Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

600 Chapter 
17 
Social Psychology
outgroups as inferior to members of our ingroup (Tajfel & Turner, 2004). The end 
result is prejudice toward members of groups of which we are not a part. 
Neither the observational learning approach nor the social identity approach 
provides a full explanation for stereotyping and prejudice. For instance, some psy-
chologists argue that prejudice results when there is perceived competition for scarce 
societal resources. Thus, when competition exists for jobs or housing, members of 
majority groups may believe (however unjustly or inaccurately) that minority group 
members are hindering their efforts to attain their goals; this belief can lead to prej-
udice. In addition, other explanations for prejudice emphasize human cognitive 
limitations that lead us to categorize people on the basis of visually conspicuous 
physical features such as race, sex, and ethnic group. Such categorization can lead 
to the development of stereotypes and, ultimately, to discriminatory behavior (Mullen 
& Rice, 2003; Weeks & Lupfer, 2004; Hugenberg & Sacco, 2008). 
The most recent approach to understanding prejudice comes from an increas-
ingly important area in social psychology: social neuroscience.  Social neuroscience 
seeks to identify the neural basis of social behavior. It looks at how we can illuminate 
our understanding of groups, interpersonal relations, and emotions by understand-
ing their neuroscientifi c underpinnings (Cacioppo, Visser, & Pickett, 2005; Harmon-
Jones & Winkielman, 2007).
In one example of the value of social neuroscience approaches, researchers exam-
ined activation of the amygdala, the structure in the brain that relates to emotion-
evoking stimuli and situations, while viewing white and black faces. Because the 
amygdala is especially responsive to threatening, unusual, or highly arousing stimuli, 
the researchers hypothesized greater activation of the amygdala during exposure to 
black faces due to negative cultural associations with racial minorities (Lieberman et 
al., 2005; Lieberman, 2007). 
As you can see in Figure 1, the hypothesis was confi rmed: The amygdala showed 
more activation when participants saw a black face than when they saw a white one. 
Because both blacks and whites were participants in the study, it is unlikely that the 
amygdala activation was simply the result of the novelty of viewing members of a 
racial minority. Instead, the fi ndings suggest that culturally learned societal messages 
about race led to the brain activation.