Intellectual defeat of prejudice fails to extinguish its emotional residue
Evidence
Allport recognized that high-minded national and Christian egalitarian precepts often conflict with the realities of life on the ground; that is, with the self-interests, jealousies, and conformity to conventional prejudices that drive discrimination in practice. As a result, the influence of the school may conflict with parental influence, and religious teachings may contradict established social hierarchies. Sometimes bias predominates, but, in Allport’s view, prejudice with compunction, in which positive attitudes alternate with negative attitudes, is far more common. This inconsistency is awkward to live with, because, as Allport (1954/1979) noted, even if it is “defeated intellectually, prejudice lingers emotionally” (p. 328). Allport further observed, “The average [White] American, therefore, experiences moral uneasiness and ‘a feeling of individual and collective guilt.’ He lives in a state of conflict” (p. 330). — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2160
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to attitude-behavior gap and cognitive dissonance literatures, plus the ‘prejudice with compunction’ concept that prefigures modern aversive racism theory (Gaertner & Dovidio). — connects to: Emotion fails because it denies the world’s resistance while reason succeeds by acknowledging it — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 77
- DEFINE: Introduces ‘prejudice with compunction’ as a technical term — positive and negative attitudes coexisting in one person.
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2160