According to the economic perspective, prejudice is the result of different social groups competing over scarce resources. But what if that competition is largely imagined? Research indicates that one of the major difficulties standing in the way of social equality is that many people view social capital as finite, and that working to advance historically disadvantaged groups is necessarily taking away from those who benefit from our current state of systemic oppression (e.g., Norton & Sommers, 2011). However, equality is not a zero-sum game.
As discussed in this TED Talk by sociologist Michael Kimmel, we all have something to gain by promoting gender equality. And the same goes for equality for other categories as well (e.g., race, ability, religion, class, etc.).
Question: Watch the video first. What are your thoughts on the video? How could you use what you learned from this video to convince someone that pursuing social equality is worthwhile?
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