Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination

Humans are very diverse and although we share many similarities, we also have many differences. These differences may be difficult for some people to reconcile, which may lead to prejudice.

From Prejudice to Stereotypes

The social groups we belong to help form our identities (Tajfel, 1974). Prejudice is common against people who are members of an unfamiliar cultural group. Thus, certain types of education, contact, interactions, and building relationships with members of different cultural groups can reduce the tendency toward prejudice. In fact, simply imagining interacting with members of different cultural groups might affect prejudice. Indeed, when experimental participants were asked to imagine themselves positively interacting with someone from a different group, this led to an increased positive attitude toward the other group and an increase in positive traits associated with the other group. Furthermore, imagined social interaction can reduce anxiety associated with inter-group interactions (Crisp & Turner, 2009).

What are some examples of social groups that you belong to that contribute to your identity? Social groups can include gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, social class, religion, sexual orientation, profession, and many more. And, as is true for social roles, you can simultaneously be a member of more than one social group.

Can you think of a prejudiced attitude you have held toward a group of people? How did your prejudice develop? Prejudice often begins in the form of a stereotype.

For example, someone holding prejudiced attitudes toward older adults may believe that older adults are slow and incompetent (Cuddy, Norton, & Fiske, 2005; Nelson, 2004). We cannot possibly know each individual person of advanced age to know that all older adults are slow and incompetent. Therefore, this negative belief is overgeneralized to all members of the group, even though many of the individual group members may in fact be spry and intelligent.

Challenging Stereotypes with Counterexamples

Stereotypes often persist even when there is clear evidence that contradicts them. For example, a common stereotype in U.S. culture is that elite athletes—particularly Black male athletes—are physically gifted but less intelligent. Research shows that this belief continues to shape expectations and evaluations, even in academic settings (Hodge et al., 2008).

However, real-world examples clearly challenge this stereotype. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, also earned a bachelor’s degree in history from UCLA and later completed a master’s degree in the same field. After retiring from professional sports, he became a prolific writer and public intellectual, authoring multiple books on history, politics, and social justice.

Similarly, former NFL player John Urschel left professional football to pursue mathematics full time. He earned a doctorate in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is now a professor at MIT. Urschel has spoken openly about navigating stereotypes that questioned his intellectual ability while he was an elite athlete.

These examples highlight an important feature of stereotypes: they are resistant to change, even in the presence of highly visible counterevidence. Rather than updating beliefs, people may treat individuals like Abdul-Jabbar or Urschel as “exceptions,” allowing the stereotype itself to remain intact. This is one reason stereotypes can be so persistent—and so harmful.

When Beliefs Become Behavior: Discrimination

Whether or not you agree with a stereotype, stereotypes are generally well-known within a given culture (Devine, 1989). Sometimes people will act on their prejudiced attitudes toward a group of people, and this behavior is known as discrimination.

Table 1 summarizes the characteristics of stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination. Have you ever been the target of discrimination? If so, how did this negative treatment make you feel?

So far, we’ve discussed stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination as negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors because these are typically the most problematic. However, it is important to also point out that people can hold positive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors toward individuals based on group membership; for example, they would show preferential treatment for people who are like themselves—that is, who share the same gender, race, or favorite sports team.