Prejudice is a
negative feeling or attitude toward an individual or class of people based on assumptions
about the cultural group to which they are assigned based on some presumed
feature of the people in that group.
Prejudice involves an evaluation process directed at a social group and therefore, toward the members of that group. There is a negative emotional component to the evaluation.
Discrimination is a negative action toward a person because of their association with a particular group. Acts of discrimination include avoiding, excluding, and ignoring people. Discrimination also involves biased treatment of group members.
ABC theory of discrimination
The ABC theory of discrimination describes the connections among the three concepts of stereotype, prejudice, and discrimination. A represents affect or the emotional component, which is prejudice. B represents behavior, which is an act of discrimination. C represents cognition. Stereotypes are cognitive beliefs.
The combination of a negative stereotype and the negative feelings of prejudice lead to acts of discrimination under certain conditions.
Discrimination functions to promote the groups with which we identify. We feel connected to the members of our group, which results in a favorable ingroup bias. We tend to think our group is better than other groups and treat members of other groups less favorably than our own. In short, we tend to discriminate.
Scapegoating is blaming an outgroup for a problem our ingroup has experienced.
Self-fulfilling prophecy can occur when one group treats another based on a stereotype. Then the stereotyped person begins to act in the way they were treated, which confirms the stereotype.
Reducing Prejudice
Some research supports the value of social contact and diversity within schools in reducing ethnic prejudice according to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) (www.equalityhumanrights.com).
Persuasive messages in public media have not been effective in reducing prejudice according to EHRC. Sometimes messages backfire by increasing prejudice among people who were ambivalent in their feelings toward an outgroup before reading the message.
Values that are widely accepted are treated as fact and are often not questioned.
Diversity training research suggests a negative outcome when people are confronted with their own prejudices become angry and defensive or feel guilty and avoid the issue (Pendry et al., 2007 cited in the EHRC report).
Empathy and perspective-taking may be helpful. Students who were asked to take the perspective of the elderly reduced stereotypes. A study of Walking Through White Privilege, which describes the advantages of the white majority risks increasing resentment and social distance between groups. The advantaged group can be limited in progress by their guilt and/or anger. The minority group may strengthen their views of the inequality and discrimination in society (EHRC).
Awareness programs such as using the Implicit Association Test have been a problem because participants have difficulty understanding the results. In addition, psychologists question exactly what the test measures.
A bottom line is that programs are likely to fail when participants are not motivated.
EHRC report address: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/research-report-56-processes-of-prejudice-theory-evidence-and-intervention.pdf
Related Books
The Psychology of Prejudice: From Attitudes to Social Action by Lynne Jackson (2019)
The Cost of Racism for People of Color: Contextualizing Experiences of Discrimination by Alvin Alvarez et al. (2016)
Perspectives on Hate: How It Originates, Develops, Manifests, and Spreads by Robert Sternberg (2020)
by Craig Haney (2020)
Sutton, G. W. (2020). Counseling and psychotherapy
with Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians: Culture & Research |
Assessment & Practice. Springfield, MO: Sunflower. ISBN-13 : 979-8681036524 AMAZON See chapters 7 and 8.
See also a related concept
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