Prejudice is rational self-interest in maintaining dominance, not irrational hatred

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 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Defining prejudice solely as antipathy blindspots subtler forms of domination; Benevolent paternalism controls minorities more pervasively than open hostility does; Prejudice arises from role-context devaluation, not from negative attitudes alone — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 174 (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• Prejudice functions psychologically as a response to ego weakness and inner threat #complicates (0.82) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2429