Prejudice persists because it serves psychological functions, not merely misperception

Evidence

For him, prejudice was not simply a conditioned prejudgment about an individual or group, it was a felt or expressed “antipathy based upon a faulty and inflexible generalization” (1954/1979, p. 9; see also Eagly & Diekman’s ch. 2 this volume). It was not simply a misperception or an expectation; it was a dislike or hatred. The basis for this aversion was factually wrong and impervious to correction because the aversion served important psychological functions for the prejudiced individual. Thus, Allport’s analysis went well beyond attention to a predisposition to prejudice; he also considered the role that prejudice plays in the life of the individual. He considered the fears, anxieties, and inadequacies to which prejudice speaks that make it resistant to correction and a source of viscous, inhumane acts. He would probably suggest that contemporary analyses need to move beyond perceptual and cognitive factors to give more attention to motivational and personality factors involved in prejudice. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2565

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the Frankfurt School finding that authoritarian personalities served psychological functions, and to the reader’s existing prejudiced-personality claims. — connects to: Ingroup defenses like prejudice function primarily to restore an orderly worldview. — Dmitrij Agroskin and Eva Jonas, Controlling death by defending…, 168
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2565