Question

Rajan has a prejudice against senior citizens. As a result, he ignores their inputs and ideas. What are the likely sources of the prejudice that he holds?

Answer 1

Social psychologists have shown that prejudice has one or more of the following sources:

1. Learning: Like other attitudes, prejudices can also be learned through association, reward and punishment, observing others, group or cultural norms, and exposure to information that encourages prejudice.
2. A strong social identity and ingroup bias: Individuals who have a strong sense of social identity and have a very positive attitude towards their own group boost this attitude by holding negative attitudes towards other groups.
3. Scapegoating: This is a phenomenon by which the majority group places the blame on a minority outgroup for its own social, economic, or political problems.
4. Kernel of truth concept: Sometimes people may continue to hold stereotypes because they think that, after all, there must be some truth, or ‘kernel of truth’ in what everyone says about the other group.
5. Self-fulfilling prophecy: In some cases, the group that is the target of prejudice is itself responsible for continuing the prejudice.