Prejudice is an interpretive concept lacking fixed definition
Evidence
Prejudice is an interpretive concept. People disagree about what prejudice is. They disagree about its sources, the forms it takes, its intensities and social impact. Social psychologists, as well as lay members of society, are at pains to locate the concept (and its manifestations) in some set of distinct descriptions that, purportedly, best capture its nature. — Cristian Tileagă, The Nature of Prejudice, 45
Categorization
- DEFINE: Frames prejudice not as a fixed phenomenon but as a contested interpretive concept whose nature people negotiate.
- XREF: connects to: Prejudice scales cannot measure readiness to participate in genocide. — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 460
Related
- Prejudice research cannot be reduced to individual psychology (similarity 0.87)
- Understanding prejudice requires cultural, not merely psychological, analysis (similarity 0.87)
- Prejudice is explained by societal characteristics, not only individual traits (similarity 0.85)
- Prejudice varies with context yet remains predictable from role requirements. (similarity 0.84)
- Understanding prejudice requires locating attitudes in collective symbolic contexts (similarity 0.84)
- All prejudice involves intergroup relations with a built-in ingroup preference (similarity 0.84)
- Prejudice arises from group identities rather than individual psychology (similarity 0.83)
- Prejudice is public harm to esteem, not merely private attitude (similarity 0.83)
- Not all prejudices are alike; each is culturally situated (similarity 0.83)
- Society’s creed and norms explain prejudice better than any single theory (similarity 0.82)
- Prejudices cannot be understood apart from a society’s history and contradictions (similarity 0.82)
- Prejudice scales cannot measure readiness to participate in genocide. (similarity 0.82)
- Pervasive prejudice still takes distinct forms across different societies (similarity 0.82)
- Prejudice arises from multiple interacting levels, not any single cause. (similarity 0.82)
- Prejudice is primary; categorization only serves it (similarity 0.82)