Explain+the+interactionist+approach+to+racism

Also, it is evolutionarily advantageous. Protects genes from the out-group. **Cognitive Factors:** Availability heuristics (reliance upon knowledge that is readily available, rather than finding out for one's self) can cause prejudice, which may lead to racism. If one witnesses a person of a minority group doing something they find wrong, they may perceive the ethnic group as a whole as "inferior" or "bad." Cognitive dissonances can cause individuals to rationalize their racist attitudes. If they have inner racist attitudes, but show non racist actions, this causes these dissonances, which lead to rationalization. **Sociocultural Factors:** Stereotyping can cause people to get negative images of other ethnic groups in their heads. These images can lead the individual to believe that the other group is somehow lesser, which leads to racist attitudes. Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE) can cause one to erroneously associate one's race with their actions. If one sees an Asian person get an A on a math test, they may assume they got the A because they're Asian. Allport's (1956) contact hypothesis is a way to prevent or reduce racism. He believed that if people from a variety of ethnic groups were put together to work cooperatively with no competition, then prejudice would be eliminated. This may work because all the ethnic groups are now part of the same in-group, which leads one to look at them more positively. The interactionist approach to racism states that cognitive, biological, and sociocultural factors all influence racism in an individual.. Some biological factors are a response from the amygdala, and that it is evolutionarily advantageous to protect genes from the out-group. Fiske (2007) studied the biological link to racism. Perception is a very large cognitive cause for racism. Darley and Gross (1983) studied this. Stereotyping and contact hypothesis are both sociocultural influences on racism. Group pressure can also cause this. Sherif (1961) carried out some fascinating research on contact hypothesis. The sociocultural, biological, and cognitive levels of analysis all contribute to racism.
 * The Interactionist Approach to Racism** The interactionist approach to racism includes all three levels of analysis.  **Biological Factors:** The amygdala in the brain delivers a subconscious response to stimulus.