Prejudice and Discrimination: Types and Causes

Human beings tend to be diverse, and although they share numerous similarities, they also possess many differences. This is linked to the fact that the social groups that individuals belong to assist in forming identities and opinions (Murray, 2020). While the similarities do not pose significant harm, the differences between people of diverse identities may be difficult to reconcile, some leading to prejudice and discrimination. Notably, prejudice denotes the negative feelings and attitudes towards an individual based on membership in a specific social group. Grigoryan et al. (2022) support this by stipulating that prejudice tends to be common against individuals of an unfamiliar or different cultural group. At other times, individuals tend to act on their prejudiced beliefs and attitudes towards a specific group of people, leading to a phenomenon dubbed discrimination. The target group or individuals are treated poorly in different political, social, and institutional frameworks.

Types of Prejudice and Discrimination

When strangers meet, three pieces of information are automatically processed, including age, gender, and race, instead of secondary aspects like height, type of clothes, or even mood. The implication is that the former are particularly salient on an unconscious level and seemingly offer significant data regarding a stranger. However, the data is typically anchored on stereotypes or false attitudes and beliefs. In this light, there is explicit prejudice, which refers to negative beliefs and feelings towards an outgroup that is openly admitted. This section focuses on the types of prejudice and discrimination, including racism, sexism, ageism, and homophobia.

Racism denotes the prejudice and discrimination against another based on the latter’s membership in a racial group. In regions like the United States of America, racism is prevalent, especially towards the ethnic minority groups that encompass native Americans, Latinx, Asian Americans, and African Americans. For African Americans for instance, the perceptions ingrained in racism is that they are likely to be law breakers, aggressive and athletic. Moreover, this cohort is more likely to have their vehicles searched during stops than the dominant whites. The Latinx groups are more likely to be asked to depict formal identification when shopping compared to whites. The other type of prejudice and discrimination is sexism. This entails discrimination against individuals based on their sex. While sexism normally takes the form of males having biases towards females, either can show this phenomenon. Just like racism, sexism can be difficult yet subtle to detect. According to Francioli and North (2021), the common form of sexism that is prevalent in contemporary society revolves around the expectations and perceptions that women are household caretakers. They are also expected to be nurturing, passive, and friendly. Nevertheless, sexism can occur on the societal level in education, employment opportunities, and, consequently, the hiring process. In this light, females are less likely to be employed or promoted in men-dominated areas like construction, aviation, or engineering.

Another type of prejudice and discrimination revolves around ageism. Individuals are likely to have expectations and judgments about others based on their age. In most cases, ageism affects older adults but can also impact younger adults (Francioli and North, 2021). In the United States societal culture, for instance, a typical ageist belief or attitude is that they are physically weak, incompetent, and slow. Conversely, the culture perceives younger adults as irresponsible and immature (Francioli and North, 2021). The final type to be covered is homophobia. Kite et al. (2022) assert that homophobia is a type of prejudice and discrimination based on sexual orientation. In America, homophobia is prevalent, and it is tolerated by many. The implication is that negative beliefs and feelings lead to discrimination, for instance, through the exclusion of intersex, gay, bisexual, asexual, and lesbian individuals, alongside the avoidance of those that fall within the LGBTQ+ social group. It may extend to the workplace where these individuals are not hired or promoted despite meeting all the other requirements.

The Causes of Prejudice and Discrimination

According to Nelson and Olson (2023), prejudice and discrimination typically persist in the contemporary world due to socially aligned learning and conformity to social norms. From a young age, children end up learning prejudiced beliefs and attitudes from friends, teachers, parents, and the media. When certain forms of prejudice and discrimination become acceptable in society, normative pressures force individuals to conform yet share prejudiced attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. An epitome is that private and public learning institutions in regions such as the United States of America are still implicitly segregated by social class. In the last century, for instance, only children from rich families possessed the privilege of attending private institutions of learning, while those from middle to low-income families attended public institutions.

Stereotypes and the self-fulfilling prophecy also act as causes of prejudice and discrimination. Fish and Syed (2020) assert that a self-fulfilling prophecy denotes the expectation some individuals hold and alters their behavior in a manner that typically elicits the expected behavior in others. When stereotypes or prejudice against others are prevalent against specific groups like ethnic minorities, they end up being treated according to the expectations, leading to the self-fulfilling prophecy phenomenon. An ideal epitome of the cause and effect in the self-fulfilling prophecy revolves around an employer expecting or holding stereotypical beliefs that a lesbian applicant is incompetent. This potential employer might treat the lesbian negatively during the hiring process, for instance, by behaving coldly. The impact is that this potential job applicant perceives that the employer dislikes them, and they can offer shorter interview responses or generally disengage from the hiring process.

As mentioned in the introduction, another cause of prejudice and discrimination is the in-group-out-group interactions. Kite et al. (2022) stipulate that all humans belong to a specific race, age, gender, and socio-economic group. These categories act as the in-groups that individuals identify with. A group that they do not belong to or do not identify with is the outgroup. Considering that people typically harbor a solid sense of belonging coupled with an emotional connection to the in-groups, they develop the in-group bias, which essentially is a preference for the in-group over the others. The in-group bias fosters prejudice and discrimination as the out-group is typically perceived to be different and is consequently less preferred. However, other forces exist, such as the expression of empathy or enhancement of awareness of past suffering on both sides, that can mitigate the prejudice and discrimination linked to the group dynamics (Murray, 2020). Moreover, passing regulations and laws that oblige equal yet fair treatment for all individuals can serve as another remedy.

Conclusion

In summary, this essay aimed to delve into the forms and causes of prejudice and discrimination alongside their impact on society. The analysis indicates that as diverse beings, people tend to experience varying levels of conflict during interactions with others who are different. In this light, negative attitudes, evaluations, beliefs, or feelings are common. The persistence of prejudice and stereotypes nurtures discrimination. Notably, prejudice and discrimination can be based on aspects such as sexual orientation, social class, ethnicity, race, or gender. Conversely, the globe is becoming more interconnected. The implication is that individuals encounter higher diversity levels in different contexts. Moreover, identities are becoming more multifaceted and intersect across religion, age, class, race, sexual orientation, and gender. As the 21^st century unfolds, people are bound to recognize each other more through character instead of stereotypes. Overall, it is the responsibility of every individual to enhance their awareness of underlying prejudice and stereotypes to curb different cases of discrimination based on social categories.