Nature of Prejudice

1. By
Dr. L. Muralikrishnan,
Scientist, ICAR-IARI, New
Delhi-12

2. What is Prejudice?
The word prejudice is derived from the Latin noun
praejudicium (prejudjement) , which means a judgment based
on previous decision sand experiences.
Acquired the meaning of a judgment formed before due
examination and consideration of the facts - a premature
judgment.
Allport (1954): Prejudice as a hostile attitude or feeling toward a
person solely.
Thinking ill of others without sufficient warrant.

3. Defining prejudice
Allport : Ethnic prejudice is an antipathy based
upon a faulty and inflexible generalization.
 It is a judgement that resists facts and ignores
truth and honesty
It may be felt or expressed.
It may be directed towards a group as a whole or
towards an individual because he is a member of
that group.
Prejudice gives an individual a false sense of
identity and self worth
Gordon
Allport

4. More definitions
Worchel et al. (1988): an unjustified negative attitude
toward an individual based solely on that individual's
membership in a group.
Brown (1995): the holding of derogatory social
attitudes or cognitive beliefs, the expression of
negative affect, or the display of hostile or
discriminatory behaviour towards members of a group
on account of their membership of that group.

5. Allport Revisited
Two important elements in his definition of
prejudice:
Prejudice is a negative attitude
Prejudice puts the object of prejudice at an unjust
disadvantage (i.e., prejudice is negative, unjust, and a
source of disadvantage for its targets)

6. Prejudice contains two essential ingredients:
1. There must be an attitude of favor or disfavor
2. It must be related to an overgeneralized - and
therefore erroneous - belief.
Beliefs, to some extent, can be rationally attacked and altered;
Attitudes are ordinarily far more resilient and resistant to
change.

7. Sources of Prejudice
Socialization
Social Benefits
Economic Benefits
Linguistic
Caste
Regional
Religion
Gender
Class
Justification of Discrimination

8. 1. Competition:
Realistic conflict theory: Prejudice sometimes originate
from direct competition between various social groups
over scarce & valued resources
Simple competition relatively free from hatred gradually
developed into full scale emotion laden prejudice
As competition persists, individuals come to perceive
each
other in increasingly –ve ways

9. 2. The role of social learning
Children acquire –ve attitudes towards various social groups
because they hear such views expressed by parents, friends,
teachers & others and because they are directly rewarded (with
love,praise & approval) for adopting their views.
3. Social Categorisation:
People generally devide the social world into two distinct cate-
gories –Us(ingroup) and them(outgroup)
Sharply contrasting feelings & beliefs are usually attached to
members of one’s ingroup & members of various outgroups

10. 4. The role of Stereotype:
Once an individual has acquired a stereotype about some
social groups, he tends to notice information that fits readily
into this cognitive framework & to remember ‘facts’ that are
consistent with it more readily than ‘facts’ that are inconsistent.
as a result, the Stereotype becomes, to a large degree,
self-confirming.

11. 5. Role of Illusory Correlations & Outgroup Homogeneity:
-Illusory Correlations:
-Perception of stronger association
between two variables than actually exists, occurs because
each variable is distinctive and their apparent correlation is
readily entered into and retrieved from memory.
-It explains why –ve behaviour & tendencies are often
attributed by majority group members to the members of
various minority groups.
-Illusion of Outgroup Homogeneity:
-The tendency to perceive members of outgroups as more similar
to one another(more homogenous) than members of one’s own
ingroup.

12. Elements of prejudice
1. Prejudice as an intergroup phenomenon
 Always involves comparison/judgement based on
group membership (he is a martian; martians are evil;
thus he is evil)
 Often involves comparisons between groups
(martians enslaved us 5000 years ago; therefore we
hate martians)
 Rarely involve personal characteristics (mostly based
on stereotyping and other processes which consider
people as exemplars of groups rather than unique
entities)

13. Elements of prejudice
2. Prejudice as negative orientation
 Prejudice considered as being against or opposed to
something
 Can't I be prejudiced in favour of a group?
 Social Problems school: social psychology should be
about solving problems, so we deal with negative
aspects

14. Elements of prejudice
3. Prejudice as a bad thing
 Social problems school: prejudice is bad because it violates
norms of thinking (it is rigid, overgeneralizes, etc.)
 Del Boca’s (1981) argument against psychologists
calling prejudice ‘bad’:
 It is not scientifically parsimonious (gets you nowhere)
 The processes that lead to prejudice are natural and normal
 There is no evidence to show that prejudice is more rigid or
pathological that other attitudes like liberalism

15. Elements of prejudice
4. Prejudice as an attitude
 An attitude is an enduring structure which includes
emotional, cognitive and behavioral aspects, and
changes with experience
 Need to consider all three parts when discussing
prejudice
 Emotional – anger, fear, anxiety, etc
 Cognitive – knowledge about the group, inferences
 Behavioral – speech, avoidance and other external behavior

16. Important related Concepts
Ethnocentrism
Stereotypes
Discrimination

17. Ethnocentrism
(Wade and Tavris, 1999)
The belief that one’s own cultural or ethnic group is
superior to all others
Examples:
Chinese word for China = Center of the World
Manifested in beliefs that 1 sex, ethnicity, religion,
school, community, country, SES, etc. is better
than another

18. Stereotypes
(Wade and Tavris 2000)
Definition: summary
impression of a group of
people in which a person
believes that all
members of a group
share a common trait or
traits
Distortions Created by
Stereotypes
Accentuation of group
differences
Production of selective
perception
Underestimation of
within group
differences

19. Discrimination
“Discrimination consists of negative behavior toward
a person based on negative attitudes one holds
toward the group to which the person belongs, or,
positive behavior toward a person based on positive
attributes one holds toward the group to which that
person belongs.” (In Prejudice and Racism; Jones, 1997)

20. MANIFESTATION OF PREJUDICE
By Allport
1.Spoke Abuse( Antilocution)- ex:criticise
2. Avoidance (e.g. widow, SC, etc.)
3. Discrimination or legalized racism (e.g. female
in rural area)
4. Violence against people and property-Physical
Attack
5. Extermination or genocide (e.g. ethnic
cleansing)

21. What do prejudiced people do?
Allport's (1954) hierarchy of prejudiced actions
ExterminationAntilocution
Discrimination Physical
Attack
Avoidance
Least
prejudiced
Most prejudiced
These actions only affect
the prejudiced person
These actions affect
the targeted person

22. Effects on the prejudiced person:
Positive effects
Intra-personal effects (personal effects)
Increase in status in own group
 provided prejudiced behaviour is a group norm
Create a sense of belonging
 emphasizes us/them distinction
Avoid a sense of inferiority “At least I’m not a…”
 Works because inferiority is a commonly perceived trait of
target groups
Material group gains
 Specifically for majority groups
 Spoils of discriminatory economic practices

23. Effects on the prejudiced person:
Negative effects
Curtailment of individual personality
 Won't adopt tendencies/attitudes perceived as opposed to
the group
 Fear of ostracism by group
Conflict with value systems
 Dilemmas set up by own values / group values
 Especially true for religious beliefs
Restriction of talent or social advances
 Disallowing oneself privileges by own actions
 Loss of freedom to pursue particular activities or hold
particular attitudes

24. Measuring prejudice: Scales
Many scales, eg
Duckitt's Subtle
Racism Scale;
Landis' Social Climate
Survey
Likert type statement
agreement scales
 27. Instructors predominantly used
male pronouns in class
 44. Racial/ethinc jokes were
frequently heard at meetings of
campus social organizations.
 69. A white student said to a friend,
"this would be a good school if we
didn't have all those foreign students
around.“
 100. I dislike having an instructor of a
race other than mine.
 116. Minorities shouldn't feel
offended by the symbols (eg. flags or
songs) of school spirit even if those
symbols have been associated in the
past with racial segregation.
Examples from Duckitt’s scale

25. STEPS TO REDUCE IMPACT OF PREJUDICE
1. Breaking the cycle of Prejudice:
a. Calling parents attention to their own prejudiced
views
b. To teach prejudice harms not only those who are
victims, but those who holds such views as well
C. Enjoyment of everyday activities & life itself is
reduced by their own prejudice
2. Direct Intergroup contact
Increased contact between members of various
social groups can be effective in reducing prejudice,
but contact should take place under specific favourable
conditions.

26. 3. Recategorizations:
-Shifts in the boundary between an individuals ingroup
and various outgroups.
-Persons formerly viewed as outgroup members now to
be seen as belonging to the ingroup
4. Cognitive interventions (for stereotype)
-The impact of stereotype can be reduced if individuals
are encouraged to think carefully about others – to pay
attention to their unique characteristics rather than to
their membership in various groups.

27. Reducing Prejudice
Education, self-esteem, and religious/spiritual
conversion
Contact hypothesis
Law
Working toward a common goal