ChapteR 10 Behavior in Social and Cultural Context 369prejudices toward blacks and women have long been part of Western history.
In the United States, women have been excluded from men’s clubs and
occupations, and segregation of blacks was legal until the 1950s. anti-
immigrant prejudices always emerge when changing economic conditions create
competition for jobs. In the aftermath of 9/11, hostility mounted toward all
Middle easterners and Muslims.hostilities between groups have also diminished—
or are “lingering emotionally.” These researchers
maintain that implicit attitudes, being automatic
and unintentional, reflect negative feelings that
keep prejudice alive below the surface (Dovidio,
2009). They have developed several ways of mea-
suring these feelings (Olson, 2009):1
Measures of social distance and “microaggres-
sions.” Social distance is a possible behavioral
expression of prejudice. Does a straight man standfarther away from a gay man than from an-
other straight man? Does a nondisabled woman
move away from a woman in a wheelchair? Some
psychologists call these subtle acts “microag-
gressions”: the slights and indignities that many
women, minorities, and people with physical dis-
abilities experience (Dovidio, Pagotto, & Hebl,
2011; Nadal et al., 2011). Derald Sue (2010) offers
these examples: A white professor compliments an
Asian American graduate student on his “excellent
English,” although the student has lived in the