Prejudice & Discrimination
Prejudice & Discrimination
Geeta Khatwani
Roll no: 248074
Sem III - Masters in Psychology.
K.V. Pendharkar College of Arts, Science & Commerce.
Multiculturalism PS24304ME
Ms. Natasha Venkatraman
Date 28th August 2024
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Prejudice & Discrimination
Prejudice is one of the important concepts of Social Psychology & numerous attempts
have been made to define it from various perspectives. It is often defined as a preconceived
irrational judgment, while others define it as an expression of dislike against members of some
religion, race or group. According to Secord and Backman, “Prejudice is an attitude that
predisposes a person to think, perceive, feel and act in favorable and unfavorable ways towards a
group or its individual members.”
Prejudice is traditionally thought of as the feeling component of attitudes toward social
groups. It reflects a negative response to another person solely because the person is a member of
a particular group. In the 1954 book, The Nature of Prejudice, Gordon Allport referred to
prejudice as “antipathy” which means such generalization to the group as a whole. In this sense,
prejudice is not personal because it is an affective reaction toward the category. Thus, a prejudice
toward a social group will lead to evaluation of all its members negatively only because they are
members of that group.
However, a contradictory approach suggests that prejudices may not always be negative
& that they can be positive too. In the research paper Process of Prejudice: Theory, evidence &
intervention; prejudice is defined as “ a bias that devalues people because of their perceived
membership of a social group.” This definition assumes that not all biases are harmful or
consequential in fact some of them can be positive like the commonly held belief that Chinese
are better at math’s than Europeans. Prejudices arise when such biases become potentially
harmful & consequential because they reduce value of the person attached to the group.
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Prejudice has also been identified as an attitude having cognitive, affective, and
behavioral components.
Characteristics of Prejudice:
1. Prejudice is acquired: Like attitude, prejudices are acquired through the processes of
socialization & learning such as classical conditioning, instrumental conditioning &
observational learning.
2. Prejudice is functional: Prejudices help individuals justify their hostilities,
exploitation & discrimination of other group members.
3. Emotional Overtones: Prejudice is always colored with emotional overtones of either
love or hatred & the behavior towards the group is decided based o the emotions
experienced.
4. Prejudice id Irrational: It does not contain any wisdom, reason or relevance.
Types of Prejudice:
1. Racial Prejudice: This is aimed at members of another race example Negros
2. Sex Prejudice: Also knows as gender biases against members of a gender group eg,
women.
3. Caste Prejudice: For instance, Indian society is divided into various castes & each
caste is believed to have a specific set of characteristics.
4. Religious Prejudice: Holding positive attitude towards self-religion & unfavorable
towards others’ religions.
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Origins of Prejudices:
Conflicts:
Prejudice & discrimination develop out of history of economic & power conflict.
Conflicts are at the root of prejudices, Antipathy between groups is often associated with the
with their belief that they have a conflict of interest. If one group’s loss is another group’s gain,
prejudices often follow.
Social Categorization:
In cases where there are no direct conflicts, merely assigning people into distinct
categories can be sufficient to generate prejudices & discrimination between groups.
Competition for resources:
As the resources such as jobs, houses, opportunities, land, grains etc. are limited, there
always exist a struggle & competition to acquire them. As the struggle prolongs members of
conflicting groups start evaluating each other negatively & thus prejudices are created.
Inter group Threat:
Sometimes other groups are perceived as threats to the self-esteem of self-group. To the
extent a group is viewed as a potential threat people may argue that it is a legitimate target of
prejudice & discrimination. However sometimes the perceived threat may not be the actual
threat.
Status & Power structures:
The relative status & power of one’s group can sometime give birth to prejudice. For ex,
during the days of slavery the dominant groups thought of slaves as lazy, irresponsible & lacking
initiative.
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Discrimination:
Discrimination has been traditionally defined as unfavorable treatment or negative
actions directed towards the members of the disliked groups. The goal of the discriminatory
behavior is to harm the member of the target group. It can be done subtly or overtly depending
on the constraints of the situation.
Discrimination thus is the differential treatment of individuals belonging to a particular
social group or community or religion. It is generally the behavioral expression of prejudice. The
person who experiences discrimination is denied some privilege or right that is accorded to the
other members of the society who are not a part of that group.
Factors that help maintain prejudices & Discrimination:
Conformity to Norms:
Once discrimination against a group is well established, the feelings & cognitions against
the out group acquire a normative quality. They are shared among the members of in-group &
are passed on. If discrimination & prejudice against the other groups is the norm then the overt
expression of discrimination will result in approval from other members.
Interaction Patterns:
Dominant interaction patterns in the group lead to group cohesion & dependence, the
greater the economic dependence on the group stronger the prejudices & discriminatory beliefs
will be held by the members of the group.
Psychodynamic factors:
Several psychodynamic factors have been known to play a role in formation &
maintenance of prejudices & discriminatory behavior. Theory of displaces aggression states ten
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when there is an obstacle in the path to one’s people get frustrated & the aggression is targeted
towards the obstacle.
Secondly authoritarian personality people have rigid thinking & they treat people below
them as inferior & as someone who deserved to be exploited & hated.
Personality needs also support & fuel prejudicial thinking for example some people suffer
from “intolerance for ambiguity” they prefer to think only in black & white. Such individuals
stick to prejudices as they help them to resolve ambiguity & uncertainty.
Prejudice & Discrimination Reduction Interventions
Prejudices though appear to be common aspect of social life, they can be reduced by
several interventions.
On Learning not to hate:
Since prejudices are learned behavior, Social Psychologists believe that they can be
unlearned. Prejudices are learnt through parents, peers, teachers, role models & media. So, if
parents model non hate attitude the children will adapt the same. Similarly, if mass media
promotes a secular image it can have a far reaching impact on masses & help in eradicating
prejudices of caste, class & religions.
Intergroup Contact:
Allport was the first psychologist to highlight the importance of contact between a
prejudiced person & the target person in reducing the prejudices. Such interactional situations
provide the two parties an opportunity to know each other from close quarters and understand
each other thereby reducing misunderstandings and misconceptions.
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However, for intergroup contact to be effective certain conditions are to be met.
Intergroup contact is an effective method of reducing prejudice only in those conditions where
both the parties have equal status. Intimate and honest contact between the concerned parties
motivates the person to perceive members of the target group more as humans than as
stereotypes.
Potential Benefits of Contact -Contact Hypothesis:
1. Noticing Similarities
When contact between two groups increases, the group members notice the number of
similar attitudes they share between them, this increases understanding of either group
and enhances mutual attraction. This in turn leads to decline in prejudice.
2. Mere Exposure Effect
Repeated contact may lead to positive feelings and attitudes through mere exposure. The
more familiar a person is to us, the more we like him.
3. Perception of inconsistent information
Due to the increased number of similarities, the group members now perceive
information that is inconsistent with their stereotypes regarding other group members.
Thus, it can help to reduce stereotypes about the out-group members.
4. Reduce illusion of out-group homogeneity
Increased contact reduces illusion of outgroup homogeneity. That is, because of contact
with other members, people realize that all of them are different and not similar as was
perceived
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Recategorization: Changing the Boundaries
Recategorizations, termed by social psychologists, indicate the shift of boundary between
“us” and “them”. This technique can be used to reduce prejudice. According to the common in-
group identity model, when individuals view themselves as members of a single social identity,
their attitudes toward each other become more positive. In order to induce the perception of
single social identity, the individuals belonging to different groups can work together toward
shared or superordinate goals. This leads to reduction of feelings of hostility toward the former
out-group members.
Research reveals the usefulness of this technique in laboratory settings and on the field.
This technique is also found to be powerful in reducing negative feelings toward an out-group
even when they had a long history, including one group’s brutality toward another. Other
research studies also suggested that forming new subgroups composed of members from
competing groups can help reduce prejudice.
Social legislation:
This is another method of reducing prejudice. Governments in different countries have
adopted and enacted several legislations which prohibit the expression of prejudice in any form.
Any public manifestation of prejudice is unlawful and liable to punishment.
Education:
Social psychologists emphasize that appropriate education has an important role to play
in the reduction of prejudice, particularly racial prejudice. In it both informal and formal
education is important. As far as informal education is concerned parents ought to be encouraged
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not to indulge before children in things which knowingly or unknowingly promote prejudice. As
for formal education, its syllabus and curriculum should be designed to promote harmony
between different sections of society. It should aim at developing healthy minds. It has been
found that higher and better formal education leads to decreased prejudice and increased
liberalism. Recently, psychologists have devised a new method called cultural assimilator. In this
method, a group of prejudiced persons is explained about traditions, norms, beliefs, and value
systems of people of other communities and races so that they can appreciate those communities
and races in the light of recent information. A number of social psychologists have successfully
used this method.
Anti Prejudice propaganda:
Mass media has been helpful in reducing prejudice. In one of the studies, it was found
that films and documentaries aimed at reducing prejudice have been successful in reducing
prejudice by 60 percent. Some other psychologists have reported anti-prejudice propaganda to be
more effective than formal education.
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References
Chaturvedi, M., Mhapadi, P. K., Kumar, A., ipin Enterprises, Mahanwar, P., Shirke, D.
T., & Bhamare, A. (2023). MULTICULTURALISM: THEORY & PRACTICE. In M. Rai (Ed.),
University of Mumbai.
Pednekar, S., Mahanwar, P., Kulkarni, R. D., & University of Mumbai. (2022).
Multiculturalism: theory & practice. In N. Tambe (Ed.), M.A. PSYCHOLOGY.
