Gordon Allport's The Nature Of Prejudice
Are Americans racist? Numerous studies, including those in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, suggest that if we are given pictures of two people and asked to respond with a judgment, we almost always give a response based on what we assume to be true (Murphy). We never say “I can’t say,” even though we know nothing about either of the people other than their external appearances. This is a simple example of how the mind does a great deal of its work involuntarily, resulting in implicit biases. These biases obfuscate our reflective judgments and alter how we make decisions in the world.
Participants in the studies above would definitely not consider themselves to be racist since they didn’t consciously make racial judgments. Similarly, many people attribute racial tension in our country to overtly racial behavior; thus, they assume that if one is a well-intentioned person then one doesn’t contribute to the hostility. On the contrary, I, as a member of a marginalized ethnicity, have personally felt racial prejudice as the result of hidden biases. Therefore, I believe that the tension regarding race in our country …show more content…
These biases initially start out as harmless categories. In Gordon Allport’s book “The Nature of Prejudice,” he argues that “the human mind must think with the aid of categories…. Once formed, categories are the basis for normal prejudgment” (31). Our brain’s use of categories has a powerful affect on our behavior. For example, we treat a police car very differently than a sports car. If a police car was racing past us, we are probably overcome with fear, respect, and concern. On the contrary, if a sports car was speeding past us, we are probably overcome with annoyance and agitation. We use these categories in all aspects of our lives, including for people, which affect our behavior in very clear
Participants in the studies above would definitely not consider themselves to be racist since they didn’t consciously make racial judgments. Similarly, many people attribute racial tension in our country to overtly racial behavior; thus, they assume that if one is a well-intentioned person then one doesn’t contribute to the hostility. On the contrary, I, as a member of a marginalized ethnicity, have personally felt racial prejudice as the result of hidden biases. Therefore, I believe that the tension regarding race in our country …show more content…
These biases initially start out as harmless categories. In Gordon Allport’s book “The Nature of Prejudice,” he argues that “the human mind must think with the aid of categories…. Once formed, categories are the basis for normal prejudgment” (31). Our brain’s use of categories has a powerful affect on our behavior. For example, we treat a police car very differently than a sports car. If a police car was racing past us, we are probably overcome with fear, respect, and concern. On the contrary, if a sports car was speeding past us, we are probably overcome with annoyance and agitation. We use these categories in all aspects of our lives, including for people, which affect our behavior in very clear