in the United States, we live in a
place that has a melting pot of cultures. Something deemed very
important to one person, may carry little value to another. This can be
seen in the relationships we form with others. When we take the time to
form a relationship with someone, we get to know them and understand
their values, beliefs, and ways of thinking. Thus, the more positive
and quality relationships we have with someone, the more we get to know
that person and drop our prejudices and preconceived judgments of that
person. This explains why there is such a strong relationship between
contact and prejudice. Students who have developed positive contacts
with those of another race have possibly accustomed themselves to the
other person’s culture and have thus torn down walls of prejudice.
Students, who indicated not having positive contacts with those of
another race, probably have not had the opportunity to understand
another person’s culture and way of doing things, thus have seen that
person in a negative light, leaving them with prejudices.
For the next part of the survey, students were given
four questions within the survey that dealt with the attitudes of their
parents towards someone of a different race. These questions were
examined to see if parent’s attitude toward people of another race
affects their children and to what extent. The four questions dealing
with parental prejudice had five options; the first option worth 1
point, second option worth two points, and so on. The higher the amount
of points the more prejudice the parent. 59.4% (57 students) of the
students who have parents low in prejudice feelings towards people of
another race, have low prejudice feelings themselves. 40.6% (39
students) of students with parents who have low prejudice feelings, had
moderate to high prejudice. 49.1% (26 students) of students whose
parents were found to have moderate to high prejudice tendencies, had
low prejudice. 50.9% (27 students) of the students whose parents had
moderate to high prejudice tendencies, themselves had moderate to high
prejudice tendencies. These statistics show that some relationship
exists between the prejudice views of parents and how they impact the
prejudice tendencies their son or daughter accumulates.
When looking at the tabulations developed from the
survey given to the students in the Sociology 100 class, a small link
between parent’s prejudices and their children’s prejudices were found.
This relationship shows that most of the time the more prejudice or
less prejudice parents are, the more prejudice or less prejudice their
children will be. A few reasons for this could be social influences,
self-fulfilling prophecy, or cultural influences.
Families are social institutions, that without a
doubt, have a huge impact on how we live our lives. People within our
families, especially parents, shape how we act, what we believe, and
why we believe certain ways. One reason for this huge influence that
parents have is self-fulfilling prophecy. Parents my lead their
children to carry a certain view, and then something within society
happens that confirms the parent’s belief and makes the child think
this view is correct. For example, a white parent my share a belief,
behind their dislike of African Americans on the basis that they are
taking jobs from white people, with their child and a few months later
the child watches their parent lose a job to an African American. This
would confirm, in the child’s eyes, the parents view and would most
likely lead the child to share in this view. Students from the survey
may have experienced some situation within their lives similar to the
one listed above that caused them to stick with their parent’s beliefs.
An event doesn’t always have to take place that confirms a belief in
order for children to follow their parents lead. Many people model
themselves after their parents, since they are usually the number one
influence in their lives for many years. This could also be a factor in
why many of the students had the same views on prejudice as their
parents.
Another way in which students within the sample
could have been influenced by their families is through norms. There
are norms within the larger society, but there are also norms created
within family units that are to be followed. One of those norms within
a family unit that would be expected to be followed might be what type
of people the family engages with. For students who indicated on the
survey of having the same prejudices towards people of a different race
as their parents, this could be a reason for this similar view. This
view may also come from the norms of the larger society. For example if
a family lives in a racist community, sharing in that view that African
American people are inferior may be a common norm that is expected to
be followed. If a student comes to college from a community like that,
they are probably going to continue to share that view, because not
only has it been implemented within their community, but most likely it
has been implemented by their family.
One factor that may contribute to the reasoning
behind such a small relationship between parental prejudice and its
effect on children’s prejudices could be that society has chosen to
take moral actions in dealing with race relations in hopes that
people’s hearts will follow, causing many people’s hearts to do just
that. For example, following the Supreme Court decision to desegregate
schools, the percentage of whites favoring integrated schools more than
doubled and now days, includes almost everyone. Many of the students
within the sample, despite having parents who are prejudice, could have
been influenced by the larger society to follow moral actions with
their hearts rather then with what they know to be true, leaving little
relationship within the sample.
The results and the reasoning behind the
results can be seen in the cross tabulation tables below.
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