What is Prejudice

Prejudice is a preconceived opinion or stereotype (positive or negative) toward some group and its members. Prejudice can be expressed toward one's own group or another group. Racism and misogyny are the most common forms of prejudice, but prejudice can also be formed based on sexual orientation, ethnic or national origin, medical condition, musical or fashion preferences, political ideology, etc.    

How prejudice works on the individual or collective level is best explained using the concept of Attitude. Attitude refers to an individual’s evaluation of something as being positive or negative, good or bad, favorable or unfavorable. Attitudes can sometimes be below the level of an individual’s conscious awareness. Once formed, attitude is expressed through the cognitive (opinion), affective (emotional), and behavioral (actions) responses to an attitude object.

The cognitive aspect of prejudice refers to someone's belief that members of a certain group possess a set of (positive or negative) characteristics. Emotions associated with negative prejudice can range from resentment and discomfort, up to deep hatred and fear. Actions based on negative prejudice can also take various forms; the mildest form is avoidance, more severe forms are discrimination, segregation, subjection, expulsion, and exploitation, while the most severe form is extermination of the whole group.

Some authors stress that prejudice is not based on facts or lived experience, making beliefs regarding characteristics of a discriminated group false (incorrect) and irrational. Others disagree with the view that prejudice is irrational, as it is often based on rational interest; that is, prejudice is used as a tool by the members of one group to oppress and exploit members of the discriminated group. It should be noted that whether the belief that all or the majority members of some group possess certain characteristics is based on evidence or not, more important for prejudice is that the characteristic(s) are seen as positive or negative. For example, if somebody has a negative prejudice against vegetarians because they do not eat meat, it is factually correct to conclude that they don’t eat meat, but it still elicits negative bias and discrimination.  

Prejudice can also influence the selective memory of past events, as individuals with prejudice only remember events and information consistent with the prejudice. Prejudice also influences bias in explanations of the behavior of an individual. People tend to explain the negative behavior of the members of a discriminated group as caused by internal characteristics of that group, while they explain the same behavior from members of their own group as caused by external forces.  

                     Theoretical Research of Prejudice

The Chicago School of sociology, and its founders Robert E. Park and Edward Burgess, at the beginning of the 20th century, researched urban problems, including complex relations and prejudices that existed between citizens of various ethnic and racial backgrounds. Emory Bogardus in 1925 created the Bogardus social distance scale, a psychological testing scale in the form of a questionnaire to measure social distance between different social groups (racial, ethnic, etc.).  

In the book An American Dilemma (1944), Gunnar Myrdal argues that the American dilemma represents the conflict between the "American faith" in equality and freedom and the enormous prejudice and discrimination that the African-American population faces daily and in all areas of life. The book provides detailed evidence of discrimination and its consequences. In addition to the racist attitudes of many members of the majority population of European descent, the causes of racial inequality lie in political, legal, and economic institutions that, at every turn, limit the constitutionally guaranteed rights of African Americans. Myrdal also states that scientists who study society must pay attention to ideology and values and that they should always clearly define their values because ideology and values ​​have a huge impact on the scientific research process.

In 1949, Theodor Adorno led a team of scientists who conducted extensive empirical research regarding authoritarian personality among American citizens, and this research was published in the book Authoritarian Personality (1950). Authors argue that this authoritarian personality possesses a weak ego, which leads it to express several distinct features: conformism to conventional social values, highly conservative beliefs, intolerance of ambivalence, submission to authority, cynicism, and a strong tendency towards superstitions, stereotypes, and prejudice. 

Psychologist Gordon Allport, in his The Nature of Prejudice (1954), studied how individuals adopt prejudice, which personality types are more prone to be prejudiced,  and methods of reducing prejudice, such as therapy, legislation, and education. He defined prejudice as ‘‘an antipathy based upon a faulty and inflexible generalization’’ (1954: 9). Allport argues that prejudice presents the result of a normal psychological process of dividing people into in-groups and out-groups. This process is accompanied by strong emotions and is based on false information. Prejudice portrays in-group members as possessing positive qualities and members of out-groups as possessing negative qualities and appropriate targets for discrimination.  

Herbert Blumer, in the article "Race Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position" (1958), sees racial prejudice as ‘‘a sense of group position." He argues that influential public figures, and their actions and messages, have a predominant influence in forming public perception of the social hierarchy of different groups, intergroup identification, and the sense of superiority of members of dominant groups. For prejudice to establish itself, there has to exist a sense of entitlement, by the dominant group, to certain resources or privileges, that, in the view of that group, is threatened to be taken by the subordinated group. Hence, any attempt by the subordinate group to better their status and conditions is seen as an attack and rejection of the proper social order. According to Blumer, prejudice is a collective ideology that arose from the historical context of intergroup relations. Prejudice has a dual function: it serves as a value system that creates hierarchy and entitlement, but also as a source of self-identification as an opposition to the other groups. Qualities that are deemed as positive by the dominant group are seen as abundant in that group and lacking in the subordinate groups.  

Some early theories of prejudice argued that personality characteristics of parents are most important for the formation of prejudice in their children. Later research revealed that children, independently of their parents, start to categorize people into groups, and that they are not only passively adopting their parents' attitudes. Henri Tajfel, in the article ‘‘Cognitive Aspects of Prejudice’’ (1969), considers that the mere process of categorization is encouragement for exaggeration in the perception of intergroup differences and intragroup homogeneity.

                                   Gender Prejudice

Barbara Risman studied gender stratification and prejudice. She argues that at the individual level, socialization in childhood leads to the internalization of gender roles in members of both genders and thus leads to the creation of gender (innate) selves. At the interactional level, the gender structure creates different status expectations for men and women. Women are expected to be filled with empathy and care, while men are expected to be more active and successful in society. Cognitive prejudices enable the reproduction of gender inequalities in everyday life. Social institutions and organizations reproduce gender inequalities at the institutional level.

Donna Haraway claims that all sciences have most often served to justify and strengthen existing social hierarchies. That is why Haraway advocates situational knowledge and gives priority to different perspectives that arise within different communities. Science should be the product of a specific context and a specific moment. She believes that cultural prejudices around gender have had a key impact on the creation of scientific knowledge. Sexist prejudices have contributed to the misrepresentation of female physiology and psychology. In addition, these prejudices led to the creation of reductionist theories instead of holistic gender theories.

                         New Forms of Prejudice

In the last decades of the 20th century overt display of prejudice started to subside, as political correctness designated racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination as socially unacceptable. This cultural shift caused overt forms of prejudice to be supplanted by new forms of prejudice. Aversive prejudice refers to a form of discrimination in which someone doesn’t express overtly negative emotions and statements toward the discriminated group, but still seeks to avoid direct contact with the members of that group. Laissez faire racism, Dominant Stratification Ideology, and symbolic racism represent theoretically similar conceptions of new forms of prejudice, as they all suppose that new type prejudice is based on the ideological view that existing political and economic system is fair and based on equal opportunity, and blames minority groups as solely responsible for they negative situation – poverty and rampant crime – as it results from the failure to accept mainstream values. Thomas Pettigrew and Roel Meertens, in their article ‘‘Subtle and Blatant Prejudice in Western Europe’’ (1995), introduce the distinction between subtle and blatant prejudice. Subtle prejudice is composed of three components: 1) traditional values are seen as under threat, 2) intergroup differences are exaggerated, and 3) a lack of positive emotions toward the other group. They argue that subtle prejudice is different from political conservatism.

                Practical Measures in Combating Prejudice

Some social scientists have suggested education as a cure for prejudice, as access to new and better information can replace a flawed and harmful prejudiced thought process. The contact theory argues that prejudice is partially the result of a lack of contact between groups, so the remedy that will decrease prejudice is increasing contact between members of those groups. Later research showed that increased contact is not enough, as contacts that happen in competitive situations only increase prejudice. For contact between groups to lead to a decrease in prejudice, conditions have to ensure positive interactions, cooperation, equal status in the interaction, and there has to be an authority figure present that endorses equality.  

Psychologist Elliot Aronson devised a method he labeled "jigsaw classroom" that could be implemented in schools to decrease prejudice. The concept of the jigsaw classroom was created through experiments in the classroom, which showed that when students had to work together on school assignments and be interdependent, it led to the lowering of prejudices against minorities while enhancing or maintaining individual academic achievement.   

References:

Adorno, T. W., Frenkel-Brunswick, E., Levinson, D. J., & Sanford, R. N. The Authoritarian Personality (1950);

Brown, Rupert. Prejudice: Its Social Psychology (1995);

Allport, Gordon The Nature of Prejudice (1954);

Apostle, Richard A., Charles Y. Glock, Thomas Piazza, and Marijean Suelzle. The Anatomy of Racial Attitudes (1983);

Banaji, Mahzarin, and Anthony Greenwald. “Implicit Stereotyping and Prejudice”, in Mark P. Zanna and James M. Olson (eds.). The Psychology of Prejudice: The Ontario Symposium, vol. 7 (1994);  

Blumer, H. Selected Works of Herbert Blumer: A Public Philosophy for Mass Society (2000);

Blumer. "Race Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position", in The Pacific Sociological Review (1958);

Bobo, Lawrence. ‘‘Attitudes toward the Black Political Movement: Trends, Meaning, and Effects on Racial Policy Preferences’’, in Social Psychology Quarterly (1988a);

    -     ‘‘Group Conflict, Prejudice, and the Paradox of Contemporary Racial Attitudes’’, in Phyllis A. Katz and Dalmas A. Taylor, eds., Eliminating Racism (1988b);

    -     , and James R. Kluegel ‘‘Opposition to Race-Targeting: Self-Interest, Stratification Ideology, or Racial Attitude?’’, in American Sociological Review (1993);

     -     , and Ryan A. Smith ‘‘Laissez Faire Racism: The Crystallization of a ‘Kinder Gentler’ Anti-Black Ideology.’’ In Steven A. Tuch and Jack K. Martin, eds., Racial Attitudes in the 1990s: Continuity and Change (1997);

Brewer, Marilynn B. ‘‘Ingroup Bias in the Minimal Intergroup Situation: A Cognitive-Motivational Analysis’’, in Psychological Bulletin (1979);

     -     ‘‘The Social Self: On Being the Same and Different at the Same Time”, in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (1991);  

     -     , and Norman Miller. ‘‘Contact and Cooperation: When Do They Work?’’, in Phyllis A. Katz and

Dalmas A. Taylor (eds.). Eliminating Racism (1988);

Chafetz. Sex and Advantage: A Comparative Macro-Structural Theory of Sexual Stratification (1984);

Cook, Stuart W. ‘‘Cooperative Interaction in Multiethnic Contexts’’, in Norman Miller and Marilynn B. Brewer, (eds.). Groups in Contact: The Psychology of Desegregation (1984);

Crosby, Faye J., Stephanie Bromley, and Leonard Saxe ‘‘Recent Unobtrusive Studies of Black and White Discrimination and Prejudice: A Literature Review’’, in Psychological Bulletin (1980);

Davis A. Women, Race, & Class (1983);

     -     Violence against Women and the Ongoing Challenge of Racism (1985);

Dovidio, John F., Kerry Kawakami, Craig Johnson, Brenda Johnson, and Adaiah Howard. ‘‘On the Nature of Prejudice: Automatic and Controlled Processes’’, in Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (1997);

Dovidio, John F., Jeffrey Mann, and Samuel L. Gaertner. ‘‘Resistance to Affirmative Action: The Implications of Aversive Racism’’, in Faye J. Crosby and Fletcher A. Blanchard (eds.). Affirmative Action in Perspective (1989);

Diane M. Mackie and David L. Hamilton (eds.). Affect, Cognition, and Stereotyping: Interactive Processes in Group Perception (1993);

Epstein. Women's Place: Option and Limits on Professional Careers (1970);

     -     The Other Half: Roads to Women's Equality (1971);

     -     Women in Law (1981);

     -     Deceptive Distinctions: Sex, Gender and the Social Order (1988);

Feagin, Joe R. Subordinating the Poor (1975);

    -     ‘‘The Continuing Significance of Race: Antiblack Discrimination in Public Places’’, in American Sociological Review (1991);

Fiske, Susan T. ‘‘On the Road: Comment on the Cognitive Stereotyping Literature in Pettigrew and Martin’’, in Journal of Social Issues (1987);

Fiske, Susan T., Amy J. Cuddy, Peter Glick, and Jun Xu, Jun. “A Model of (often mixed) Stereotype Content: Competence and Warmth Respectively Follow from Perceived Status and Competition”, in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2002);

    -     ‘‘Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Discrimination”, in Daniel T. Gilbert, Susan T. Fiske, and Gardner Lindzey (eds.). The Handbook of Social Psychology, 4th ed. (1998);

Gaertner, Samuel L. ‘‘Nonreactive Measures in Racial Attitude Research: A Focus on ‘Liberals’’’, in Phyllis A. Katz (ed.). Toward the Elimination of Racism (1976);

     -     , and John F. Dovidio ‘‘The Aversive Form of Racism’’, in John F. Dovidio and Samuel L. Gaertner (eds.). Prejudice, Discrimination, and Racism (1986);

Hamilton, David A., and Tina K. Trolier. ‘‘Stereotypes and Stereotyping: An Overview of the Cognitive Approach’’, in Phyllis A. Katz and Dalmas A. Taylor (eds.): Eliminating Racism (1986);

Hamilton, David L. ‘‘A Cognitive-Attributional Analysis of Stereotyping’’, in Leonard Berkowitz (ed.). Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (1997);

Haraway. Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science (1989);

     -     Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature: (Essays from 1978–89) (1991);

Harding, John, Harold Proshansky, Bernard Kutner, and Isador Chein 1969 ‘‘Prejudice and Intergroup Relations.’’ In Gardner Lindzey and Elliot Aronson, eds., Handbook of Social Psychology, Volume V, 2nd ed.

Heider, Fritz. The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations (1958);

hooks. Ain’t I A Woman? Black Women and Feminism (1981);

Huber, Joan, and William H. Form. Income and Ideology (1973);

Jackman, Mary R. The Velvet Glove: Paternalism and Conflict in Gender, Class, and Race Relations (1994);

    -     , and Michael J. Muha ‘‘Education and Intergroup Attitudes: Moral Enlightenment, Superficial Democratic Commitment, or Ideological Refinement?’’, in American Sociological Review (1984);

Janowitz. The Dynamics of Prejudice (1950);

Jaynes, David Gerald, and Robin M. Williams, Jr. A Common Destiny: Blacks and American Society (1989);

Katz, Irwin, Joyce Wackenhut, and R. Glen Hass ‘‘Racial Ambivalence, Value Duality, and Behavior’’ in John F. Dovidio and Samuel L. Gaertner (eds.). Prejudice, Discrimination, and Racism (1986);

Kinder, Donald R., and Lynn M. Sanders. Divided by Color: Racial Politics and Democratic Ideals (1996);

Klein V. „The Stereotype of Femininity”, in Journal of Social Issues (1950);

     -     Women’s Two Roles: Home and Work (1956);

Klineberg, Otto ‘‘Prejudice. The Concept’’, in David L. Sills (ed.). International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (1972);

Klink, Andreas, and Ulrich Wagner. ‘‘Discrimination against Ethnic Minorities in Germany: Going Back to the Field’’, in Journal of Applied Social Psychology (1999);

Kluegel, James R. ‘‘If There Isn’t a Problem, You Don’t Need a Solution’’, in American Behavioral Scientist (1985);

     -     , and Eliot R. Smith ‘‘Whites’ Beliefs about Blacks’ Opportunity’’, in American Sociological Review (1982);

    -     ‘‘Affirmative Action Attitudes: Effects of Self-Interest, Racial Affect, and Stratification Beliefs on Whites’ Views’’, in Social Forces (1983);

    -     Beliefs about Inequality: Americans’ Views of What Is and What Ought to Be (1986);

Kovel, Joel. White Racism: A Psychohistory (1970);

Lipset, Seymour Martin, and William Schneider. ‘‘The Bakke Case: How Would It Be Decided at the Bar of Public Opinion?’’, in Public Opinion (1978);

McConahay, John B. ‘‘Modern Racism, Ambivalence, and the Modern Racism Scale.’’ In John F. Dovidio and Samuel L. Gaertner, eds., Prejudice, Discrimination, and Racism (1986);

Mackie, Diane M., and David L. Hamilton (eds.). Affect, Cognition, and Stereotyping: Interactive Processes in Group Perception (1993);

Meertens, Roel W., and Thomas F. Pettigrew ‘‘Is Subtle Prejudice Really Prejudice?’’ Public Opinion Quarterly (1997);

Myrdal G. An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (1944);

Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. Racial Formation in the United States from the 1960s to the 1980s (1986);

Pettigrew, Thomas F. ‘‘The Ultimate Attribution Error: Extending Allport’s Cognitive Analysis of Prejudice’’, in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (1979a);

    -     ‘‘Racial Change and Social Policy’’, in Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (1979b);

    -      ‘‘The Nature of Modern Racism’’, in Revue Internationale de Psychologie Sociale (1989);

    -      ‘‘The Affective Component of Prejudice: Results from Western Europe.’’ In Steven A. Tuch and Jack K. Martin (eds.). Racial Attitudes in the 1990s: Continuity and Change (1997);

    -     ‘‘Intergroup Contact Theory’’, in Annual Review of Psychology  (1998);

    -     , and Roel W. Meertens ‘‘Subtle and Blatant Prejudice in Western Europe’’, in European Journal of Social Psychology (1995);

Nisbet. Prejudices: A Philosophical Dictionary (1983);

     -     Conservatism: Dream and Reality (1986); 

Patterson. The Sociology of Slavery: An Analysis of the Origins, Development and Structure of Negro Slave Society in Jamaica (1967);

     -     Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study (1982);

Risman. Feminist Foundations: Towards Transforming Sociology (1998);

Rothbart, Myron, and Oliver P. John. ‘‘Social Categorization and Behavioral Episodes: A Cognitive Analysis of the Effects of Intergroup Contact’’, in Journal of Social Issues  (1985);

Ryan, William. Blaming the Victim (1971);

Said. Orientalism (1978);

Schofield, Janet Ward ‘‘Causes and Consequences of the Colorblind Perspective’’, in John F. Dovidio and Samuel L. Gaertner, (eds.). Prejudice, Discrimination, and Racism (1986);

Schuman, Howard, and Michael P. Johnson. ‘‘Attitudes and Behavior’’, in Annual Review of Sociology (1976);

Schuman, Howard, Charlotte Steeh, Lawrence Bobo, and Maria Krysan. Racial Attitudes in America: Trends and Interpretations, 2nd ed. (1997);

Sears, David. “Symbolic Racism”, in Phyllis A. Katz and Dalmas A. Taylor (eds.). Eliminating Racism: Profiles in Controversy (1998);

Sissons, Mary. ‘‘Race, Sex and Helping Behavior’’, in British Journal of Social Psychology (1981);

Smith, Eliot R. ‘‘Social Identity and Social Emotions: Toward New Conceptualizations of Prejudice’’, in Diane M. Mackie and David L. Hamilton, (eds.). Affect, Cognition, and Stereotyping: Interactive Processes in Group Perception (1993);

Smith, Thomas W., and Paul B. Sheatsley ‘‘American Attitudes toward Race Relations’’, in Public Opinion (1984);

Sniderman, Paul M., Thomas Piazza, Philip E. Tetlock, and Ann Kendrick ‘‘The New Racism’’, in American Journal of Political Science (1991);

Stangor, Charles, Sullivan, Linda A., and Thomas E. Ford ‘‘Affective and Cognitive Determinants of Prejudice.’’ Social Cognition (1991);

Stangor, C. Stereotypes and Prejudice: Essential Readings (2000);

Steeh, Charlotte, and Maria Krysan ‘‘The Polls— Trends: Affirmative Action and the Public, 1970– 1995’’, in Public Opinion Quarterly (1996);

Tajfel, Henri ‘‘Cognitive Aspects of Prejudice’’, in Journal of Social Issues (1969);

    -     Human Groups and Social Categories (1981);

Tarde. Social Laws - an Outline of Sociology (1899, in French 1898);  

Webb, Eugene J. Nonreactive Measures in the Social Sciences (1981);

Wellman, David T. Portraits of White Racism, 2nd ed. (1993);

Weitz, Shirley ‘‘Attitude, Voice, and Behavior: A Repressed Affect Model of Interracial Interaction’’, in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (1972);

Wilder, David A. ‘‘Reduction of Intergroup Discrimination Through Individuation of the Out- Group.’’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (1978);  

    -     ‘‘Intergroup Contact: The Typical Member and the Exception to the Rule’’, in Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (1984)

Wilson W. The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner-City, The Underclass, and Public Policy (1987);

Word, Carl O., Mark P. Zanna, and Joel Cooper ‘‘The Nonverbal Mediation of Self-Fulfilling Prophecies in Interracial Interaction.’’ Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (1974);

Yinger. Racial and Cultural Minorities: An Analysis of Prejudice and Discrimination (1986).

Zanna, Mark P. ‘‘On the Nature of Prejudice’’, in Canadian Psychology (1994).