The Normality of Prejudment essays

The Normality of Prejudment essays In his article, The Normality of Prejudgment, Allport argues that normal cognitive processing of information leads to prejudice. He claims that humans have a natural tendency to categorize experience and that categorizing experience serves a number of important functions. However, when we process information about people, the categorization process results in generalizations about social groups, and these generalizations set the foundation for prejudice. Allport begins by observing that people usually associate with other in-group members. He claims people do so simply because it convenient and comfortable whereas associating with out-group members is a strain. It is a strain because one has to make an effort to understand other languages, traditions and values. However, in some situations such as the workplace, it may not be possible to avoid people from other groups. When contact with out-group members does occur, people often misinterpret their behavior resulting in negative feelings toward them. According to Allport, people tend to over generalize their negative feelings toward even one person to dislike of an entire race or other social group resulting in prejudice. For a majority of the article, Allport discusses cognitive categorization and how it can generate prejudice. He asserts that we categorize our experience because doing so is highly functional. One useful characteristic of categorization is that it forms large classes of information which help to guide our daily lives. Allport gives the example of a darkening sky: People assume that a storm is coming, and they can act accordingly. In addition, categories assimilate a great deal of information into a particular cluster. This aspect of categorization helps for us to quickly identify related objects. For example, an individual can identify creatures with wings and a beak as birds. Further, categorization simplifies our experience thereby making it eas...