People resolve prejudice conflict through denial, rationalization, and compromise mechanisms.

Evidence

How do Americans resolve this conflict? Allport’s answer stressed that it can be handled through various defense or conflict-resolution mechanisms (see Esses, Jackson, Dovidio, & Hodson, ch. 14 this volume). These include repression and denial (“I have no prejudice; we have no problem”); defensive rationalization, in which selective perception biases evidence in favor of prejudice while “bifurcation” allows for exceptions; and compromises that allow for the coexistence of charity and prejudice, and for gradualism as a political strategy. Optimally, inner conflict would be resolved through true consistency and integration in personality, wherein genuine enemies are recognized, while racial bogeymen, traditional scapegoats, and designated villains are dispensed with. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2162

Allport’s answer stressed that it can be handled through various defense or conflict-resolution mechanisms (see Esses, Jackson, Dovidio, & Hodson, ch. 14 this volume). These include repression and denial (“I have no prejudice; we have no problem”); defensive rationalization, in which selective perception biases evidence in favor of prejudice while “bifurcation” allows for exceptions; and compromises that allow for the coexistence of charity and prejudice, and for gradualism as a political strategy. Optimally, inner conflict would be resolved through true consistency and integration in personality, wherein genuine enemies are recognized, while racial bogeymen, traditional scapegoats, and designated villains are dispensed with. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2162

Categorization

• XREF: Allport’s defense mechanisms map onto modern motivated reasoning and system-justification theory; ‘bifurcation’ parallels the modern exception-making that allows people to hold a prejudiced stereotype alongside ‘some of my best friends are…’
• DEFINE: Catalogues the conflict-resolution mechanisms Allport proposed: repression/denial, defensive rationalization, bifurcation, compromise, gradualism, integration.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 2162; , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2162