Categorization processes facilitate the harm of prejudice

Evidence

One of the most notable aspects of Allport’s book is his understanding of the role that categorization plays in maintaining the negative consequences of prejudice (see Fiske, ch. 3 this volume). He recognized the power of categories to structure intergroup relations and he anticipated decades of research showing that cognitive processes associated with categorization facilitate the harm done by prejudices. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 834

Allport (1954/1979) argued that prejudice can be entirely normal. He also recognized that prejudice can be irrational. But his contentions in chapter 2 (“The Normality of Prejudgment”) effectively undermined the intuitive view that prejudice is solely the product of sick motives and anticipated psychology’s cognitive revolution by analyzing prejudice as a product of normal categorization processes, merely applied to people. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 282

Categorization

• DEFINE: Core Allport thesis already central to the vault’s thread; this restates it as the ‘normality of prejudgment’ principle.
• XREF: Foundational claim for the entire vault prejudice-psychology cluster — corroborates the Allport reassessment line being built. — connects to: the MOC “The Wound of the Label: When Knowing Someone Becomes a Way of Erasing Them”
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 834; , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 282