Three Factors That Contribute To Prejudice

Prejudice is an unsupported, and typically negative attitude about people of a specific social category. An attitude is the tendency to respond positively or negatively to a certain person, situation, idea, and etcetera. Discrimination is the different treatment of a specific social category based on prejudice. Factors that contribute to prejudice and discrimination are: social cognitive theory, realistic conflict theory, social identity theory, and stereotype vulnerability. Social cognitive theory proposes a way prejudice is learned is through direct instruction, modeling, and other social influences. Direct instruction is the following of an attitude solely based on direct orders to do so. For example obedience is the changing of one’s behavior at the direct order of an authority figure. Obedience, unlike compliance, which is the changing of one’s behavior because of persuasion, is based on direct orders.
Realistic conflict theory of prejudice states the increase of prejudice and discrimination are tied to the increase in degree of conflict between in and out-groups when looking for common resources, such as work. Social identity theory states that three processes form a person’s identity within a particular social group and the attitudes, concepts, and behavior that follow the identification of that group. These three processes are: social categorization, social identity, and social comparison. Social categorization is the categorizing of someone socially based on impression formation, which is the first impression someone forms of a stranger. Social identity is the role and category someone is seen to possess socially. Social comparison is when people compare