Status insecurity triggers reflexive disparagement of outgroups

Evidence

Allport acknowledged the functional nature of prejudice and identified both material gain and self-enhancement as basic motivational processes underlying prejudice. In terms of material gain, he noted, “Outright greed is certainly a cause of prejudice” (p. 370). With respect to psychological needs, Allport suggested that self-esteem can often be a goal in itself: “most people want to be higher on the status ladder than they are” (p. 371). However, self-enhancement can be based in avoidance as well as approach motives. Insecurity, fear, and anxiety can stimulate a need for self-enhancement, which, in some cases, creates or exacerbates prejudice. Allport believed that the “hunger for status is matched by a haunting fear that one’s status may not be secure. The effort to maintain a precarious position can bring with it an almost reflex disparagement of others” (p. 371). — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 115

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the vault’s prejudice-psychology cluster: security-based self-enhancement motives echo modern social identity and system-justification theories. — connects to: Negative stereotypes both accompany intergroup threats and independently predict outgroup attitudes — Blake M. Riek, Eric W. Mania, and Samuel L. Gaertner, Intergroup Threat and Outgroup…, 127; Perceived illegitimacy and instability of status drives intergroup hostility — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 807; Envied out-groups draw low-warmth stereotypes that rationalize their exclusion — Susan T. Fiske et al., A Model of (Often Mixed) Stereotype…, 32 (+3 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 115