Difficulty: Intermediate | Prerequisites: Group Influence notes, understanding of attitudes (explicit vs. implicit), social identity basics.
Prejudice is one of social psychology's most consequential topics. It examines why people form negative attitudes toward entire groups and their members, how those attitudes persist despite contradictory evidence, and what maintains them at a social, motivational, and cognitive level. This material draws heavily on the dual attitude system (explicit vs. implicit attitudes), social identity theory, and conformity, all of which you should already be familiar with. The lecture covers racial, gender, and LGBT prejudice as case studies, and traces the sources of prejudice from societal structures down to individual cognitive shortcuts.
Prejudice is a preconceived negative judgement of a group. It is supported by stereotypes (beliefs about group attributes) and expressed through discrimination (negative behaviour). Prejudice operates at both explicit (conscious) and implicit (automatic) levels, and the implicit forms are often more persistent and harder to detect. Its sources are social (unequal status, socialisation, conformity, institutions), motivational (frustration/scapegoating, social identity and ingroup bias), and cognitive (categorisation, mental shortcuts that simplify a complex world).
Prejudice
A preconceived negative judgement of a group and its individual members. Think of it as a negative attitude held before (or despite) evidence.
Stereotype
A belief about the personal attributes of a group of people. Stereotypes are sometimes overgeneralised, inaccurate, and resistant to new information. In simple terms, a stereotype is a mental shortcut that assigns traits to people based on group membership.
Discrimination
Unjustified negative behaviour toward a group or its members. Where prejudice is a negative attitude, discrimination is the negative behaviour that follows from it.
Dual Attitude System
The idea that we can hold different explicit (conscious) and implicit (automatic) attitudes toward the same target. Even when explicit prejudice fades through education, implicit prejudice may persist.
Patronisation
Overpraising accomplishments, overcriticising mistakes, and bending over backward to seem unprejudiced. A subtle form of racial prejudice.
Social Dominance Orientation
A motivation to have one's group dominate other social groups. People in dominant, high-status positions tend to score higher on this measure.
Authoritarian Personality
A personality type disposed to favour obedience to authority and intolerance of outgroups and those lower in status.
Realistic Group Conflict Theory
The theory that prejudice arises from competition between groups for scarce resources. In simple terms, when groups compete for jobs, land, or power, hostility and prejudice follow.
Scapegoating (Displaced Aggression)
When the cause of frustration is intimidating or unknown, people redirect hostility toward a safer target. Economic downturns often increase hostility toward immigrants, for example.
Social Identity Theory (Turner and Tajfel)
We categorise people, identify with certain groups, and compare our groups favourably to others. Our self-concept includes both a personal identity and a social identity derived from group memberships.
Social Identity
The "we" aspect of our self-concept: the part of our answer to "Who am I?" that comes from our group memberships.
Ingroup
"Us": a group of people who share a sense of belonging and common identity.
Outgroup
"Them": a group that people perceive as distinctively different from or apart from their ingroup.
Ingroup Bias
The tendency to favour one's own group. It supports a positive self-concept and feeds favouritism. Bias is more often a matter of support for one's own group than active dislike of others.
Prejudice comes in many forms: it can be directed at groups defined by religion, weight, age, immigration status, political affiliation, race, gender, or sexual orientation. The terms prejudice, stereotyping, discrimination, racism, and sexism overlap but are not interchangeable.
Explicit vs. implicit prejudice
Prejudice illustrates the dual attitude system. People can hold different explicit (conscious) and implicit (automatic) attitudes toward the same target. Even when explicit attitudes change dramatically through education, implicit attitudes may linger. Prejudiced and stereotypic evaluations can occur entirely outside conscious awareness.
Racial prejudice
Perceptions of whether racial prejudice is disappearing differ markedly depending on whether one is white or black. Explicit racial attitudes have changed quickly, but the bigger problem today is more subtle racial prejudice:
Employment discrimination
Favouritism on platforms such as Airbnb, Uber, and Lyft
Biased traffic stops
Patronisation: overpraising accomplishments, overcriticising mistakes, bending over backward to appear unprejudiced
Automatic (implicit) prejudice matters. In some situations it can have life-or-death consequences. Brain activity in the amygdala, a region underlying fear and aggression, facilitates automatic responding.
Gender prejudice
Gender stereotypes are beliefs about how women and men behave. Strong gender stereotypes exist, and members of the stereotyped group often accept them. Sexism can take both benevolent ("women are wonderful and need protection") and hostile forms. Benevolent sexism may still impede gender equity.
LGBT prejudice
Most of the world's gay and lesbian people cannot comfortably disclose who they are. Though anti-gay prejudice in Western countries appears to be diminishing, it endures through job discrimination, mixed support for same-sex marriage, harassment, and rejection by family or friends. Research confirms that disparaging attitudes and discriminatory policies cause measurable harm: state policies predict gay people's health and wellbeing, and community attitudes predict LGBT health outcomes.
Prejudice springs from many sources. Three broad social categories:
1. Social inequalities and status
Unequal status breeds prejudice. Those at the top justify their position by attributing negative traits to those below (e.g., the historical justification of slavery). Social dominance orientation, a motivation to have one's group dominate others, is stronger among people in high-status positions.
2. Socialisation
Prejudice is learned. Children's prejudices often mirror those perceived in their parents. Those with an authoritarian personality, which favours obedience to authority and intolerance of outgroups, are especially prone.
Religion and prejudice have a complex relationship. In North American Christianity, white church members express more racial prejudice than nonmembers, and those professing fundamentalist beliefs express more prejudice than those with progressive beliefs. However, correlation does not mean causation. Other findings complicate the picture: faithful attenders, intrinsically religious people, and clergy tend to be less prejudiced.
Conformity plays a role. If prejudice is socially accepted, many people conform. If prejudice is not deeply ingrained in personality, then as social norms change, prejudice can diminish (as seen with interracial marriage and same-sex marriage).
3. Systemic supports
Social institutions may promote prejudice through overt policies or by passively reinforcing the status quo (e.g., discriminatory mortgage lending). Media portrayals often strengthen stereotypes. Institutional supports for prejudice are often unintended and unnoticed (e.g., photography bias toward men's faces but women's bodies in magazines).
Motivational sources
Frustration breeds hostility. When the source of frustration is intimidating or unknown, people redirect that hostility toward a safer target, a phenomenon known as displaced aggression or scapegoating. Realistic group conflict theory holds that prejudice arises from competition between groups for scarce resources (e.g., economic frustration directed at immigrants).
Social identity theory
We tend to like those from our own group, those who look like us, even those who sound like us. Our self-concept contains both a personal identity and a social identity. According to Turner and Tajfel:
We categorise people
We identify with certain groups and gain self-esteem from doing so
We compare our groups favourably to other groups
Ingroup bias (favouring one's own group) supports a positive self-concept and feeds favouritism. Status is relative: to feel high-status, we need people below us, and despising the outgroup strengthens the ingroup. Bias is more often a matter of ingroup support than outgroup hostility.
Motivation to avoid prejudice
Breaking the prejudice habit is difficult. Unwanted thoughts and feelings can be persistent, especially for older adults and people under alcohol's influence. However, prejudicial reactions are not inevitable. The motivation to avoid prejudice can lead people to modify their thoughts and actions, particularly when motivation is internal (personal values) rather than external (social pressure). Awareness of the gap between how one should feel and how one does feel is a key driver of change.
Cognitive sources
In addition to social and motivational factors, normal thinking processes can produce stereotypes and prejudicial attitudes. We simplify our complex worlds through categorisation, and those categories can become rigid stereotypes. The cognitive sources of prejudice remind us that prejudice is not always the product of malice; it can arise from the ordinary human tendency to sort and simplify.
Implicit prejudice research underpins workplace diversity training programmes and the design of structured hiring processes that reduce bias. Realistic group conflict theory explains the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment during economic downturns. Social identity theory explains sports tribalism, national pride, and political partisanship. Understanding benevolent sexism has informed policy discussions about workplace equity and gender-balanced leadership. Attitude inoculation (from the persuasion topic) has been proposed as a tool for reducing susceptibility to prejudiced messaging.
Common misconceptions
Students often think that if someone is not explicitly prejudiced, they have no prejudice. Implicit prejudice can exist independently of explicit attitudes and can influence behaviour without conscious awareness.
Ingroup bias is frequently confused with outgroup hostility. Research shows that bias is more often a matter of favouring one's own group than of actively disliking others.
Students sometimes assume that prejudice is purely individual. Social sources (institutions, conformity, socialisation) and cognitive sources (categorisation) are equally important.
The correlation between religion and prejudice is often oversimplified. The relationship is complex, and several findings suggest that deep, intrinsic religiosity is associated with less, not more, prejudice.
Exam flags
⚠️ Know the difference between prejudice (attitude), stereotypes (beliefs), and discrimination (behaviour).
⚠️ The dual attitude system (explicit vs. implicit prejudice) is high-yield. Be able to explain how implicit prejudice can persist even when explicit attitudes change.
⚠️ Social identity theory (Turner and Tajfel): be able to describe the three steps (categorise, identify, compare) and explain ingroup bias.
⚠️ Know the three categories of prejudice sources (social, motivational, cognitive) and key examples of each.
⚠️ Scapegoating and realistic group conflict theory are commonly tested as application questions.
⚠️ Be prepared to discuss whether prejudice can be reduced, and what role motivation plays.
Quick self-test
True or False: Discrimination is a negative attitude toward a group.
Fill in the blank: The tendency to favour one's own group is called ______.
True or False: Implicit prejudice always matches explicit prejudice.
Fill in the blank: ______ theory holds that prejudice arises from competition between groups for scarce resources.
True or False: Benevolent sexism is harmless because it involves positive feelings toward women.
Answers: 1. False (discrimination is a behaviour; prejudice is the attitude). 2. Ingroup bias. 3. False (they can diverge). 4. Realistic group conflict. 5. False (benevolent sexism can still impede gender equity).
Practice Q&A
Q: Explain how the dual attitude system applies to racial prejudice, and why this distinction matters practically.
A: A person can hold an explicit attitude that rejects racial prejudice (e.g., endorsing equality) while simultaneously holding implicit attitudes that associate certain racial groups with negative traits. This matters practically because implicit prejudice can influence split-second decisions (e.g., in policing, hiring, or medical treatment) even when the person consciously rejects prejudice.
Q: Using social identity theory, explain why sports fans sometimes display hostility toward fans of rival teams.
A: Social identity theory holds that people categorise themselves and others into groups, identify with their ingroup, and compare their ingroup favourably to outgroups. Sports fandom provides a strong social identity. Fans gain self-esteem from their team's success and experience threats to self-esteem from rivals. Ingroup bias leads to favouritism toward one's own fans and, in some cases, hostility toward the outgroup, particularly when the identity feels threatened.
Q: A manager notices that her team evaluates CVs differently depending on whether the applicant's name sounds ethnically familiar or foreign, even though the qualifications are identical. What concept explains this, and what could she do about it?
A: This reflects implicit prejudice and stereotyping. Even without conscious intent, automatic associations can bias evaluations. To reduce this, the manager could implement blind CV screening (removing names and identifying information), use structured interview questions with pre-set evaluation criteria, and promote awareness of implicit bias through training that emphasises internal motivation to be fair.
Connections
Prejudice builds directly on attitudes (explicit and implicit), which were covered earlier in the course. Social identity theory connects to the group influence material, particularly ingroup/outgroup dynamics and group polarization. The conformity component of prejudice links to the conformity and obedience topics. Scapegoating connects to frustration-aggression theory. The idea that prejudice can be reduced through internal motivation echoes the attitude inoculation work from the persuasion topic.
Related Terms / Search Tags
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