User:Jenny O/Prejudice

Prejudice
Additional resource: Prejudice keywords

Intergroup relations are fundamental to human existence. According to the textbook humans have a natural tendency to align themselves with similar others and guard against those who are different. As a consequence humans are prone to prejudge and categorise others, giving rise to prejudice. Prejudice is the affective component of intergroup relations and refers to a negative feeling toward an individual based on his or her membership of a particular group (e.g., racism is a prejudicial attitude toward a person of a particular race). Common prejudices mainly arise from overt characteristics such as race, gender or age. Prejudice is often perpetrated against stigmatised groups such as those with a mental illness, those who are overweight, are poor or physically handicapped. The behavioural component of intergroup relations, discrimination, is the unequal treatment of others based on group membership, and stereotyping refers to the cognitive process of believing groups have certain traits (e.g., Asian students are good at maths, all Arabs are terrorists, all Australians are “yobbos”). Interestingly, the content of some stereotypes can be accurate, but they can also be inaccurate and used as overgeneralisations.

Prejudice is a universal phenomenon, however, its content depends on the context (e.g., the system of apartheid or legalised racial segregation in South Africa 1948 –1990 vs. the racial anti-discrimination laws of Australia introduced in 1975). As seen in aggression, culture and learning can be used to constrain or promote prejudice. Modern Western society has deemed the judgement of others based on group membership, rather than individual characteristics, as morally wrong, socially unacceptable and in some cases illegal. Indeed, in Australia it is illegal to discriminate against others in public life (e.g., in employment, access to housing, education etc.) based on a person’s age, race, sex or disability (see Anti-discrimination). Prejudice still plays a significant role in our society, despite these and a number of other social and cultural mechanisms implemented to discourage prejudice in Australia (e.g., embracing multiculturalism, encouraging political correctness, government, community and school awareness programs [e.g., Racism no Way]) Prejudice devalues the identity of its targets. Stereotyping, stigmatising and vilifying others creates self-fulfilling and self-defeating prophecies in those targets, and only serves to segregate groups and communities. Baumeister and Bushman (2008) assure us that humans, endowed with a sophisticated mind and ability to live as cultural beings, are able to rise above our innate antagonistic tendencies to live harmoniously with others. Indeed, this can occur but they also confirm that this human progress is "incomplete and imperfect". This was clearly demonstrated in Rwanda.