PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF PREJUDICE WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO DESEGREGATION

We began by describing prejudice as a minor psychological symptom, an expression of blurred perceptions and unclear thinking. We mentioned its principal origin in fear and its frequent support by a need to reduce guilt through projecting blame onto others. We emphasized the deep roots of prejudicial thinking within the personality.

In the later sections of this article we described a number of factors which can modify the expression of prejudice and its influence on behavior. We pointed out that statements of prejudice and, still more, overt behavior based on prejudice are strongly influenced by groups and by a person's judgment of what the group to which he principally belongs wishes. This section of our paper may make prejudice appear a great deal more plastic than our first sections supposed.

We think this apparent inconsistency can be harmonized by distinguishing prejudicial thinking and individual prejudices. Such faults of thinking as overgeneralization and responses to categories rather than to individuals cannot readily be given up, especially when they are sustained by fear and have been practiced for many years. But individual errors of judgment can be corrected by new experiences. People can change their ways of looking at a particular problem, even though it takes much longer for them to change their general habits of approach to any problem.

These new ways of looking at a problem may come through new experiences brought about by legislative, judicial or administrative acts. Changes of behavior will follow awareness of new laws or customs; changes of attitudes may come later as the new experiences correct misperceptions and as the changing person seeks to bring his attitudes into line with his conforming behavior.