Question

Explain how prejudice and discrimination are moral issues. Afterwards, respond to the quesiton below.

When considering the Robber's Cave experiment by Muzafer Sherif, explain how prejudice can be increased and decreased by situational factors or norms. How can situational factors be changed to promote more prosocial attitudes and behaviors? Do you think there is a way to move beyond situational determinism and invoke individual decision making?

Answer 1

Answer 1) Discrimination occurs if one group is treated differently because of prejudice. Discrimination includes not giving people equal opportunities in education, housing, employment or political representation. People experience prejudice and discrimination on the grouds of race, color, age, gender, and disability.

When we talk about morality, Insko (2006) define morality in comparable terms; the belief in right and wrong action, the tendency to endorse fair relations, and the tendency to favor the ingroup, all characterize properties of moral codes. Keeping this in mind,In recent years, the focus on both discrimination and prejudice has led to a growing body of work on the health consequences of discrimination experienced as a result of these processes. A large body of work has emerged, particularly in the United States, that has sought to measure the experience of discrimination. In countries such as the Unites States and South Africa, that have experienced a long history of intense racial discrimination, research has been carried out with the aim of understanding the differential experience of "acute" as opposed to "chronic" racial and non-racial discrimination, and their impacts in relation to a range of stressors and psychological factors (such as social desirability, self-esteem and personal mastery).

These studies explain a lot about how prejudice and discrimination effect human mind and behaviour in a very lethal way, sometimes the loss is irrepareable and hence, it prejudice and discrimination are moral threat to the society.

THE Classic Robber's cave experiment was carried out by Muzafer Sherif in the 1950s. It is an intergroup study, looking at what causes groups to change their behaviours when they come into contact with each other. The study explores Sherif’s theory of Realistic Conflict, looking at what happens when groups are forced to compete or cooperate. Crucial to this theory is the idea that we divide people we meet into “ingroup” members with whom we share goals and values and “outgroup” members with whom we see ourselves in competition.

The experiment was conducted in two groups of white, middle-class eleven-year-old boys, arbitrarily named Rattlers and Eagles by the experimenters and each initially unaware of the other group's existence, spent the first week of a three-week summer holiday hiking, swimming, boating, and camping. After they had established separate group identities, they were brought together to compete at football, treasure hunts, tug-of-war, and other events, the winners receiving trophies and medals. Almost immediately, Rattlers and Eagles became hostile and antagonistic towards each other: flags were burned, cabins ransacked, and a food fight escalated into a near-riot in the mess hall. The experimenters restored peace by contriving situations in which members of the two groups had to cooperate to achieve superordinate goals.At the end of the third week, the two groups were so friendly that they chose to travel home on the same bus. See also realistic group conflict theory, social identity theory.

The idea that intergroup contact will reduce prejudice, known as the contact hypothesis, is simple: If children from different ethnic groups play together in school, their attitudes toward each other should improve. And if we encourage college students to travel abroad, they will meet people from other cultures and become more positive toward them. And in this way we can improve by reducing prejudice.The positive effects of intergroup contact may be due in part to increases in other-concern. Galinsky and Moskowitz (2000) found that leading students to take the perspective of another group member—which increased empathy and closeness to the person—also reduced prejudice. And the behavior of students on college campuses demonstrates the importance of connecting with others and the dangers of not doing so.

We can promote individual decision making by promoting self growth and self esteem which is the building block that influence individual decision making capacity.