Prejudice and Stereotypes

Prejudice and Prejudgment

Prejudice involves prejudgment, where someone is placed into a group, regardless of whether they actually belong there.

Prejudgments are made using three components, one of which is discrimination.
Example: Feeling uneasy around someone due to their religious attire; the affect is feeling uneasy.

Categories are created for efficiency, to quickly determine if someone is a friend or enemy.
Humans categorize for survival, recognizing that we are our own greatest threat.
In the absence of predators, humans can be very dangerous to each other.
Prejudice decreases when there is no need to exert extra energy for self-defense.
Prejudice is fluid and can be used as self-defense when needed.
It's considered against human nature to not be prejudicial when under attack; it's a survival instinct.

Stereotypes are mental categories used to make prejudgments without needing to know individuals personally.
Individuals are quickly placed into categories to form prejudgments.
Prejudice is less prevalent in environments where there is no competition, when working towards a common goal, and when people take the time to befriend one another.
Befriending others reveals that people are not really that different.

Prejudice is primarily affect-driven.
Stereotypes justify prejudice.
Discrimination is the acting out of prejudice.
Stereotypes feel real and are hard to change because they are tied to our survival mechanisms.
Confirmation bias reinforces stereotypes.

Without the ability to categorize, humans would feel more threatened.
Creating sub-files and subtypes is a sign of mental health, with the ideal being a high degree of subcategorization.
People in survival mode are the most prejudicial; it's a survival imperative.

Reaching a thriving state represents privilege, which requires continuous mental effort to maintain.
Thriving involves intimacy with friends, partners, and family.
Competence inspires confidence, while arrogance is unfounded.
Prejudice is only let go of at the level of self-actualization.
In the lower four tiers of needs (physiological, security, love, and esteem), prejudice is still relied upon.
Lower levels in the hierarchy result in more prejudice, while higher levels result in less.
Self-actualization leads to the realization that one cannot make prejudgments.
Most people will always engage in prejudice, with the extent determined by their level in the hierarchy.
Stereotypes are maintained and often perceived as personal opinions or beliefs.

Humans have evolved to avoid disease and markers of disease, preferring to err on the side of caution.
Stereotypes form first, consciously or unconsciously, either explicitly or implicitly.
Physical traits like psoriasis, redness, hyperpigmentation, or uneven skin are quickly noticed.
Babies look less at faces with hyperpigmentation.
Disgust towards markers of disease is a defense mechanism to avoid infection.
Knowledge can be used to moderate this response.

Information, including prejudices, is passed down through generations.
Even if one rejects their parents' views, certain behaviors and beliefs are inherited.
Survival information is passed on to ensure future generations can reproduce.
High cortisol levels due to past trauma (e.g., ancestors in concentration camps) can be genetically passed down, leading to hypervigilance.
If there are no environmental indicators of danger, individuals may create issues to justify their hypervigilance.
Individuals may become hypersensitive to others' actions to moderate their hypervigilance.
Prejudices are passed on, consciously or unconsciously, to ensure survival.

Attribution theory is inherently biased.
The fundamental attribution error highlights the difference between theory and application due to human bias.
When explaining behavior, individuals are quickly categorized, influencing the chosen explanation.

In-groups are groups one belongs to, while out-groups are those one doesn't belong to.
Bad behavior by the in-group is attributed to environmental reasons, while bad behavior by the out-group is attributed to personality.

Stealing by a member of an out-group (e.g., a Russian man) is attributed to inherent traits like greed or being primitive.
Attributing bad behavior to the out-group's personality contains the negativity, preventing it from affecting one's own group.
When an in-group member does something bad, blame it on environmental factors so that the negativity does not impact those within the in-group.
Positive actions by the in-group are attributed to their good nature, while positive actions by the out-group are attributed to external influences.
The same behavior is explained differently based on one's relationship to the group.

The fundamental attribution error is the default way of explaining behavior, which can be moderated through awareness and discomfort.
Denial of engaging in this bias perpetuates it.
Examples include road rage, customer service interactions (attributing rudeness to personality rather than exhaustion), and judging homeless individuals as lazy instead of recognizing systemic barriers.

Identifying members of one's own group requires allocating memory space to unique differences within that group.
This reduces the memory space available for recognizing unique features in out-groups.
This is why it's common to hear statements like "all white people look the same" or "all black people look the same."