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b. Intergroup Competition
A second motivational idea is that prejudice stems from intergroup competition, it begins with the asumptions that society is composed of groups that
differ in power, economic, resources, social status, and other desirable attributes. It is sad that true that the things people want and value most—god jobs, nice
homes, high status are always short in supply. This fact serves as the foundation
for what is perhaps the oldest explanation of prejudice—Realistic group conflict theory. According to this view, prejudice is an inevitable consequence of
competition among groups for resources and power. Members of groups label each other as “enemies”, view their own group as morally superior and draw the
boundaries between themselves and their opponents more and more firmly. The result is that what starts out as simple competition relatively free from hatred
gradually develops into full-scale, emotion-laden prejudice.
3.2.3 Cognitive Theory
The potential sources of prejudice involve the possibility that prejudice stems, at least in part, from basic aspects of social cognition–the ways in which
we think about other persons, store and integrate information about them, and later use this information to draw inferences about them or make social
judgements. Because the influence of such factors has been at the very center of recent research on the origins of prejudice, we have to examine the nature and the
operation of stereotypes–a key cognitive component in prejudice. Stereotypes are cognitive frameworks that strongly influence the
processing of incoming social information. Stereotypes suggesr, that all persons
16 belonging to social groups possess certain traits, at least to a degree. Stereotypes
exert strong effects on how we process social information. Information relevant to an activated stereotype is often processed more quickly than information unrelated
to it. For instance, reserach findings indicate that when we encounter information about someone who belongs to a group about which we have a stereotype and this
information is inconsistent with the stereotype, we draw tacit inferences conclusions and ideas not contained in the information that change the meaning
of this information to make it consistent with the stereotype. Recent studies suggest that stereotypes are indeed linked to prejudice.
High and low prejudiced persons would differ in their responses to the stereotype- related words. Specifically, highly prejudiced person toward race would respond
more quickly to stereotype-related words following the prime “Black” but more quickly to non-stereotype-related words following the prime “White”. In contrast,
no differences of this type would occur among low-prejudiced persons. In other words, negative attitudes we hold toward various social groups
can serve to activate negative stereotypes about them. Beacuse these stereotypes then tilt our processing of new information about such groups toward confirming
the stereotypes, an especially vicious circle in which prejudice activates stereotypes and stereotypes strengthen prejudice can occur with dire consequences
for the targets of prejudice
3.2.4 Social Identity Theory
Kategori