How Prejudice Attitudes Influences Discrimination

Discrimination can be termed as an unruly or unfair behavior against a person due a variety of reasons. As per the available research and psychological evidences, an attitude of prejudice has a significant influence when a person exercises discrimination against another.

An individual develops prejudice against a particular group either due to ignorance or when he/she feels threatened about his identity. There are several factors that have a role to play in alleviating or increasing the threat. These include strong identification with one’s own group, any previous negative experiences due to the individual’s previous contact with the group, an individual’s knowledge about the group, a prior intergroup conflict, and the degree of status differential between the individual’s group and the other group against which the individual holds prejudice.

In most cases, this prejudice translates into a negative behavior resulting in discrimination and social inequity. People tend to feed such a negative behavior with the objective of achieving social dominance and preserving social identity. Some important examples of discrimination based on prejudice in the modern era include discrimination in the US against African-Americans in housing, employment, public accommodation, voting and access to the judicial system during the 1960s, racial extermination campaign conducted by the Nazis against Jews during 1930s, racial apartheid in South Africa and the ethnic conflict among Serbians, Croatians, Bosnians and Albanians during 1990s.

Prejudice can be determined as the prime cause for social discrimination against a particular group. It is important to reduce prejudice in order to decrease the incidence of discrimination. The best way to reduce prejudice is to impart education. Another way is through increased contact between the groups. People can gain knowledge about a particular group by means of increased contact, thereby reducing prejudice levels.