Psychology · Ch 6 — Attitude and Social Cognition
Prejudice and Discrimination
Prejudice and Discrimination
Prejudice and Discrimination
Prejudice is an attitude — usually a negative one — directed toward a particular group. Like any attitude, it has three components: a cognitive component (often a stereotype), an affective component (dislike or hatred), and a behavioural component (discrimination). The cognitive part is the set of beliefs about the group; the affective part is the emotional charge; the behavioural part is how people actually act.
A stereotype is a cluster of ideas about the characteristics of a specific group. All members of that group are assumed to share those traits. Stereotypes frequently contain undesirable qualities, and they feed directly into prejudice. When prejudice is acted upon, it becomes discrimination — treating a target group less favourably than another group.
History is full of examples: race-based discrimination, caste-based discrimination, and the extreme case of the Nazi genocide against Jewish people, where prejudice escalated into hatred, discrimination, and mass killing.
Prejudice and discrimination can exist independently. A person may hold a prejudice without ever acting on it. Conversely, someone may discriminate without personally feeling prejudiced — for instance, following social norms or obeying orders. But in practice, the two very often go together. Wherever both are present, intergroup conflict is likely.
In Indian society, deplorable instances of discrimination — with or without prejudice — have occurred on the basis of gender, religion, community, caste, physical handicap, and illnesses such as AIDS. Law can curb discriminatory behaviour to some extent, but the cognitive and emotional components of prejudice are far harder to change.
Sources of Prejudice
Social psychologists have identified several sources from which prejudice arises.
Learning. Prejudice is learned just like any other attitude — through association, reward and punishment, observing others, group or cultural norms, and exposure to information that encourages it. The family, reference groups, personal experiences, and the media all play a role. People who learn prejudiced attitudes may develop a 'prejudiced personality', characterised by low adjusting capacity, anxiety, and feelings of hostility toward the outgroup.
Strong social identity and ingroup bias. Individuals with a strong sense of social identity and a very positive attitude toward their own group often boost that attitude by holding negative attitudes toward other groups. These negative attitudes show up as prejudices.
Scapegoating. The majority group blames a minority outgroup for its own social, economic, or political problems. The minority is too weak or too small in number to defend itself. Scapegoating is a group-based way of expressing frustration, and it often results in prejudice against the weaker group. …