Attitude Vs Prejudice

1. Attitude and prejudice
Presented by
Rahib Lorenzo Kadil

2. Objectives
This study would like to benchmark the Attitude and Prejudice.
Specifically, this study would like to;
• Define what is Attitudes and Prejudice,
• What are the factors influencing Attitudes and Prejudice,
• What measures can be taken to eradicate or lessen that may
reduce Prejudice.

3. History : Attitude and Prejudice
• According to psychologists Egley and Chaiken (1993) attitudes are a
psychological or internal state made known through viewing an entity
with approval or disapproval. Attitudes (Larson, 2007) have a cognitive
function, an affective (or emotional) function and a behavioural
function. That is, attitudes are learned, they can be affected or driven
by feelings and they can be indicators of future actions.

4. History : Attitude and Prejudice
• Attitude change programs are programs designed to address and remove
harmful attitudes and replace them with beneficial attitudes. Social
change programs are programs which address attitudes on a societal
level. Some examples include cancer screening, drink driving and anti-
smoking campaigns. According to Fazio (1989), attitudes are triggered
automatically which suggests that attitude change needs to be dealt with
in a strategic manner. The cognitive, affective and behavioral functions
of an attitude need to be addressed within attitude change programs in
order for them to be a success.

5. History : Attitude and Prejudice
• On the other hand Prejudice, Fallacious extension of one's
negative past experiences to the general case can be harmful; it can
be termed bias. If a person has developed the concept that
members of one group have certain characteristics because of a
unpleasant past acquaintance with a member of that group, she
may presume that all members of the group have such
characteristics.

6. History : Attitude and Prejudice
• In other cases, prejudice may be a matter of early education:
children taught that certain attitudes are the "correct" ones may
form opinions without weighing the evidence on both sides of a
given question with no malice intended on the child's part. An
adult might even be shocked to hear racial slurs or comments and
their own opinions on various groups echoed back at them from
their children.

7. History : Attitude and Prejudice
• In the United States of America, Australia, and Europe in
particular, it is considered taboo by some people for persons to
publicly express their prejudices against another race or group of
people; this view has been bolstered by a degree of legal
framework and policy within many large organizations. However
such taboos do not exist endemically outside the public sphere, and
numerous monocultures regard alleged slurs as normal everyday
language.

8. History : Attitude and Prejudice
• The first psychological research conducted on prejudice occurred in the 1920s. This research
attempted to prove white supremacy. One article from 1925 reviewing 73 studies on race
concluded that the studies seemed "to indicate the mental superiority of the white race". These
studies, along with other research, led many psychologists to view prejudice as a natural response
to inferior races.
• In the 1930s and 40s, this perspective began to change due to the increasing concern about anti-
Semitism. At the time, theorists viewed prejudice as pathological and thus looked for personality
syndromes linked with racism. Theodor Adorno believed that prejudice stemmed from
an authoritarian personality; he believed that people with authoritarian personalities were the
most likely to be prejudiced against groups of lower status. He described authoritarians as "rigid
thinkers who obeyed authority, saw the world as black and white, and enforced strict adherence
to social rules and hierarchies".

9. History : Attitude and Prejudice
• In 1954, Gordon Allport linked prejudice to categorical thinking. Allport claimed
that prejudice is a natural and normal process for humans. According to him, "The
human mind must think with the aid of categories… Once formed, categories are
the basis for normal prejudgment. We cannot possibly avoid this process. Orderly
living depends upon it."
• In the 1970s, research began to show that prejudice tends to be based on favoritism
towards one's own groups, rather than negative feelings towards another group.
According to Marilyn Brewer, prejudice "may develop not because outgroups are
hated, but because positive emotions such as admiration, sympathy, and trust are
reserved for the ingroup."

10. History : Attitude and Prejudice
• In 1979, Thomas Pettigrew described the ultimate attribution error and its role in prejudice. The
ultimate attribution error occurs when ingroup members "(1) attribute negative outgroup
behavior to dispositional causes (more than they would for identical ingroup behavior), and (2)
attribute positive outgroup behavior to one or more of the following causes: (a) a fluke or
exceptional case, (b) luck or special advantage, (c) high motivation and effort, and (d) situational
factors."
• Youeng-Bruehl (1996) argued that prejudice cannot be treated in the singular; one should rather
speak of different prejudices as characteristic of different character types. Her theory defines
prejudices as being social defences, distinguishing between an obsessional character structure,
rimarily linked with anti-semitism, hysterical characters, primarily associated with racism, and
narcissistic characters, linked with sexism.

11. What is Attitude?
• Attitude is an expression, which sometimes is favorable and sometimes unfavorable,
towards a person, a place, a situation or any object. Most humans get their decisions
in life based on their attitudes. Attitude can be considered as some sort of a belief as
well. It could be the way how a person sees and understand a certain phenomenon.
Attitude can be either negative or positive. Also, a negative attitude could be turned
to a positive attitude later on and vice versa. It has been found that there are two
types of attitudes in humans. They are explicit attitudes and implicit attitudes.
Explicit attitudes are deliberately formed ones. That means a person has developed
an attitude towards something being really aware of that. Implicit attitudes, on the
other hand, said to be formed by an individual subconsciously. That is a particular
person may not be aware of the attitude formed in him/her.

12. What is Attitude?
• However, attitudes are an important phenomenon in all individuals’ lives
because attitudes may control the peoples’ behavior and thought patterns.
Moreover, there are group attitudes that are shared by a particular group of
people and there are attitude changes as well. It can be said that all the
relationships that exist among humans are based on an attitude structure.
Further, different individuals may share different attitudes towards a similar
phenomenon. One may have a positive attitude regarding a certain thing
whereas another person may perceive the same thing in a negative manner.
Thus, attitudes are not always shared and the perception is one of the main
factors in building attitudes.

13. Aspects of Attitudes
• Attitudes may be "implicit," or unconscious, as well as "explicit," as in the
response that people give when asked their opinion on something. Both types
may affect behavior, although in different ways. The relationship between these
two types of attitudes is complex and not well understood.
• Attitudes are generally understood to have three components: affective or
emotional features, behavioral or action components, and cognitive aspects
related to thought and beliefs. Social psychologists have studied all three aspects
of attitudes, and their inter-relationships, and have developed several theories in
which attitude is the central and key concept in understanding and explaining
human behavior in social situations.

14. Affect
• Affective components of attitudes can be very strong and influential. For example, a
bigot feels uneasy in the presence of people from a certain religious, racial, or ethnic
group; the nature lover feels exhilaration from a pleasant walk through the woods and
mountains. Like other emotional reactions, these feelings are strongly influenced by
direct or vicarious conditioning.
• The affective components consist of the kinds of feelings that a particular topic
arouses. The affective response is a physiological response that expresses an individual's
preference for an entity. It is a conditioned emotional response, which has been linked
to a previously non-emotional stimulus. The affective component of an attitude grows
into a reflex that is intertwined with new emotional responses.

15. Cognition
• The cognitive response is a cognitive evaluation of the entity to form an attitude. The
cognitive component consists of a set of beliefs about a topic. People acquire most
beliefs about a particular topic quite directly: They hear or read a fact or an opinion, or
other people reinforce their statements expressing a particular attitude. It is formed
through direct instructions, reinforcement, imitation and/or exposure. Children form
attitudes by imitating the behavior of people who play important roles in their lives.
Children usually repeat opinions expressed by their parents. Most attitudes in
individuals are a result of "social learning" from their environment. Psychologists use
the expression "mere exposure" effect to denote the formation of a positive attitude
toward a person, place, or thing based solely on repeated exposure to that person,
place, or thing.

16. Behavior
• The behavioral component consists of a tendency to act in a particular way
with respect to a particular topic. Attitudes are more likely to be accompanied
by behaviors if the effects of the behaviors have motivational relevance for
the person. Sivacek and Grano (1982) demonstrated this phenomenon by
asking students to help campaign against a law pending in the state legislature
that would raise the drinking age from eighteen to twenty. Although almost all
the students were opposed to the new drinking law, younger students, who
would be affected by its passage, were more likely to volunteer their time and
effort.

17. Attitude formation and Attitude change
• Unlike personality, attitudes are expected to change as a function
of experience. Tesser (1993) has argued that heredity variables may
affect attitudes, but believes that may do so indirectly. For example,
if one inherits the disposition to become an extrovert, this may
affect one's attitude to certain styles of music.

18. Attitude formation and Attitude change
• There are numerous theories of attitude formation and attitude change. Persuasion is
the process of changing attitudes. Two aspects of persuasion process have received
special attention: the source of the message and the message itself. A message tends
to be more persuasive if its source is credible. Source credibility is high when the
source is perceived as knowledgeable and is trusted to communicate this knowledge
accurately. Attractiveness of the source has also a definite impact in the process of
persuasion. For example, individuals who are asked to endorse products
for advertisers are almost always physically attractive or appealing in other ways.
Another example, physically attractive people are more likely to persuade others to
sign a petition (Eagly and Chaiken, 1993). The social psychological mechanisms of
attitude formation and attitude change are identical.

19. Theories of attitude formation
and attitude change
• A variety of theories attempt to explain attitude
formation and attitude change from various aspects
of emotional life, behavior, and cognition.

20. Consistency theories of cognitive
dissonance
• Consistency theories imply that we seek to be consistent in our beliefs and values. The most famous
example of such a theory is Dissonance-reduction theory, associated with the name of Leon
Festinger.
• According to Festinger's theory, when we perceive a discrepancy between our attitudes and behavior,
between our behavior and self-image, or between one attitude and another, a frustrating state of
anxiety, or "dissonance," results. For example, a person may successfully overcome a
childhood racial prejudice but may experience unpleasant emotional arousal at the sight of a racially
mixed couple. The person experiences a conflict between the belief in his own lack of prejudice and
the evidence of prejudice from his behavior. This internal conflict produces cognitive dissonance,
which is aversive. According to Festinger, a crucial source of a person's motivation is dissonance
reduction: The aversive state of dissonance motivates a person to reduce it. Because dissonance
reduction involves the removal of an aversive stimulus, it serves as a negative reinforcer.

21. Self-perception theory
• Self-perception theory is an account of attitude change developed
by psychologist Daryl Bem. It asserts that we only have that knowledge of our
own behavior and its causation that another person can have, and that we
therefore develop our attitudes by observing our own behavior and concluding
what attitudes must have caused them.
• Self-perception theory differs from cognitive dissonance theory in that it does
not hold that people experience a "negative drive state" called "dissonance"
which they seek to relieve. Instead, people simply "infer" their attitudes from
their own behavior in the same way that an outside observer might. In this way
it combines dissonance theory with attribution theory.

22. Balance theory
• Balance Theory is a motivational theory of attitude change
proposed by Fritz Heider, which conceptualizes the consistency
motive as a drive toward psychological balance. Heider proposed
that "sentiment" or liking relationships are balanced if the affect
valence in a system multiplies out to a positive result.

23. Elaboration Likelihood Model
• The Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion (ELM; proposed by Petty & Cacioppo, 1981,
1986) is a model of how attitudes are formed and changed. Central to this model is
the elaboration continuum, which ranges from low elaboration (low thought) to high elaboration
(high thought). Depending on the extent of elaboration, different processes can mediate
persuasion.
• The ELM distinguishes between two routes to persuasion: the "Central Route" and the
"Peripheral Route." Central route processes are those that require a great deal of thought, and
therefore are likely to predominate under conditions that promote high elaboration. Central route
processes involve careful scrutiny of a persuasive communication (a speech, an advertisement,
and so forth) to determine the merits of the arguments. Under these conditions, a person’s
unique cognitive responses to the message determine the persuasive outcome (the direction and
magnitude of attitude change).

24. Social judgment theory
• The Social Judgment theory of attitude change was proposed by Carl Hovland
and Muzafer Sherif. This theory attempts to explain how attitude change is
influenced by judgmental processes. The key idea of Social Judgment theory can
be understood and explained in terms of "attribution" and other
"communication processes." "Attribution" is the process by which people decide
why certain events occurred or why a particular person acted in a certain manner.
The following factors influence the person's attribution: internal versus external
causes of own behavior and the behaviors of others, consistency consensus, a
certain person's role as an "actor" or a "receiver" in a particular situation.

26. What is Prejudice?
• Prejudice is forming of a negative attitude towards a person without having a
full realization of facts. That is like making a prejudgment. There can be
prejudices over age, social class, ethnicity, race, culture, family and so many
other things. The apparent thing here is that a particular person does not look
deep into the phenomenon before making a conclusion. Somebody can have a
prejudice over a person or a particular group of people, based on a
misunderstanding or because of ignorance. Prejudice is always a negative
scenario which should not be practiced by people.

28. Types of Prejudice
John E. Farley classified prejudice into three categories.
• Cognitive Prejudice refers to what people believe is true. An example of cognitive
prejudice might be found, for example, adherence to a particular metaphysical or
methodological philosophy to the exclusion of other philosophies that may offer a more
complete theoretical explanation.
• Affective Prejudice refers to what people like and dislike. An example of affective
prejudice might be found, for example, in attitudes toward members of particular classes
such as race, ethnicity, national origin, or creed.
• Conative prejudice refers to how people are inclined to behave. It is regarded as an
attitude because people don't actually act on their feelings. An example of conative
prejudice might be found in expressions of what one would do if, hypothetically, the
opportunity presented itself.

30. Example of Prejudice
The most obvious examples of prejudice are based on gender, race, ethnicity, age, sexual
preference, physical or intellectual disability, or mental illness. This table contains
examples of prejudice.
Prejudice type Prejudice
Sexism Gender
Racism Ethnicity or Race
Ageism Age
Homophobia Sexual preference
Disability Physical or intellectual disability, or mental
illness
• In most Western nations, much has been done to try to reduce these prejudices through education and
legislation. There is still much work to do, however, because prejudice can be difficult to prevent and difficult
to eradicate once it has been established.

31. Effects of Prejudice
Victims of prejudice may suffer a range of effects that include physical, pshychological and social
disadvantage, low self-esteem, limited ambition, and physical and verbal abuse. Some examples are set out
in this Table
Effect Example
Low self-esteem
Crude acts of prejudice on a regular basis can damage
self- esteem; e.g. insults, denial of equality, violence
Disadvantage / failure
Being denied access to resources in society that are
necessary for success; e.g. education, health, housing,
employment
Self- fulfilling prophecies
Expectations and assumptions about group members will
influence interaction with members of that group and
eventually change their behavior so that it is in keeping
with the original expectations and assumptions.
Violence and genocide
Overt acts of prejudice that include physical harm; e.g.
apartheid in South Africa, segregation in the united states
and, in some cases, deliberate acts of extermination such
as the Holocaust in the Second World War.

33. The interrelationship between Attitudes,
Prejudice / Discrimination
• Prejudice is another example of an attitude, and therefore the tricomponent model of attitudes can be
applied to prejudice.
• Example, prejudice against elderly people (ageism) includes negative beliefs about elderly people
(cognitive component), a strong feeling of dislike towards the elderly (affective component) and the
action of discriminating against them (behavioural component)
PREJUDİCE
Cognitive The categorization of people, and beliefs about the people
that are put into these categories, especially stereotyping.
Affective Feelings that are either friendly or hostile towards a group
of people.
DİSCRİMİNATİON
Behavioral Behaviors towards group of people.

34. Attitude vs Prejudice
When we take both attitude and prejudice, we can identify that both are human
feelings towards something.
• Attitude can be aimed at a person, an object, a place or may be a situation whereas
prejudice aims at a person or a group of people.
• Moreover, attitude can both be positive or negative but prejudice is always a negative
phenomenon.
• Attitudes are formed after a full investigation of a particular fact whereas prejudice is
based on prejudgment.
• In addition, prejudice can also be considered as an attitude that is not formed through an
experience of the facts.
In similar terms, we see that attitudes as well as prejudice may change over the time and they
are not permanent ideologies.

35. Conclusion and Recommendation
• Based on findings the difference between attitude and prejudice as both these
are feelings of human beings and are terms that can be easily confused.
Attitudes are common to all humans. Anybody can have both positive and
negative attitudes towards something. Attitudes could be in favor of something
or vice versa. On the other hand, prejudice is a prejudgment of something
without really having exposed to the real situation. Prejudice is always an
unfavorable conclusion about somebody. However, both attitudes and
prejudices can be seen in almost every person. The contact hypothesis predicts
that prejudice can only be reduced when in-group and out-group members are
brought together.

36. Based on study made by a glimpse at the Attitudes and
Prejudice problems, below were the suggested issues
Prejudice can be difficult to change; however, education, intergroup contact,
cognitive interventions, setting superordinate goals and direct experience have
been successful to an extent.
Education- the formation of prejudice can be impeded through through
education program in schools where children are taught about tolerance, the
consequences of prejudice, and what constitutes discrimination. Education helps
to reduce prejudice and teach tolerance and acceptance.

37. Intergroup contact
prejudice can be reduced through direct contact between groups of people who
have prejudicial attitudes towards each other. However direct contact alone will
not work; the following factors are also essential:
1. Sustained, interpersonal interactions contact between the groups.
2. Mutual interdependence where the groups engage in cooperative activities.
3. Equal status between the groups.
4. Social norms favouring the reduction of prejudice.
These factors were evident in the reduction of prejudice in the Robbers Cave key
study experiment.

38. Cognitive interventions
• prejudice can be countered by reducing stereotyping through
cognition. For example, making information available to individuals
reduces stereotypes by minimizing irrelevant information about
groups of people. It is important to make sure that this
information is noticed, and to provide sufficient time for
individuals to process information that contradicts to stereotypes.

39. Superordinate goals
• working towards a common goal can facilitate knowledge
and understanding between groups. However, the goal
must be shared, and it must require the contribution of
both groups.

40. Direct experience
• directly experiencing another culture or lifestyle -either in
another country or within our own- can help reduce
prejudice. This could include learning another language,
learning about another culture and participating in another
culture. Direct experience can result in better knowledge
and understanding, and can reduce ignorance.

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