Laurie O'Brien

Tulane University, Psychology, Faculty Member

Followers

108

Following

Co-authors

Public Views

Interests

Uploads

Papers by Laurie O'Brien

CHAPTER 17 Group Status and Feelings of Personal Entitlement: The Roles of Social Comparison and System-Justifying Beliefs

Social and Psychological Bases of Ideology and System Justification, 2009

This chapter examines the relationship between group status and feelings of personal entitlement.... more This chapter examines the relationship between group status and feelings of personal entitlement. Considered are two mechanisms that affect feelings of personal entitlement: social comparison processes and system justification. Biases to compare one’s outcomes with the outcomes of similar others and with one’s own past outcomes lead to different reference standards for people from high-status versus low-status groups. The use of different reference standards creates group differences in feelings of personal entitlement. System justifying beliefs justify hierarchical and unequal relationships among groups in society. System justifying beliefs lead to the inference that groups that possess more social goods (high-status groups) must have greater inputs (e.g., intelligence, skill) than groups with fewer social goods (low-status groups). The inference that high-status groups have more inputs than low-status groups may lead to the belief that they deserve greater outcomes and thus increa...

Knowledge is power: Educating women about the impact of stem stereotypes leads to long-term changes in attitudes and beliefs

PsycEXTRA Dataset

Perceiving Discrimination: The Role of Institutional versus Individual Discrimination

PsycEXTRA Dataset

Prototypes of Discrimination: How Status Asymmetry and Stereotype Asymmetry Affect Judgments of Racial Discrimination

Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 2013

ABSTRACT This research investigated status asymmetry and stereotype asymmetry features of the rac... more ABSTRACT This research investigated status asymmetry and stereotype asymmetry features of the racial discrimination prototype. Consistent with status asymmetry predictions, Black observers made greater attributions to discrimination when the victim was Black and the perpetrator was White than when the roles were reversed. In contrast, White observers made similar attributions to discrimination, regardless of status asymmetry. In partial support of the stereotype asymmetry hypothesis, Black and White observers made greater attributions to discrimination for Black victims in a domain where Blacks are negatively stereotyped than positively stereotyped. However, attributions to discrimination for White victims were unaffected by the domain.

Stereotypes drive men's and women's attributions to discrimination in an ambiguously discriminatory situation

PsycEXTRA Dataset

Stereotypes Drive Targets and Observers Attributions to Discrimination in Ambiguously Discriminatory Situations

PsycEXTRA Dataset

Gender Stereotypes Drive Targets and Observers Attributions to Discrimination in Ambiguously Discriminatory Situations

PsycEXTRA Dataset

Attitudes toward affirmative action: Disentangling the effects of prejudice and political conservatism

PsycEXTRA Dataset

Hypersensitivity to Social Norms and the Suppression of Prejudice

PsycEXTRA Dataset

Not the Sum of Its Parts: Decomposing Implicit Academic Stereotypes to Understand Sense of Fit in Math and English

Sex Roles, 2014

Stereotypes about gender differences in math and English ability are pervasive. The current resea... more Stereotypes about gender differences in math and English ability are pervasive. The current research decomposes math and English stereotypes in order to examine the relationship between the four independent components of these stereotypes (i.e., the stereotypic men-math association, the counter stereotypic men-English association, the counter stereotypic women-math association, and the stereotypic women-English association) and students' sense of fit in math and English. 371 undergraduate men and women from a private university located in the Southern United States participated in the current study. Participants completed the Go/ No-Go Association Task (GNAT) to assess the independent stereotype components, followed by composite measures of sense of fit in math and English. For women, the women-math association and the women-English association (i.e., ingroup components of stereotypes), and not the men-math and men-English associations (i.e., outgroup components of stereotypes), predicted sense of fit in math and English. For men, only the men-math association predicted sense of fit in English. We discuss the implications of these findings for interventions aimed at improving students' sense of academic fit.

format_quoteWomen with strong women-math associations show higher math sense of fit; weaker associations link to higher English fit.format_quote

Download

Ethnic variation in gender-STEM stereotypes and STEM participation: An intersectional approach

Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 2015

Stereotypes associating men and masculine traits with science, technology, engineering, and mathe... more Stereotypes associating men and masculine traits with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields are ubiquitous, but the relative strength of these stereotypes varies considerably across cultures. The present research applies an intersectional approach to understanding ethnic variation in gender-STEM stereotypes and STEM participation within an American university context. African American college women participated in STEM majors at higher rates than European American college women (Study 1, Study 2, and Study 4). Furthermore, African American women had weaker implicit gender-STEM stereotypes than European American women (Studies 2-4), and ethnic differences in implicit gender-STEM stereotypes partially mediated ethnic differences in STEM participation (Study 2 and Study 4). Although African American men had weaker implicit gender-STEM stereotypes than European American men (Study 4), ethnic differences between men in STEM participation were generally small (Study 1) or nonsignificant (Study 4). We discuss the implications of an intersectional approach for understanding the relationship between gender and STEM participation.

Download

Using the implicit association test to measure age differences in implicit social cognitions

Psychology and Aging, 2002

Stereotype Threat and Arousal: Effects on Women's Math Performance

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 2003

Theories of arousal suggest that arousal should decrease performance on difficult tasks and incre...