Lunch Talk with Professor Susan Fiske: Diversity Science since Hopkins

Date: November 16

Time: 1pm – 2pm

Zoom link (registration): https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_mkWZv7vmS7GxDZJ1i2WB0A

Princeton University professor and social psychologist Susan Fiske, expert witness in the landmark sex discrimination case Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, will speak about the state of research relating to stereotyping and prejudice. During the 30+ years since her 1989 testimony, the legal applications of stereotyping research began with gender bias, differentiating (a) the prescribed female role (warm but incompetent), which disrespects women for lack of fit to managerial roles requiring competence, from (b) the proscribed career woman (competent but cold). In psychology, this contributed to the Ambivalent Sexism Theory, differentiating patronizing “benevolent” sexism from hostile sexism. In the law, this contributed to interpretations limiting employers from demanding gender-role conformity. Twenty years after Hopkins, the Stereotype Content Model was developed, showing that many groups carry ambivalent stereotypes: Old or disabled people are stereotypically warm, well-intentioned but also totally incompetent, so they too are disrespected and patronized. In contrast are stereotypes of rich people, Asians, Jews, Ivy League professors, and lawyers, stereotypically viewed as competent but not nice; they are respected but disliked. Professor Fiske will discuss why this research matters: First, ambivalent stereotypes are harder to detect as prejudice because they contain a positive side. Second, different outgroups will elicit systematically different patterns of discrimination, and our model maps twenty-first-century diversity.

Sponsored by the Law and Behavioral Science Student Organization of Harvard Law School.