Prejudice can serve unconscious self-esteem needs people rationalize away

Evidence

As defined by Allport (1954/1979), psychodynamic theories of prejudice emphasized internal motivational variables, especially those involving “unconscious mental operation in the individual” (p. 352). Psychodynamic theories, he said, could explain how a person might not be “aware of the psychological function that prejudice serves in his life,” so that when he explained his reasons for feeling hostility towards outgroups, those explanations would be “merely rationalizations” (p. 352). In short, psychodynamic theories emphasize that prejudice can be a byproduct of people’s attempts to feel good about themselves, and more generally, to avoid threatening thoughts. A core assumption is that sometimes what one hates about other groups of people is related to the things that one hates about oneself. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2341

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distills Allport’s definition of psychodynamic theories of prejudice and their core projection assumption.
• XREF: The claim that we hate in others what we hate in ourselves connects to the scapegoat displacement mechanisms from Fraser’s Golden Bough spirit material and dotso research. — connects to: Self-esteem operates implicitly through self-serving judgment biases that also buttress the self. — Anthony G. Greenwald and Mahzarin R. Banaji, Implicit Social Cognition: Attitudes,…, 152; Intergroup prejudice and self-esteem serve the same underlying need to deny death. — Jeff Greenberg and Spee Kosloff, Terror Management Theory: Implications…, 84