✧ Prejudice often begins long before a conversation starts. It can appear in a glance, a label, a quick assumption, or a feeling of distrust towards someone not yet known. The phrase itself is often explained as meaning “to judge before”, and that captures its essence well. Prejudice involves forming attitudes about individuals or groups before fair evidence has been considered. In social life, that process can feel ordinary, yet its effects are far from harmless.
In psychology and sociology, prejudice is usually understood as a preconceived evaluation of a person or group based on social category rather than individual reality (Allport, 1954; Dovidio, Hewstone, Glick and Esses, 2010). It is closely linked to stereotypes, emotional responses and discriminatory behaviour. A person may not openly endorse extreme hostility, yet still carry subtle assumptions that influence judgement, trust, and opportunity. That is one reason prejudice remains such an important subject in contemporary research.
The evidence suggests that prejudice is not simply a matter of personal dislike. It is shaped by history, culture, group identity, social learning and institutional practice (Brown, 2011; Quillian, 2006). It may target race, gender, religion, ethnicity, social class, age, disability, or sexual orientation. Although forms differ, the common pattern is the same: people are reduced to broad assumptions rather than treated as complex individuals.
This article explores what prejudice is, how it forms, the different ways it appears, the damage it can cause, and the approaches that may help reduce it.
1.0 What Is Prejudice?
1.1 Prejudice as Judging Before Knowing
At its simplest, prejudice means reaching a judgement before enough knowledge exists to justify it. Allport’s classic work described prejudice as an antipathy based upon faulty and inflexible generalisation (Allport, 1954). That definition still matters because it shows two central features: inaccuracy and rigidity. Prejudice does not merely involve noticing difference; it involves attaching value to that difference in ways that are resistant to evidence.
1.2 Prejudice, Stereotypes and Discrimination
Research often distinguishes between three related ideas. Stereotypes are beliefs about groups, prejudice refers to attitudes or evaluations, and discrimination involves actions or unequal treatment (Dovidio et al., 2010). In practice, however, they often overlap. A stereotype that a group is less competent may feed prejudice, and that prejudice may influence hiring, housing, schooling or policing decisions.
2.0 How Prejudice Develops
2.1 Prejudice and Social Learning
A major source of prejudice is social learning. Families, peer groups, schools, communities and media all help shape attitudes about who belongs, who is trusted and who is feared. Children do not invent most group prejudices for themselves; they absorb them from the cultural world around them (Fishbein, 2014). Repeated jokes, biased reporting, exclusionary traditions and one-sided narratives can make prejudice appear normal.
For example, if children repeatedly see certain racial or religious groups associated with danger or deficiency in media and conversation, those associations may become familiar long before direct personal experience develops.
2.2 Prejudice and Group Identity
Social psychology also shows that prejudice is connected to group membership. People often favour their own group while viewing out-groups with suspicion or distance. This does not inevitably lead to hatred, but it can create the “us and them” thinking on which prejudice thrives (Augoustinos and Reynolds, 2001). When social stress, competition or fear is added, these divisions can harden.
2.3 Prejudice and Implicit Bias
Modern research has also highlighted more subtle forms of prejudice. Pearson, Dovidio and Gaertner (2009) argue that contemporary prejudice is often less openly declared than in the past, yet it still influences behaviour through implicit bias, discomfort and selective judgement. This means that a person may sincerely support equality while still reacting differently in ambiguous situations.
3.0 Forms of Prejudice in Everyday Life
3.1 Racial Prejudice
Racial prejudice remains one of the most widely studied forms. It involves negative assumptions, emotional hostility or unfair expectations based on race. In everyday life, this may appear in suspicion, exclusion, stereotyping or differential treatment. Quillian (2006) notes that racial discrimination can persist even when overt racist attitudes become less socially acceptable.
A common example is the assumption that a person from a particular racial background is more threatening or less capable, despite no evidence about that individual.
3.2 Gender Prejudice
Gender prejudice includes assumptions about competence, leadership, emotionality or care based on gender. Women may be judged as less suited for authority, while men may be viewed as less nurturing in care roles. These attitudes can influence pay, promotion and expectations in both family and work settings (Kite, Whitley and Wagner, 2022).
3.3 Religious and Ethnic Prejudice
Religious prejudice and ethnic prejudice often arise from cultural misunderstanding, fear, and inherited narratives. A religious group may be associated with extremism, or an ethnic group may be stereotyped as dishonest, lazy or less intelligent. Such assumptions are especially harmful because they attach moral judgement to identity rather than conduct.
3.4 Class and Sexuality-Based Prejudice
Socioeconomic prejudice may involve viewing poorer people as lazy or wealthier people as arrogant and unfeeling. Prejudice linked to sexual orientation can involve the assumption that LGBTQ+ individuals are morally suspect, socially threatening or defined by narrow stereotypes. These views affect belonging, safety and access to equal treatment.
4.0 Why Prejudice Persists
4.1 Prejudice and Confirmation Bias
One reason prejudice is persistent is that people often notice evidence that confirms what they already believe. Contradictory examples may be ignored or explained away. If someone assumes that people from a certain background are unreliable, one late arrival may be remembered as proof, while dozens of ordinary interactions are forgotten.
4.2 Prejudice in Subtle Forms
Modern prejudice is not always loud. It may appear in hesitation, exclusion from networks, harsher judgement in unclear situations, or policies that seem neutral but have unequal effects. Pearson, Dovidio and Gaertner (2009) describe this as a key feature of contemporary prejudice: discrimination may emerge most clearly when norms are ambiguous and people can justify their behaviour on non-prejudicial grounds.
This subtlety makes prejudice harder to detect, but not less important.
5.0 The Consequences of Prejudice
5.1 Prejudice and Unequal Treatment
The most visible consequence of prejudice is unequal treatment. People may be denied jobs, housing, credit, respect or safety because others judge them through group-based assumptions rather than personal merit. Pager and Shepherd (2008) show that discrimination continues to affect major social domains including employment, housing and consumer markets.
5.2 Prejudice and Psychological Harm
Prejudice also causes emotional and psychological harm. Repeated suspicion, dismissal or exclusion can create anxiety, anger, reduced belonging and diminished self-worth. People who face prejudice are often required to manage not only ordinary life demands, but also the burden of being misjudged.
5.3 Prejudice and Society as a Whole
A society shaped by prejudice loses trust, wastes talent and deepens inequality. Communities become more divided, institutions less fair, and everyday relationships more fragile. In that sense, prejudice harms not only targeted groups but the social fabric itself.
6.0 How Prejudice Can Be Reduced
6.1 Reducing Prejudice Through Contact and Education
Research following Allport has long suggested that positive intergroup contact can reduce prejudice, especially where there is cooperation, equal status and shared purpose (Allport, 1954; Wright and Taylor, 2007). When people encounter one another as individuals rather than as abstract categories, assumptions often weaken.
Education also matters. Critical thinking, historical awareness and media literacy can help people question inherited beliefs instead of repeating them.
6.2 Reducing Prejudice Through Institutions
Because prejudice is not only personal, responses must also be structural. Fair recruitment, anti-discrimination policy, representative leadership and accountability systems all matter. Psychology can explain how prejudice works, but institutions shape whether it is challenged or reproduced (Girvan, 2015).
∎ Prejudice means more than simple dislike. It is a pattern of judging before knowing, built on assumptions rather than evidence and often reinforced by culture, group identity and institutional habits. Research shows that prejudice can be obvious or subtle, emotional or routine, individual or structural (Allport, 1954; Dovidio et al., 2010; Brown, 2011). Whatever form it takes, its consequences are serious: discrimination, exclusion, psychological harm and social division.
At the same time, prejudice is not fixed or inevitable. Evidence suggests that meaningful contact, better education, self-reflection and fairer institutions can reduce it. The central challenge is simple in principle, even if difficult in practice: to replace premature judgement with evidence, empathy and equal regard. A more inclusive society depends on resisting the urge to judge before understanding.
References
Allport, G.W. (1954) The nature of prejudice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Augoustinos, M. and Reynolds, K.J. (2001) Understanding prejudice, racism, and social conflict. London: Sage.
Brown, R. (2011) Prejudice: Its social psychology. 2nd edn. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Dovidio, J.F., Hewstone, M., Glick, P. and Esses, V.M. (2010) ‘Prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination: Theoretical and empirical overview’, in The SAGE handbook of prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination. London: Sage. Available at: https://www.torrossa.com/gs/resourceProxy?an=4913726&publisher=FZ7200.
Fishbein, H.D. (2014) Peer prejudice and discrimination: The origins of prejudice. New York: Psychology Press.
Girvan, E.J. (2015) ‘On using the psychological science of implicit bias to advance anti-discrimination law’, Georgetown Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal, 26, pp. 1–47. Available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm?abstractid=2592178.
Kite, M.E., Whitley, B.E. and Wagner, L.S. (2022) Psychology of prejudice and discrimination. 4th edn. London: Routledge.
Pager, D. and Shepherd, H. (2008) ‘The sociology of discrimination: Racial discrimination in employment, housing, credit, and consumer markets’, Annual Review of Sociology, 34(1), pp. 181–209.
Pearson, A.R., Dovidio, J.F. and Gaertner, S.L. (2009) ‘The nature of contemporary prejudice: Insights from aversive racism’, Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 3(3), pp. 314–338. Available at: https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2009.00183.x.
Quillian, L. (2006) ‘New approaches to understanding racial prejudice and discrimination’, Annual Review of Sociology, 32, pp. 299–328. Available at: https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.soc.32.061604.123132.
Wright, S.C. and Taylor, D.M. (2007) ‘The social psychology of cultural diversity: Social stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination’, in The SAGE handbook of social psychology. London: Sage.
