Prejudice functions psychologically as a response to ego weakness and inner threat

Evidence

Allport proposed two polar opposites: a personality chronically disposed to generalized prejudice versus one disposed to generalized tolerance. The prejudiced personality, which like Adorno et al. (1950) he also referred to as the “authoritarian personality,” was someone for whom prejudice was psychologically functional and a direct response to deep-rooted underlying needs in the personality. At the core of this prejudiced personality were a set of traits Allport summed up as “ego weakness” – insecurity, fearfulness, anxiety and an inability to cope effectively with one’s own inner tensions, conflicts, and anxieties, or with uncertainty, threat, change, and ambiguity in the external world. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2429

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Allport’s prejudiced vs tolerant personality polarity and the ‘ego weakness’ core trait set.
• XREF: Echoes the authoritarian personality research continuity and connects to terror management theory’s thesis that threat-driven mindsets generate outgroup hostility.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2429