Sociology Terms

Social Distance Scale

The social distance scale is a way to measure the degree to which a person would be willing to accept a particular group.  The scale itself involves asking someone how they would accept a particular group with possible answers being “as a spouse” (closest possible, and scored as a 1) all the way to “I would exclude them from my country” (rated a 7).  And of course, there are scores in between these two extremes as well.  The “higher” the score, the less amiable the person taking the test is toward a particular group.

Prejudice

A prejudice against someone or some class is an opinion about them that is developed based on previous experience, but not on previous experience with the individual.  So someone who had a poor experience with a certain class of people, say, they found them to be dishonest, will apply that general experience to an individual within a particular group and assume that it holds true, despite not having learned enough about that particular person to know whether or not their assessment of them is actually true.  

Prejudice usually refers to a negative opinion, although it could technically work toward a positive opinion, e.g. if someone had a positive opinion of a particular group they might apply that opinion to an individual within the group despite the individual not having given any indication (beyond group membership) that they emblemize the positive quality in question.

Stereotypes

Stereotypes are convenient ways to categorize people and groups according to “conventional wisdom” about them.  In general, stereotypes are offensive.  When someone uses a stereotype, they are typically oversimplifying or over-applying something to be generalizable when it is not, or at least when there is not yet good enough reason to believe that it is.  Stereotypes go hand in hand with prejudice, because they do not depend on actual experience or verifiable information, but instead on “common knowledge”—whether that be something perpetuated in pop-culture, an urban legend, or just something that happens to be widely held—about the group in question.

Stereotypes are very common in our culture.  They are often perpetuated by pop culture or simply by a lack of critical thinking.  Stereotypes can sometimes by viciously self-fulfilling; if someone starts to believe a stereotype about themselves, they might start fulfilling the stereotype.  This can be harmful and can also fuel the stereotype, actually making it more generally true than it was before.  For those reasons, it is important not to feed into or perpetuate stereotypes.  They are injurious both to individuals and groups.

Scapegoat

The concept of a scapegoat is quite old.  Scapegoats refer to when a person or group is punished in a representative or symbolic way, as a sort of “stand in” for what should be punished.  Scapegoats are a matter of convenience like stereotyping and prejudice; it is easier and more expedient to simply jump to a conclusion and lay blame on a person or group than it is to actually identify the root cause of a problem.  Scapegoats are almost by definition unable to, or not suited to, defend themselves.  Because of this, it is more politically correct, more socially acceptable, and just generally easier for the purpose of revenge to erect a scapegoat and blame it for everything that has gone wrong instead of getting to the truth of the matter.  People do not tend to fight on behalf of scapegoats since they are already marginalized by society.  The more frequently someone or some group is scapegoated, the more frequently it will be viewed as socially acceptable to scapegoat them.  This can feed stereotypes and prejudice, for if a group or person is frequently scapegoated, eventually people will believe that they are guilty.