How do people develop prejudicial attitudes?

Question

Note for those unaware:

Prejudice is pre-judging, making a decision about a person or group of people without sufficient knowledge.

Amazingly, Christians who constantly attack and feel they have to convert all non-Christians, feel prejudged.

Answer 1

It's a combination of ignorance, of being unfamilar with an individual's character or background, or an unwillingness to associate with other cultures, races, nationalities, preferences, faiths or belief systems because of peer or generational pressures. Prejudice is like a malignant tumor that can deteriorate a body in all areas - physical, emotional, spiritual, and can spread to inflict mistrust and misjudgments in cliques, then full neighborhoods, towns, and so on. Best way to combat it is to come more familiar with one another in all phases of our lives and drop our urges to prejudge others until we get to know them for who they truly are.

Answer 2

Oh this one's easy. They don't know their topic first hand.

I have a sort of good example. I recently rescued a baby bird that had fallen out of it's nest, I put it back in the nest. Now yesterday I was telling someone, and he said "It's probably already dead, it's mother probably killed it" to which I told him that I did all the research last year and it told me to just stick the bird back and the parents wouldn't really care, and that you can even stick them into a different nest and it'll get adopted.

So my friend that I was talking to had a preconceived notion that you couldn't put the bird back, and it's a common one. Without any firsthand knowledge of the subject matter, he, like I used to be, is clueless about the truth.

So in this case, people who lack exposure to the truth, won't know that they've been told a lie or a farce. Sort of like gullibility.

So if a person doesn't know any gay people, and gets told that they're all flamey like on tv, they'll believe that until they meet a gay person who isn't. At that point the knowledge increases and their pre-judgment will vanish.

I hope this makes enough sense here.

Answer 3

Ha, you recognize the way Ayiza and that i have had our spats contained in the previous, yet i'm afraid that i'm also with Zim and Ayiza in this one. i have done analyze, i have study books and that i even worked for an AIDS orphan charity in Cape city and that i'm sorry, the information do no longer upload up and the statisitcs for Africa are also doubtful;- The ELISA HIV attempt for Africa and Europe are not to any extent further an same. there is not any shown link between HIV and AIDS, some people have died of AIDS with out being constructive, some anybody is constructive and by no ability look to get ill.... AZT destroys the immune device and creates habit besides... and so on and so on, there is also the relationship with polio vaccinations in West-imperative Africa in the course of the 1950's utilising chimpanzee cellular cultures,.... humorous how the checks were no longer done in Europe or united statesa..... and so on and so on.....!

Answer 4

Mainly this is something learned. Often this is not taught deliberately or overtly but in subtle ways. Some people may claim that they are not prejudiced but they give themselves away in their tone of voice, choice of words, the company they keep, the excuses they give, etc. Children often pick up these signals and they develop the same prejudices.

Sometimes it is exposure to one traumatic experience involving a person of a particular race or orientation and this is generalised to all of similar type.

Answer 5

I think the real debate should be why people do not turn away from the prejudices they have been indoctrinated with. as children we trust our parents to guide us and when we are young we take on board what they teach us, including prejudices, however, some do not mature and ask their own questions, so I think an adult who stands by their parents prejudices is basically immature i.e. not fully developed.

Answer 6

Society, religion, media, friends and family mainly.
The Christians are not always very christian though, people like Fred Phelps and the pope, none of them can see how wrong,sick and evil they are though
Plus what's already been said by Rich A and others who are being rational

Answer 7

Prejudice grows in an unchallenged mind like weeds in a neglected garden. You become prejudiced by never trying to see things from someone else's point of view, by never reading or *really* listening to anything that doesn't agree with your viewpoint, and by accepting, without questioning, the opinions of the uninformed.

Answer 8

Almost all prejudice stems from ignorance - people base their opinions on learned stereotypes rather than actually knowing what they claim to dislike.

A: "I hate XXXX people"
B: "I have you ever met an XXXX person?"
A: "No, but I know what they are like"

And how does that work?

I have had people tell me how much they hate gay people before admitting that they have never actually (knowingly) met one ... they then get very confused when I (a very femme girly) tell them I am gay, because I don't fit their stereotype.

It's all ignorance.
.

Answer 9

It starts with stereotypes, then far experience, therefore leading to wrong prejudicial actions ... i made a speech myself (for high school assignment) about prejudice and stereotypes in the united states... related to color, Origin, religion and sexual orientation

Answer 10

How prejudicial attitudes first started I don't know but people develop or learn prejudicial attitudes because that's what they saw when they were growing up.