Since time immemorial, the human race has always been involved in conflicts amongst each other. Most of these conflicts never arose from political altercations or acts of terror, but rather from their attitudes and beliefs about the dispositions of another group, or simply due to the inter-group attitudes and beliefs that they have nurtured about those who were not like them.
Prejudice can be defined as a preconceived attitude or view about a person or group, whether favourable or unfavourable, which is formed before being exposed to any experience with the person or group. It involves its assorted set of ABC components – affective component which consists of emotions; behavioural component which consists of negative or positive behaviours like discrimination; cognitive component which consists of assumptions and beliefs about the person or group like stereotypes etc.
While prejudice is a distinct attitude, stereotype is a cognitive component of the former which can be defined as a set of cognitive generalizations about the qualities or characteristics of a social group. These stereotypes drive one’s behaviour towards that particular social group. For example, prejudice nurtured based on gender is termed sexism. Sexism, as a prejudice, involves a negative attitude towards different genders, and discriminatory behaviour towards a particular gender which is caused by stereotypes nurtured about the same.
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Causes of Prejudice and Stereotyping
Social psychologists, for quite a good amount of time, have been delving deep into the nuances of why, in the first place, people tend to develop negative attitudes and generalized beliefs about people and social groups with whom they have no prior exposure.
Conformity
Gordon Allport, one of the most prominent experts in the field of social psychology, conceptualized conformity as one of the main reasons for prejudice. People conform to the societal norms and henceforth to the negative attitudes towards groups as spread by the society.
A number of sources thoroughly expose people to information about social groups daily, ensuring there is never a dearth of such information. These could range from their primary social groups like family, and peers to secondary social groups like schools, workplaces etc. media and many more. Allport also quoted that people of the same cultures tend to have similar prejudices towards social groups.
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Many Americans, harbour negative prejudices towards African Americans and Asians which are mostly manifested through unruly discriminatory behaviours. Pew Research Centre in 2021 quoted that 81 per cent of Asian adults found that violence against them has increased. Rumours and racist comments about China being the source of Coronavirus have caused a rapid progression in the development of prejudices. These prejudices, thus further breed stereotypes that may tend them to believe that the former as an entire community is dangerous and unapproachable.
A Strong ingroup and inter-group bias
In-group bias: occurs when one develops positive attitudes towards one’s social group which they tend to strengthen by nurturing negative attitudes towards other social groups and these are mostly manifested as stereotypes. Whereas inter-group bias is the tendency to evaluate one’s ingroup or its members more favourably than the outgroup or its members. Researchers have found that these inter-group biases if with strong gravity, encompass prejudices and stereotypes.
Kernel of truth hypothesis
The hypothesis states that stereotypes, even though are generalized beliefs about a particular social group, sometimes contain elements that accurately describe the dispositions of the group and this essentially breeds stereotypes rapidly.
This shows how these stereotypes never account for the possible differences that spring up in the members of the targeted social group. The stereotype that men should be assertive and women should be meek often traces back to perceived inherent biological differences between them. This dismisses the fact that men should always not try and be strong and women should always not be meek.
Multiple reviews of the literature have cited that both women and men have more similarities than differences in their cognitive performances and psychological health. Thus, Bandura found that even if there is a kernel of truth regarding these prevailing gender stereotypes, it is a tiny kernel and does not account for the differences that now exist in society.
How to Mitigate them?
Although prejudices and stereotypes are concerns that involve complex nuances entangling our culture, society, religion, gender etc, these are never indestructible components. There are many strategies one could undertake to combat prejudices and stereotypes.
Acknowledge and Educate
The first step is to acknowledge the existence of prejudices in our surroundings. Conversations displaying negative attitudes toward any group of people should not be normalized. After acknowledging this, actively identify and spot the hidden stereotypical thoughts within daily conversations.
Education and accurate information dissemination are some of the best paths one could undertake to untangle the stereotypes. But this requires the disseminating agencies like media, internet etc to be accountable and responsible towards the sensitive issues they are conversing about.
Self – Awareness
The second step is the most forgotten. While we may try hard to identify the prejudicial thoughts that reflect in someone else’s behaviour, we may not pay heed to the fact that we may also harbour similar negative attitudes towards others. It is inevitable to identify them and consciously ensure that you do not work at their pace as it is to call out other’s prejudicial behaviours.
Action
The most vital step that everyone should be audacious enough to take is to react. No discriminatory conversation or action and no conscious or unconscious propagation of stereotypes against any person or social group should receive even a meagre amount of tolerance. Try to voice opposition if exposed to prejudices and stereotypes, no matter how personal or public the incident may be to one’s life.
Conclusion
Psychology suggests various cognitive, personality-based approaches to reduce prejudices. But what we foremost ought to grasp is that holding prejudice is a very human characteristic but once one identifies that the prejudice held against the “other,” is toxic and does not contribute to any wellness of either, he or she must dedicate effort to reduce its gravity and ensure that they never behave under its spell. While it is very much organic of us to learn attitudes, to unlearn them in a society that is entangled with multitudes of them, is nothing less than an audacious act in itself.
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