The power of prejudice

Prejudices

... «Men are bad listeners», «women are no good at parking», «boys play football», «girls are bad at maths», «old people don’t understand technology», «Italians eat pasta»…

The list goes on, and on. You can probably add a few more yourself. What prejudices do you know of, and which ones do you have yourself? Do you believe yourself to be unprejudiced? That can’t be entirely true, because we all have prejudices. In this article, we want to tell you about why this is and how prejudices affect our behaviour and other people.

What are prejudices, anyway? What are they for?

As you might be able to deduce from the name, prejudice means «judged in advance» and refers to ideas that are already in our heads and thus easily available. We (mostly) make judgements about people before we really know them. With prejudices, this judgement is based on the groups the given person belongs to, with belonging established on a few attributes (e.g., age, skin colour, etc.). Prejudices aren’t necessarily negative, but this is often the case. A prejudice consists of three components. The cognitive component, or stereotype, is the foundation. Social psychology defines a stereotype as a cognitive structure containing our expectations, beliefs and knowledge about a group of people. The members of a group define themselves by certain common features (e.g., sex, external appearance). Stereotypes are cultural phenomena, and we create them from very early on in life, because we acquire them from the people around us (family, friends etc.). Stereotypes are not always negative, but can also be entirely positive. For example, if you see an old person, you automatically categorise them as «old». So your age stereotype is automatically activated and you form a judgement of that person without knowing them any better. Stereotypical beliefs about the elderly could include: «Old people are slow», «old people don’t understand modern technology», «old people are wise» and so on. Why do we have these boxes, or categories, in our heads? We form stereotypes to order and process the multitudes of information in our surroundings. We don’t just categorise people, but also institutions, events, other living things and situations. What’s more, stereotypes are important because they represent premises that we are aware of not just as individuals, but also as members of certain social groups. So stereotypes are actually part of social identity and play an important role. Affective evaluations make up the second component. A stereotype is not enough in itself to count as a prejudice – which is what emerges when a stereotype is linked to an affective evaluation (a positive or negative impression). The third part is the behavioural component (discrimination). This means prejudices expressed through unjustifiably negative or harmful behaviour towards other people because of their membership of certain groups. An example is women not being considered during a job application process due to their sex.

The existence of stereotypes does not mean that a judgement has automatically been made (prejudice) or translated into behaviour (discrimination). However, just like prejudices, stereotypes can affect our behaviour.

Both stereotypes and prejudices emerge in childhood. For example, children will classify certain toys by sex. Toy cars are for boys, but girls play with dolls. Early on, we learn from our surroundings which attributes characterise certain groups and their members, and we start to categorise people using these attributes.

What advantages and disadvantages do prejudices have?

As already stated, stereotypes help us to process the huge flood of information from our living environments. Without them, there is no way we’d be able to cope with it. We can’t be open to everything and everyone, and we need to classify existing categories, as we simply do not have the capacity otherwise. In this way, we can process information from our surroundings faster and more easily. This also means that we can act more quickly when necessary. Prejudices are therefore entirely meaningful, indeed indispensable.
A distorted picture is created because prejudices usually arise as the result of isolated observations, which are then projected onto the whole (the group). Logically speaking, most prejudices do not apply to all members of the given group, though it can also absolutely be the case that one woman is bad at parking. It’s never true of all women, yet the prejudice still doggedly persists. Prejudices can result in unjustified discrimination and have devastating consequences. Do you know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of prejudice? How does it feel? If not, how would you feel if people judged you without really knowing you? It doesn’t feel good, does it? But that is exactly what happens. Victims feel uncomfortable, not taken seriously, deliberately misunderstood, they feel excluded, they feel they are being treated with hostility. Negative prejudices can have a detrimental effect on our health and wellbeing. Studies have shown that they can negatively affect social networks, quality of life and self-confidence, and increase symptoms of depression. For victims of prejudice, they are a huge stress factor and, as you know, stress affects our minds and bodies in many different ways.

How do prejudices influence our behaviour?

Stereotypes and prejudices influence our behaviour to a great extent. Many things happen subconsciously and consequently we often don’t even notice that they are affecting us. Stereotypes can be automatically activated by many different stimuli. If a stimulus is activated, it will affect our perceptions, memories and judgements on the subconscious level. Whether a stereotype is transformed into a prejudice and even ends up as discrimination is entirely up to us, however. That’s why it is important to take the time and find the motivation to face up to your own prejudices.
The Swiss Radio and Television programme Einstein took a closer look at the power of prejudice in an experiment, and established how quickly people succumb to them and what effects they have on both groups. The experiment casts clear light on both sides of prejudice. You can watch the experiment here (in German). It’s worth it – enjoy!

What can we do to counteract prejudice?


«It is harder to crack a prejudice than an atom. »
- Albert Einstein -


Why are prejudices so intractable? The affective component is one of the decisive factors in the answer to this question. Logical arguments and facts barely make an inroad. That’s why giving pure knowledge to different social groups is not much use. In addition, there are some psychological mechanisms that may contribute to the intractable nature of prejudices and seemingly prove correct again and again. For example, we tend to see connections where in actual fact there are none. Likewise, we prefer information that confirms our assumptions (confirmation bias). So we have a tendency to seek out and be aware of corroborative information. We also simply create new categories (a type of subgroup) for the members of other groups who do not fit our stereotype of this group, which means that the original stereotype persists. In these situations, we just say to ourselves «this person must be an exception». The definitive attribution error likewise contributes to the fact that our prejudices seem to be reconfirmed again and again. This also means that we ascribe the positive behaviour of our own group to personality and any negative behaviour to adverse external circumstances. For other groups, it works exactly the other way round: if another group behaves negatively, this is ascribed to its personality and if the behaviour conforms with our prejudice, we believe ourselves justified in our opinion.
So what can be done when knowledge alone is not enough? Numerous studies and experiments have shown that contact with the other group under certain conditions may contribute to reducing prejudice. The conditions are equal status (no hierarchical difference between the parties), cooperation and common goals, and the support of authorities/institutions (e.g., legal regulations or the boss). This is the best possible framework for reducing prejudices, but it isn’t always possible to meet all of these conditions. Fortunately, it has been demonstrated that contact can be effective even without these conditions. Just repeatedly meeting the other group leads to increased familiarity, which in turn boosts sympathy towards them (the mere-exposure-effect). There are even indications that imaginary contact is enough to reduce prejudice.

Tips

  • Everybody has prejudices. So don’t argue, but become aware of your prejudices instead.
  • Continue to question your stereotypes and prejudices throughout your life. Adjust them to reality. Remember that they often affect both our thinking and our behaviour subconsciously.
  • Do you have enough information about a person to make a judgement? Whenever possible, take enough time to get to know that person better.
  • Be open. Form your own opinion, get your own impressions. Don’t simply take on the judgements of others, but give everyone a chance.
  • As we all have prejudices, how we deal with them is also our responsibility. Just because we have certain stereotypes does not mean that we have to apply them (turn them into prejudices) or convert them into behaviours (discrimination). Be aware of your responsibility.
  • If you would like to dismantle certain prejudices, making contact with the relevant group of people / individuals will help. Talk to one person and get to know them better. Reach out to strangers.
  • If you witness someone on the receiving end of prejudice, speak up for that person. It may need a lot of courage to stand up and contradict the opinion of your own «group» – but it’s worth it!

 

 

 

 

 

References
Einstein SRF. (2017, 19 January). «Einstein» und die Macht der Vorurteile [Video]. Play SRF. https://www.srf.ch/play/tv/einstein/video/einstein-und-die-macht-der-vorurteile?urn=urn:srf:video:e5481228-ba5c-4f72-93e7-96d39c432466
Garms-Homolová, V. (2021). Sozialpsychologie der Informationsverarbeitung über das Selbst und die Mitmenschen. Springer.
Geu, A. (n.d.). Was sind Vorurteile? Feel-ok.at. https://www.feel-ok.at/de_AT/jugendliche/themen/gewalt_02/was_ist_gewalt/vorurteile_herkunft_gewalt/vorurteile/was_sind_vorurteile.cfm
Jonas, K., & Schmid Mast, M. (2007). Stereotyp und Vorurteil. In J. Straub, A. Weidemann & D. Weidemann (Eds.), Handbuch interkulturelle Kommunikation und Kompetenz: Grundbegriffe – Theorien – Anwendungsfelder (pp. 69-76). J. B. Metzler.
Jonas, K., Stroebe, W., & Hewstone, M. (2014). Sozialpsychologie (6th ed.). Springer.
Stuber, J., Meyer, I., & Link, B. (2008). Stigma, prejudice, discrimination and health. Social science & medicine (1982), 67(3), 351-357. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.03.023
Werth, L., Seibt, B., & Mayer, J. (2020). Sozialpsychologie - Der Mensch in sozialen Beziehungen. Interpersonale und Intergruppenprozesse (2nd ed.), Springer.

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