What causes pejudice, and how do people maintain it?

Answer 1

Human nature, fanaticism and utter ignorance! And it's the fanaticism within the soul that maintains it.

Answer 2

If you look back far enough, perhaps half a million years, you will see that man was not the major primate on the planet. We had to compete with other apes and other tribes. Different apes and tribes therefore meant competition for limited resources. Solution, make sure you get to the resources first and/or whipe out the competition.

Anything different is viewed as "Not Us." Not us can mutate into Not Human, or does not feel pain, at least not in the same way (Do fish feel pain? Of course not, now pass the vinegar.) (Women don't feel pain, not the same as men anyway.)

Prejadice may be an extension of this where, in order to survive, we need to see things that are not a part of our small world, as too different to worry about.

Education and familiarity is the only solution.

Answer 3

Prejudice is stereotyping a specific race, group, gender, etc. and even though many will deny being prejudice, everyone is. Is it a bad thing? No. But when you stereotype a person then "judge" them according to that category, then that becomes racist and that is a bad thing.

For example, many women view men as sexual perverts, pigs, sloppy, etc. It's a general characteristic portrayed towards men for centuries. Another example would be to view a specific race such as Asian. Many people would view an Asian person and think "They are experienced in the martial arts". But that isn't always the case. These are both forms of prejudice and not entirely a bad thing. How you react to that prejudice thought makes the difference if it's bad(racist) or not.

Answer 4

People can be prejudiced about almost anything from the food that they eat,to the clothes that they wear,to the religious beliefs that the faithful hold,Believe the seed of religious intolerance starts at home by the views expressed by the parents,it may get impetus from the teachings at school,or from peer groups at school,fuelled by the readings from magazines and the media, personal choice and the freedom to express your views in debate are the corner stones of any true democratic country,Colour prejudice is again started in the home fuelled by your experiences in life,being different is not a crime in my country but non conformity is looked upon as inferior to those who conform to societies accepted norms, stereotypical views are held in places where they have no right to be held and should be banned or at least faced up to and eradicated, these are the worst places for them to be held ,for do we not look to our elected representatives
as person who hold the views of the many and not the few. LF

Answer 5

Prejudice means "judging before", already believing something before having enough knowledge.
We all do this, usually because we do not have time (or inclination) to study everything in sufficient detail. It is an important survival skill to be able to see patterns and to act on them, but this can also cause serious problems (see link to "Paris Syndrome").
Socially, groups are held together by common prejudices, people will pretend to have these prejudices so they can stay within the group.

Answer 6

There is a psychological explanation that can be used. According to this psychologist called Tajfel. He created social identity theory, this is that people form ingroups and outgroups. If you are in a person’s ingroup you will be looked after and treated well. If your in a persons outgroup they will treat you differently and badly. Outgroups were shown to develop shared attitudes to outsiders. Behaviours to the outgroups consisted of discrimination and prejudice. This is because they find it hard to identify with outsiders.


The formation of outgroups is dependent on a person/ingoup’s categorisation/schemas that have been developed for a person/outgroup. This means that attributes, behaviours and preconceived ideas of the person/outgroup means that they don’t identify with them therefore treat the person/outgroup differently.

The simple explanation is that people have the wrong ideas and information about other people that makes them demonise the other person. The way to counter this is to educate people about differences. People are scared of the unknown

Answer 7

Prejudice or pre-judging is actually part of our every day decision making process. It is mainly when it is associated with racial judgements that it becomes taboo and often illegal. The application of experience to decision making is applying prejudice. e.g. Experience may show that approaching a strange Labrador is generally fairly safe but approaching a strange doberman is a bit risky so this is applied in our day to day lives. Have similar experiences with different races and you may not apply them in future decision making. This is in spite of accepted differences in races as shown by the Mohawk Indians ability to work high steel that is shunned by others.

How do we maintain it? Experience.

Answer 8

A fascist brown noses to those they feels are stronger and attack those beneath them.
Its caused by non sexual sado-masochism.

Prejudice is similar, its about scapegoating all those percieved to belong to a group; and the group is perceived to be dangerous.

Its maintained by selecting events and experiences that confirm the prejudice and ignoring those that contradict it.

Answer 9

just plain old ignorance people fear what they do not understand plus the arrogance not to find out

Answer 10

Peoples ignorance and stupid attitudes!