Prejudice arises from multiple interacting levels, not any single cause.

Evidence

The Nature of Prejudice does not offer – nor does it pretend to offer – a grand theory of prejudice. Allport repeatedly made the point that prejudice is a multidetermined phenomenon that can be analyzed at many different levels (e.g., historical, cultural, situational, and individual). Furthermore, he made clear, at any one of those levels, no one variable or process can totally account for the existence or intensity of prejudice. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2339

Categorization

• DEFINE: Allport’s foundational framing of prejudice as multidetermined — a useful corrective anchor for social psychology writing.