PREJUDICE

Prejudice is judgment about an individual or group of individuals on the basis of their social, physical or cultural characteristics.

Such judgments are usually negative, but prejudice can also be exercised to give undue favour and advantage to members of particular groups.

Prejudice is often seen as the attitudinal component of discrimination.

Prejudice can also mean harm or injury to a person that may result from a judgement or action, especially one in which his or her rights are disregarded, as in the expressions

"without prejudice to any future judgement"

"without prejudice to his claim detriment."

"the prejudicial effect of his action."

The Prejudice Perception Assessment Scale: Measuring Stigma Vulnerability among African American Students at Predominantly Euro-American Universities 
Dorie J. Gilbert, University of Texas-Austin - Journal of Black Psychology, Vol. 24, No. 3, 305-321 (1998) © 1998 Association of Black Psychologists
Building on previous social-psychological studies, the Prejudice Perception Assessment Scale (PPAS) was developed to measure stigma vulnerability-the phenomenon of attributing negative, interpersonal feedback to prejudice in ambiguous situations-among African American students on predominantly Euro-American campuses. This article describes the methodological procedures followed in developing the PPAS, a brief scale composed offive vignettes aimed at assessing the extent to which participants tend to perceive prejudice as the cause of negative, interpersonal outcomes in ambiguous situations. Results from two studies with African American participants (N = 66 and N = 109, respectively) indicate that the construct of stigma vulnerability is conceptually similar but different from participants'general mistrust of Whites. The PPAS has good internal consistency and measures stigma vulnerability as a unidimensional variable. - jbp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/24/3/305

Two Social Psychologies of Prejudice: Gordon W. Allport, W.E.B. Du Bois, and the Legacy of Booker T. Washington 
Stanley O. Gaines, Jr., Edward S. Reed, Franklin and Marshall College 
Journal of Black Psychology, Vol. 20, No. 1, (1994) © 1994 Association of Black Psychologists
This article describes two distinct lines of theory and research on the social psychology of prejudice. The first (i.e., mainstream) line acknowledges an intellectual debt to Gordon W Allport and has tended to focus on the destructive effects of prejudice and discrimination on African Americans and other ethnic minorities. The second (i.e., "underground") line, in contrast, acknowledges an intellectual debt to WE.B. Du Boisand has tended tofocusonAfricanAmericans' (and other ethnic minorities') rich cultural heritage that has sustained them through times of slavery and/or segregation. Throughout this article, Booker T Washington's conciliatory stance regarding ethnic relations is used as a point of departure for exploring the differences and similarities between the two social psychologies of prejudice. - jbp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/20/1/8

Regional and Ethnic Prejudice in Italy - 1994 
ABSTRACT: The 1994 Survey on Regional and Ethnic Prejudice in Italy was designed to assess the attitudes of Italians toward recent immigrants from Africa and Eastern Europe, and to measure the current state of relations between Northern and Southern Italians. It also included many items on politics and society. 
The survey was a nationwide telephone survey carried out under the auspices of the Faculty of Sociology at the University of Trent, Italy, with technical assistance from the Survey Research Center of the University of California, Berkeley. 
The target population for the survey was defined as all Italian adults aged 18-69, residing in households with telephones. The percentage of households in Italy that have a telephone is currently estimated to be about 90 percent. - sda.berkeley.edu/Abstracts/Iprej-e.html

Accounting for extreme prejudice and legitimating blame in talk about the Romanies 
Cristian Tileaga, Loughborough University 
Discourse & Society, Vol. 16, No. 5, 603-624 (2005) © 2005 SAGE Publications
This article examines the particulars of extreme prejudiced discourse about ethnic minorities in a Romanian sociocultural context. It concentrates on a detailed analysis of a single case taken from a wider project aimed at comparing and contrasting the way Romanians talk about Hungarians with the way they talk about Romanies. The article examines in detail the discourse of a middle-class Romanian accounting for prejudice and discrimination towards Romanies as part of an interview on a series of controversial issues surrounding ethnic minorities. This article tries to highlight and interrogate claims that Romanies are to blame for prejudice against them. The analysis, inspired by a critical discursive approach, has a discursive and conversational analytic focus to examine switches in talk about 'us' to talk that blames 'them'. The analysis suggests that talk about Romanies is more extreme than the anti-alien, anti-immigrant prejudiced talk studied by numerous western critical researchers. It is more extreme because Romanies are not merely portrayed as being different, but also as being beyond the moral order, beyond nationhood, difference and comparison. Talk about Romanies employs a style that, at the same time, denies, but also protects extreme prejudice. This article illustrates and discusses some of the discursive, rhetorical and interpretative resources used to talk about and legitimate the blaming of Romanies. In examining the dynamics of extreme prejudice against Romanies, this article provides a critical investigation of the social and political consequences of extreme discursive patterning. Implications for the study of discursive construction and representation of difference in talk about Romanies are also discussed. - das.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/16/5/603

Prejudice and Proximity - An Analysis of Age Differences 
James J. Dowd, University of Georgia 
Research on Aging, Vol. 2, No. 1, 23-48 (1980) © 1980 SAGE Publications
Using data from a national sample, the hypothesis that frequency of contact with blacks is associated with less antipathy toward blacks was tested. With multiple regression techniques, it was found that residential proximity has a negative effect on prejudice, thus supporting Allport's "contact hypothesis." The major finding of the study, however, was that contact did not uniformly affect prejudice for respondents of all ages but interacted with age to produce variable changes depending on region and education level. The author concludes that, while prejudice is higher among older cohorts, this is due in large part to differing patterns of socialization and to the lesser contact with blacks among older whites. - roa.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/2/1/23

Prejudice-Reduction Simulations: Social Cognition, Intergroup Theory, and Ethics 
Angie Williams, University of California, Santa Barbara 
Howard Giles, University of California, Santa Barbara 
Simulation & Gaming, Vol. 23, No. 4, 472-484 (1992) © 1992 SAGE Publications
Taking a social psychological perspective, the capacity for prejudice-reduction simulations to change prejudicial attitudes is examined using theoretical insights from social cognition and intergroup literatures. Ethical issues are considered by drawing on small group research, and it is argued that, at present anyway, the risks to participants may well outweigh any presumed benefits of simulation. - sag.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/23/4/472

Prejudice-Reduction Simulations: Ethics, Evaluations, and Theory into Practice 
Deborah A. Byrnes, Utah State University 
Gary Kiger, Utah State University 
Simulation & Gaming, Vol. 23, No. 4, 457-471 (1992) © 1992 SAGE Publications
This article examines ethical issues in the use of prejudice-reduction simulations, with specific reference to evaluation research conducted on the BLUE EYES-BROWN EYES activity. Risks to participants, such as coercion, informed consent, and stress, were weighed against the individual and collective benefits of simulation participation. It was concluded that, given specific precautions (e.g., appropriately designed debriefing sessions), it is ethically defensible to have simulation participants experience emotional discomfort in the short term if it is reasonably believed they will achieve grater compassion for others in the long term. Problems arising in the evaluation of prejudice-reduction simulations are discussed. Finally, a research agenda is proposed that calls for addressing intergroup-relations theory in the design of prejudice-reduction simulations. - sag.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/23/4/457

Prejudice and Enforcement of Workforce Homogeneity as Explanations for Employment Discrimination - Lars-Eric Petersen; Joerg Dietz
Source: Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Volume 35, Number 1, January 2005
Abstract: We examined the effects of subtle and blatant prejudice and the enforcement of workforce homogeneity on employment discrimination in an experimental simulation. German participants who were advised to maintain a homogeneous (i.e., German) workforce, as hypothesized, selected fewer foreign applicants for a job interview than did participants who did not receive this advice. An interaction qualified this main effect, such that subtly prejudiced participants reacted to the advice to maintain a homogeneous workforce, but blatantly prejudiced and nonprejudiced individuals did not. The implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed. - ingentaconnect.com

Perspective and Prejudice: Antecedents and Mediating Mechanisms 
John F. Dovidio, Colgate University 
Marleen ten Vergert, University of Nijmegen 
Tracie L. Stewart, Georgia State University 
Samuel L. Gaertner, University of Delaware 
James D. Johnson, University of North Carolina 
Victoria M. Esses, University of Western Ontario, Wilmington 
Blake M. Riek, University of Delaware 
Adam R. Pearson, Colgate University 
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 30, No. 12, 1537-1549 (2004) DOI: 10.1177/0146167204271177 © 2004 Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
The present work investigated mechanisms by which Whites’ prejudice toward Blacks can be reduced (Study 1) and explored how creating a common ingroup identity can reduce prejudice by promoting these processes (Study 2). In Study 1, White participants who viewed a videotape depicting examples of racial discrimination and who imagined the victim’s feelings showed greater decreases in prejudice toward Blacks than did those in the objective and no instruction conditions. Among the potential mediating affective and cognitive variables examined, reductions in prejudice were mediated primarily by feelings associated with perceived injustice. In Study 2, an intervention designed to increase perceptions of a common group identity before viewing the videotape, reading that a terrorist threat was directed at all Americans versus directed just at White Americans, also reduced prejudice towardBlacks through increases in feelings of injustice. - psp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/30/12/1537

Of Polls and Race Prejudice 
Sports Illustrated’s Errant "Indian Wars" 
C. Richard King, Washington State University 
Ellen J. Staurowsky, Department of Sport Studies at Ithaca College 
Lawrence Baca, National Native American Bar Association 
Laurel R. Davis, Springfield College 
Cornel Pewewardy, Department of Teaching and Leadership, School of Education at the University of Kansas 
Journal of Sport & Social Issues, Vol. 26, No. 4, 381-402 (2002) DOI: 10.1177/0193732502238255 © 2002 SAGE Publications
This article offers a collaborative review of the article "The Indian Wars"from the March 4, 2002, issue of Sports Illustrated that purported to present novel scientific findings regarding the attitudes of sports fans and American Indians toward Native American mascots. Despite the claims of the periodical, the authors argue, the article provides a flawed and biased account of pseudo-Indian mascots that misconstrues their history as well as significance to Native and non-Native peoples. The authors begin with a critical reading of the article, analyzing its arguments, interpretive frames, methodology, and evidence. Then, the authors examine the context omitted from the article. In turn, the authors highlight the place of Indian stereotypes within EuroAmerican and Native American communities, the intersections of race and power animating such mascots, and the prejudice and terror encouraged by mascots and media coverage of them. Finally, the authors discuss the implications of "The Indian Wars." - jss.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/26/4/381

Prejudice as Stress: Conceptual and Measurement Problems 
Ilan H. Meyer, PhD 
Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Ilan H. Meyer, PhD, Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 722 W 168th St, New York, NY 10032 (e-mail: im15@columbia.edu).
In the field of social sciences, there has been a renewed interest in studying prejudice and discrimination as stressors and assessing their impact on various health outcomes. This raises a need for theoretically based and psychometrically sound measures of prejudice. 
As researchers approach this task, there are several conceptual issues that need to be addressed. The author describes 3 such issues related to (1) individual versus structural measures of the impact of prejudice, (2) objective versus subjective assessments of stress, and (3) measures of major events versus everyday discrimination. 
How researchers approach the problem of measurement depends on the specific study aims, but they must consider these conceptual issues and understand the advantages and limitations of various approaches to the study of prejudice as stress. - ajph.org/cgi/content/abstract/93/2/262

"On Prejudice" - William Hazlitt
Prejudice, in its ordinary and literal sense, is prejudging any question without having sufficiently examined it, and adhering to our opinion upon it through ignorance, malice, or perversity, in spite of every evidence to the contrary. The little that we know has a strong alloy of misgivings and uncertainty in it; the mass of things of which we have no means of judging, but of which we form a blind and confident opinion, as if we were thoroughly acquainted with them, is monstrous. Prejudice is the child of ignorance: for as our actual knowledge falls short of our desire to know, or curiosity and interest in the world about us, so must we be tempted to decide upon a greater number of things at a venture; and having no check from reason or inquiry, we shall grow more obstinate and bigoted in our conclusions, according as we have been rash and presumptuous. - blupete.com/Literature/Essays/Hazlitt/Prejudice.htm

Prejudice as attitudinal component of discrimination.

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