Q.Prejudice can be difficult to change due to its deep-rooted sources. Imagine you are working on a community outreach programme aiming to reduce prejudice. How would you explain the main causes that lead to development of prejudice?

Prejudice vs. Stereotype: The Core Distinction

Imagine you're walking down a street and you see a person wearing a particular kind of cap. A thought pops into your head: "People who wear that cap are loud and aggressive." That thought is a stereotype — a mental shortcut, a generalisation you've stored about a group.

Now imagine you actually feel a knot in your stomach when you see that person. You cross the road to avoid them. That feeling and that action — the dislike, the avoidance — that is prejudice. The stereotype was the belief; the prejudice is the emotional and evaluative reaction built on top of it.

The Precise Statement

Stereotype is a fixed, oversimplified, and often inaccurate generalisation about a group of people. It is a cognitive shortcut — your brain's way of categorising the world. "All engineers are introverts" is a stereotype. It may contain a grain of truth for some, but it ignores individual variation.

Prejudice is a preconceived negative (or positive) attitude toward a group and its members. It has three components:

• Cognitive: The stereotype itself (the belief).
• Affective: The emotional response (fear, anger, dislike, admiration).
• Behavioural: The tendency to act on that feeling (discrimination, avoidance, favouritism).

So prejudice is the full package: you believe the stereotype, you feel something about it, and you are ready to act on that feeling.

A Concrete Example