Figure 1. These children are very young, but they are already aware of their gender in-group and out-group. As discussed previously in this section, we all belong to a gender, race, age, and social economic group. These groups serve as our in-groups. An in-group is a group that we identify with or see ourselves as belonging to.
For example, if you are female, your gender in-group includes all females, and your gender out-group includes all males Figure 1. People often view gender groups as being fundamentally different from each other in personality traits, characteristics, social roles, and interests. Because we often feel a strong sense of belonging and emotional connection to our in-groups, we develop in-group bias: a preference for our own group over other groups. This in-group bias can result in prejudice and discrimination because the out-group is perceived as different and is less preferred than our in-group.
Despite the group dynamics that seem only to push groups toward conflict, there are forces that promote reconciliation between groups: the expression of empathy, of acknowledgment of past suffering on both sides, and the halt of destructive behaviors.
One function of prejudice is to help us feel good about ourselves and maintain a positive self-concept. This need to feel good about ourselves extends to our in-groups: We want to feel good and protect our in-groups. We seek to resolve threats individually and at the in-group level. This often happens by blaming an out-group for the problem.
Scapegoating is the act of blaming an out-group when the in-group experiences frustration or is blocked from obtaining a goal Allport, Improve this page Learn More. Skip to main content. All these prejudices are baseless and unfounded… so why do they occur? People tend to feel prejudice towards others when they deviate from the norm that is considered "normal", who break these "normal" physical or social patterns. Be it a skin color, a way of dressing, religious or cultural practices It seems that then, they feel uncomfortable.
Starting from what has been commented above, then it can be understood that social prejudice can originate from the general aversion to deviation: the breakdown of the regular, of what we are already used to.
If true, then the way we think and feel about people who look different, or behave differently than the norm, it should be analogous to how we think and feel about objects that disrupt the general regularity of our visual experience: the pencil that is slightly out of line in a row of pencils, the paint patch on the bedroom wall is a shade darker that the rest of the room Dislike of deviation from the social norm appears early in life and exists in almost all cultures.
The greater the discomfort of a person for that "deviation from the accepted social normal" in normal life, the more inflexibility they will have towards people who break social norms such as dressing differently, having different physical characteristics than normal different color skin, physical deformities or even people with achondroplasia , or intolerance of racial minority groups.
Being prejudiced by other people does not mean that you are racist. The part of the discomfort that these prejudiced people suffer is something internal that they experience in response to that social "deviation". They are negative gut feelings, it is simply to see that a social pattern is broken, nothing more.
We tend to assume that the thoughts and feelings we have about our families, friends, colleagues, and strangers are the product of reasoning and experience, and are largely removed from how we think about the physical world. However, social attitudes, what we like and what we dislike for various types of people and various forms of behavior, are more related than we might think to our preferences in the physical world, what you learned culturally and your own personal experiences.
People's feelings are directly influenced and affected by lived experiences. For example, representations of physical and social warmth are actually connected in brains; from birth we associate physical warmth being close to another person with social warmth trust and care , and this effect persists throughout our lives.
We are simply inundated with too much information to sort through all of it in a logical, methodical, and rational fashion. Being able to quickly categorize information allows us to interact and react quickly, but it also leads to mistakes. Prejudice and stereotyping are just two examples of the mental mistakes that result from our tendency to quickly categorize information in the world around us. In fact, according to an article in Current Directions in Psychological Science , prejudice comes from a deep psychological need where people who aren't comfortable with ambiguity are prone to make generalizations about others.
The process of categorization applies to the social world as well as we sort people into mental groups based on factors such as age, sex, and race. Researchers have found that when it comes to categorizing information about people, we tend to minimize the differences between people in certain groups and exaggerate the differences between groups.
In one classic experiment, participants were asked to judge the height of people shown in photographs. People in the experiment were also told that:. We have taken care to match the heights of the men and women pictured. That is, for every woman of a particular height, somewhere in the booklet there is also a man of that same height. Therefore, in order to make as accurate a height judgment as possible, try to judge each photograph as an individual case; do not rely on the person's sex.
Despite this, participants consistently rated the men as being a few inches taller than the women. Because of their prejudgment that men are taller than women, the participants were unable to dismiss their existing categorical beliefs about men and women in order to judge the heights accurately. Researchers have also found that people tend to view members of outside groups as being more homogenous than members of their own group, a phenomenon referred to as the out-group homogeneity bias.
This perception that all members of an out-group are alike holds true of all groups, whether based on race, nationality, religion, age, or other naturally occurring group affiliations.
People tend to see individual differences among members of their own groups, but they tend to see those who belong to out-groups as being "all the same. In addition to looking at the reasons why prejudice occurs, researchers have also explored different ways that prejudice can be reduced or even eliminated. Training people to become more empathetic to members of other groups is one method that has shown a considerable success. By imagining themselves in the same situation, people are able to think about how they would react and gain a greater understanding of other people's actions.
Other techniques that are used to reduce prejudice include:. Ever wonder what your personality type means? Sign up to find out more in our Healthy Mind newsletter. Allport GW. The Nature of Prejudice.
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley; Published December 19, Fiske ST. Interdependence Reduces Prejudice and Stereotyping. In Oskamp S, ed. Reducing Prejudice and Discrimination.
0コメント