Allport misclassified normative prejudice as deviant irrationality

Evidence

The view that prejudice is “normal” creates a seeming contradiction – according to popular belief, a “prejudice” is something that breaks social norms; prejudice is deviant. In fact, Allport seemed to concur with this assessment by defining prejudice as an irrational, negative reaction to others based on their group membership. But according to our perspective, prejudice is a social norm. Sometimes this disconnect between viewing prejudice as normative versus deviant occurs as a result of changes in norms over time, creating different segments of society that disagree about what is acceptable. Although most Americans today would see slavery as a violation of decency and tolerance norms, slave owners in the antebellum American South did not think that their attitude toward enslaved Black was prejudiced; it was the common, accepted, prevalent attitude (Jordan, 1977). — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1901

Categorization

• XREF: Directly challenges the book that frames this collection — an incisive rebuttal of Allport’s own definition of prejudice that this reassessment thread should surface.