Prejudice

According to Akolkar (1960), “The word prejudice refers to those attitudes or sentiments which are not fully supported by facts.”

According to Chukov, Raney, and Kacharam (1965), “Prejudice is an unfavourable attitude and can be defined as a predisposition to perceive, think, feel, and act in ways that are different from those of other people, especially members of other groups.”

In the words of Secord and Beckman (1974), "Prejudice is an attitude that predisposes a person to think, perceive, feel, and act in a favourable or unfavourable manner toward a group or its members."

Analysis of the above definitions makes it clear that-

1. Prejudice is an inconsistent and illogical attitude, which is unfavourable in most circumstances and favourable in some circumstances.
2. Prejudice is a kind of pre-judgment. It is a belief or opinion that is not based on facts.
3. Emotional colour is found in prejudice. It reflects the characteristics of partiality, emotional rigidity and inconsistency.
4. The possibility of change in bias is minimal. In other words, more resistance is found in changes.
5. More rigidity and less flexibility are found in prejudice.
6. The quality of over-generalization is found in prejudice.
7. Prejudice affects a person's perception, learning, thinking, memory, emotions, attribution etc. in a significant way.

Nature or characteristics of prejudice

Prejudice has some special characteristics due to which it differs from other similar concepts; They are different from stereotypes, discrimination, belief etc. Here we would like to briefly describe the nature or characteristics of prejudice-

1. Prejudice is acquired – It is not inborn in a person, rather it is an acquired tendency in the person which develops gradually. As the child develops physically and mentally, he becomes more aware of the means of socialization. For example, through family, neighbourhood, culture etc., one learns the standards, values, traditions and customs of one's society or community and through these means, one develops special prejudices towards other groups, classes or communities and its members. It has been observed that the prejudices found in the people who play a role in the education and upbringing of the child also develop in the child.

2. Prejudice is positive or negative – One characteristic of bias is that it can be both positive and negative. Muslims are anti-national, Hindus are infidels, Negroes are retarded etc. are negative prejudices. On the contrary, Japanese are hardworking, women are religious, Nepali servants are believers etc. are positive biases.

3. Preconceptions or prejudices are based on faulty and strong generalizations – The person does not take the help of logic and intelligence in the formation and development of prejudices. Generally, people learn them in their families, peers, neighbourhood etc. Here's why they are based on faulty generalizations. The only reason why these prejudices become strong is that individuals learn them from their teachers, parents, siblings or other close relatives, whose behaviour patterns have the greatest impact on the child.

4. Prejudice is an intergroup phenomenon – Prejudice is actually related to group, class and community. In fact, a prejudiced person's attitude is not directed towards an individual, but towards a group, thus ignoring individual differences. For example, a white person suffering from racial prejudice considers a Negro to be impure, uncivilized and mentally weak simply because he belongs to a particular species.

5. Prejudice is irrational and inconsistent – Unreasonableness or irrationality and inconsistency is an important feature of bias. A person acts on his prejudices even in the presence of contradictory elements and information. For example, a Hindu Brahmin has a prejudice that Harijans are uncivilized, irresponsible and impure. Now, when such a Brahmin comes face to face with a highly civilized, responsible and cleanliness-loving Harijan, he still generally persists in his same prejudices.

6. Prejudices are conscious and unconscious –. Yes, it is true that most of the prejudices are conscious because a prejudiced person is fully aware of most of his prejudices. But sometimes it is also reflected that a person does not deliberately take any prejudiced decision but due to circumstances some restrictions are formed in his mind and even he himself is not able to know how and when this prejudice or prejudiced decision arises in him.

7. Prejudice has no connection with reality – It may be negative or positive, they have no connection with reality because they are not based on facts. For example, upper caste people do not like to touch and talk to lower caste people. They believe that by doing so they will become impure and their religion will be corrupted. The interesting thing is that these same people touch these people in public places and also talk to them, exchange money. But if for some reason the integrity of the group is less, such a group has little to no impact on its members.

8. Prejudice often begins in the form of a stereotype—that is, a specific belief or assumption about individuals based solely on their membership in a group, regardless of their individual characteristics. Stereotypes become overgeneralized and applied to all members of a group. For example, someone holding prejudiced attitudes toward older adults, may believe that older adults are slow and incompetent.