CORE 179S - Living and Dying in an Unequal World

Social inequality affects us all. This course will explore what the science of social psychology tells us about how social inequality shapes the ways we think, live, and die. Because social inequality is about the relative status of people based on their group memberships, we will begin the course by exploring social psychological theories that help explain the centrality of our group memberships to our identity. As we will see, these group memberships can be based on many different aspects of our identity: race, gender, socioeconomic status, among many others. Next, we will explore what experimental data tell us about the sources of, and consequences of, group-based disparities. In particular, we will examine the roles of limited resources, identity, power, morality, and prejudice in perpetuating inequality. Finally, we will discuss the emerging literature on how to coexist more peacefully in an unequal world.

Credits: 1.00
Prerequisites: None
Major/Minor Restrictions: None
Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
Area of Inquiry: None
Liberal Arts CORE: Scientific Perspectives

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