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Prejudice
 What is prejudice?
 Why are people prejudiced?
 Individual view
 Intergroup view
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 Can prejudice be reduced?
Prejudice
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“An attitude (usually negative) toward the
members of some group, based purely on
their membership in that group” (Baron &
Byrne, 1991)
Prejudice
 A type of attitude:
 Cognitive component - thinking
 Affective component - feeling
 Behavioural component - doing
 Stereotype
 Discrimination
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 Related terms:
Individual Theories
 Suggest that prejudice is due to the
psychological make-up of the individual
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 Authoritarian personality
 Frustration-aggression (scapegoating)
 Norm theory
Authoritarian Personality
 Adorno et al (1950)
 Suggestion that people who are prejudiced
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Hostile to inferiors
Servile to superiors
Rigid & inflexible
Conventional in outlook
Intolerant of ambiguity
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have a particular personality type:
Harsh & Punitive
upbringing
Outward respect
towards authority
Little affection
from parents
High opinion of
parents
Repressed hostility
and anger
Needs an outlet
somewhere
Anger displaced
onto ‘inferior’
groups…
Prejudice
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Authoritarian Personality
Authoritarian Personality
between authoritarianism & e.g. antiSemitism
 Many methodological problems
 Doesn’t explain uniformity of prejudices
across society e.g.
 Nazi Germany – anti-Semitism
 US in WWII – anti-Japanese
 South Africa during apartheid
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 Some evidence that shows correlation
Other Individual Theories
 Scapegoating
 Displacement of aggression onto ‘outgroups’
during times of hardship
 We acquire prejudices through social learning
in the same way as other attitudes
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 Social norms
Realistic Conflict Theory
groups compete for scarce resources
 Prejudice leads to hostility which is a
strategy for denying resources to the
outgroup whilst securing them for the
ingroup
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 Idea that prejudice arises when social
Realistic Conflict Theory
 The Robber’s Cave study (Sherif et al,
Group isolation
Competition
In-group
favouritism
Prejudice
against
out-group
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1961)
 Creating prejudice between two groups of
boys at a US summer camp
Social Identity Theory
groups is not necessary for prejudice;
simply having different social groups is
enough
 Our sense of self is bound up in the
groups we belong to – feel better about
ourselves by making favourable
comparisons with other groups
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 Based on idea that competition between
Social Identity Theory
 Jane Eliot’s ‘Blue Eyes – Brown Eyes’
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experiment
 Tajfel & colleagues (1970s) – the minimal
groups experiments
Reducing Prejudice
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 Equal-status contact with outgroups
 Pursuit of common goals
 Education