Prejudice mixes a rational kernel of role-fit perception with motivated irrationality

Evidence

The role-incongruity view of prejudice has a decidedly rational flavor: It is reasonable to think that groups of people who have long fulfilled certain roles and therefore been shaped by them (in terms of socialization and social learning) would tend to be less than prepared for roles with quite different demands. The unfairness derives from social perceivers’ weighting of group membership and thus not fully crediting the individual qualifications that individual group members possess for the new roles. This unfairness arises from assimilating individuals to stereotypes, a common psychological process. Nonetheless, irrationality comes to the fore as this basically rational process becomes co-opted by motivations. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 208

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the role-incongruity view of prejudice as combining rational role-fit assessment with motivated weighting of group membership.
• XREF: connects to: Casting targeted actors as irrational masks their strategic rationality and motives — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 351