How is prejudice developed

Perhaps that may come subsequently from a child learning values and beliefs from the media, family, teachers, role models, and so forth. Socialization is an imperative vehicle that drives the aforementioned. Roete asserts that, though categorization is a fundamental human process, the properties that we assign a category are variable to the ideas we hold about its constituents — thus leading to prejudice. As such, ideology is of only minor significance in the formation prejudice.

This seems to me a distinction without any difference. What are ideas, if not the foundation of ideology? How can one form opinions about complex societies without ideology? Of course, one cannot have an intricate set of prejudices without ideology. Furthermore, the cultivation of positive ideas about something, rather than negative ones, would not be reducing prejudice, but merely rebalancing it — and a fundamentally ideological exercise in itself. Ideology is not a artificial, superimposed structure, nor a series of deliberate, conscious ideations.

But instead a complex web of understandings of the social world, every bit as organic as the need to categorize. As such ideology and categorization exist in tandem, not in isolation. Humans are selective, biase,and prejudicial. This is categorically true. BUT, there not necessarily racist.

These are personal preferences; they only become racist when used to hurt another person or group of people.

They are simply uncomfortable with differences contrary to what they consider normal or good. Prejudices are a natural response and can be both beneficial and damaging depending on the action taken.

Racism is elevating ones own race above another simply because other races are viewed, as a whole, less valued and less human. The comments above are more interesting and reasoned than the actual research! To argue that prejudice is resulting from a human instinct to categorise, and nothing else, is fundamentally flawed. We cannot dismiss the impact of ideology.

If, as is syggested, all humans categorise and group others, then why are not ALL humans prejudiced? This is where ideology comes in, pkus our willingness to accept norms and stereotypes. To me, prejudice represents laziness on behalf of a thinker.

Or, perhaps implies lack of intellectual capacity. People who are not prejudiced do not think like this. Instead, they are more flexible, and can absorb lots of different pieces of information, plus rearrange their views to accomodate changes resulting from updated info.

Added to this, they do not fear or worry about gaps in knowledge or information — they are emotionally mature and stable enough to accept uncertainty.

That is why not everyone is prejudiced. Because some people are more emotionally savvy, more intellectual, and more questioning. Ellie I agree that the degree of prejudice equates to laziness and maybe also decreased intellectual prowess, but also agree that it is inherent.

In other words, we depend upon our ability to place people, ideas, and objects into different categories in order to make the world simpler and easier to understand. 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. Some are related to historical events. Often, prejudice is based on ignorance.

The solution is education, but many people choose to remain ignorant, as their prejudices often make them feel superior. Victims of a particular kind of bullying may go on to become bullies themselves.