Prejudice supposes a hostile feeling, manifesting in different ways against certain human groups.
The word prejudice means action of "prejudging" and in this sense we all prejudice favorably our social groups and our friends. However, prejudice has been associated with the tendency to think, feel and act against, rather than in favor of, ethnic minority groups and it is in this sense that the term is more widely used. An ethnic group is constituted by a series of individuals who share one or more of the following characteristics: religion, racial or national origins, language or cultural traditions. An ethnic attitude is that manifested by a person towards one of such groups.
Since prejudices are attitudes, they obey the same principles as the formation of them. As attitudes are learned, the best way to eliminate prejudice is to avoid their appearance. There is no biological or genetic reason to justify the hostility of whites to people of color, or vice versa.
The learning of prejudice
The need to learn prejudice is based on observations made in different parts of the world, according to which children show very different attitudes towards the same ethnic groups. Generations of South African children with Anglo-Saxon ancestry show strong prejudices against blacks. American children of similar descent are not as much influenced by prejudice according to their social class and geographical region, and English children are even less so.
Among the ethnic groups there are, of course, different physical and cultural ones. But the characteristics that accentuate and that are considered undesirable are prescribed by the groups to which the individual belongs. For some, the difference between blacks and whites is of vital importance, while for others it is not.
The etocentric
Not all individuals accept all the attitudes of their group or do so with the same decision. Some people simply pick up the phrases and stereotypes of their groups and repeat them without thinking much, while others are so fervent in their beliefs and ethnic attitudes that they experience a real physical revulsion in the presence of a member of the despised group. There is evidence, however, that individuals with a certain personality type tend more than others to acquire negative ethnic attitudes.
Ethnic groups
When comparing the childhood of the groups studied, the researchers discovered that the parents of the ethnocentric individuals were often severe and demanding, and were concerned with problems of social status and very attached to their norms and values. They judged their children not on the basis of their intrinsic value but on that of their conformity. The behavior that contributed to ascending the social scale was good and the deviant or socially inferior, bad. Fear and dependency prevented children from consciously criticizing their parents, but the austere treatment they were subjected to caused them hostility to authority that they did not dare to express.
