Why do humans tend to be prejudiced?

Question

"Americans are arrogant". "Dutchies are druggies / stingy". "Blondes are dumb". What is the reason of humans being prejudiced? What about you: Are you prejudiced?

Answer 1

In psychology, we are taught that the mind always uses shortcuts. Everything has a schema. It would seem that even people are parts of these schemas.

People compartmentalise themselves all the time. They always want to belong to a group and many want to follow a stereotype.

The human brain is just trained to think - American - what do i know - arrogant, bush, mcdonalds... whatever. Japanese - rice, clever, small things, photographs.

Although not all orientals take loads of photos, you gotta admit you always see more orientals taking pics than anyone else. Thats why we stereotype.

Its just the negativity that is worrying. And not all people think of the negative stereotypes, like I think of Dutch people and I think of laid back, good sense of humour, relaxed.

Answer 2

The media comes up with most of this stuff and people repeat it like parrots. If you let the media do your thinking for you then you got a real problem, not thinking for yourself. The best way to learn about other people is to actually go to those countries and decide for yourself.

Prejudices seem to come when a group demands that other people accept them when they are doing behavior that society doesn't accept. For instance druggies are always saying its not my fault but nobody made them take the drugs. They were warned countless times they still do it so its hard to like people like that.

The blonde jokes have always been there mostly cause a lot of blondes just don't get stuff right away they are more into hairdos and dressing up. Heck I know a brunette that dyed her hair blonde and she totally lost her IQ .. its like the dye did something to her brain. We were in shock how she changed..from a bright person to a ditz.. when she dyed it back she was normal again. Hey I dont' know what happened but it was weird!

Answer 3

All living beings are prejudiced to certain extent.Reinforcement of past experience,closed mindmthere is no time to think or enquire makes people pejudiced.It is the nature's way to do things fast/quick decision.See the snake,it hisses at you even if you have not harmed it.
Being prejudiced is not much.Even after seeing the proof people continue to be prejudiced.Open mind is the only factor that can save from extreme situations.

Answer 4

Prejudice - To pre judge.

Everyone is prejudice and racist to some level. It is truely difficult for anyone to be otherwise. Though try as we may, we have all made those comments about other races, groups of people, religions etc.

It goes down to lack of understanding and xenophobia. We tend to be fearful of the unknown, which is a good thing because it keeps us alive, but also a bad thing, because it makes us to start making judgments on things we know nothing about.

Will prejudice and racism ever stop? not likely. But I can see the barriers between races, religion social class coming down if we have better knowledge. That is why education is so important.

It will take one person at a time, but if we all make the move. It'll happen.

Answer 5

Most prejudices and perceived prejudices are due to ignorance (not stupidity) and self insecurity. Americans are arrogant, because many have not traveled outside their own community much less their own state where things aren't culturally different. Once you go to a different place where you can interact with people who are different, yet the same, then you can gain an understanding.

A sarcastic saying that I heard really speaks to me when I hear people being prejudiced, "people who are culturally different than me are stupid."

Once you break prejudices down on that level, it makes it easy to put it in perspective.

Answer 6

Nope. Coz I dislike to be others to do prejudiced me. The world is a colourful place, fill with so many personalities to discover. It's a really stupid block to prejudice others.

People are prejudice maybe because they meet different people of the same type, who made the same mistakes. But, still being judging people before knowing them is wrong.

Answer 7

I guess stereotyping makes it easier for us to survive. Or seemingly so.
Although I'm trying not to, I still am prejudiced. Sometimes more, sometimes less, depends on the day. Actually I have come to see that prejudice doesn't pay off. I have met some of my dearest friends on moments when I overcame my first impulse to stereotype. But unfortunately, for me its seems to be a knee-jerk reaction. So that's what I'm working on (hold your breath, count to ten, and only after that, react).

Answer 8

Parents and people who are around children when they grow up play a big part in making someone prejudiced. Remember prejudiced people are made that way, not born that way. I'd like to say that I don't feel I'm prejudiced, and I will say that until somebody proves me wrong... I'm not racist in any way and i treat everybody equally, regardless of who they are.

Answer 9

Prejudice, xenophobia, racism etc are all atavistic throwbacks to our ancient tribal ancestry, probably even further. Generally in a hostile environment, anything which doesn't look like or act like you will probably try to kill and eat you in order to survive itself. An innate suspicion of things-which-are-different yeilds an evolutionary advantage in a hostile environment. Society has progressed and integrated far far quicker than evolutionary timescales so, sadly, we're left with all this innate and instinctive baggage from a much more hostile time. The best we can do is educate ourselves.

Answer 10

My guess that it is the result of the human mind's natural tendency to group things. The person sees three or more examples of something, then concludes that they're all like that.

That's what education is really for: we seek the truth, and the truth is that we need more than just three examples to make a conclusion. That's why researchers (like medical researchers) ideally get 10,000+ examples of something and apply statistical methods to determine whether the variations are significant. That's why we (should) study philosophy, to help us test our hypotheses. Sadly, today, education is about "getting a job" and less about critical thinking.

Am I prejudiced? I catch myself wondering whether "they're all like that." But in my best mind, I say to myself, "I'm probably wrong. I need more information, more experience. It may just be that those who I've met are like 'that', but I haven't met all of them."