Is prejudice taught or natural

Answer 1

The Nature of Prejudice

• It isn't a gene issue, but the environment in which you were brought up. However, as you become an adult there is no excuse to continue on with the prejudice and the best way to over-come the fear of a different race/culture is to meet people of that race/culture and get to know them. There are many misconceptions you learn from parents. Don't be a hate addict and consider it an adventure to have different races/cultures in your life. It's interesting and you can make some good friends.

• No, prejudice cannot be inherited. It may be learned, but as said above it is not something you have to continue to believe. We all have our own minds and can decide to like or dislike whomever we choose. As the above said, it is a great idea to talk with people who you feel prejudiced against. You may find they are not how you thought or were taught to believe they were. And you may at the same time defuse any misconceptions about you. I find it hard to understand how anyone can dislike someone they have never met. A great example is racism. Many people hate on color of skin, but not everyone with the same skin tone has the same personality or beliefs. There may be many cultural likenesses but when comes down to it everyone is an individual with their own feels and thoughts.

AnswerPsychological Self-Help offers the following:

DISLIKING OTHERS WITHOUT VALID REASONS: PREJUDICE

Where Do Prejudices Come From?

Prejudice is a premature judgment--a positive or a negative attitude towards a person or group of people which is not based on objective facts. These prejudgments are usually based on stereotypes which are oversimplified and overgeneralized views of groups or types of people. Or, a prejudgment may be based on an emotional experience we have had with a similar person, sort of our own personal stereotype. Stereotypes also provide us with role expectations, i.e. how we expect the other person (or group, like all Japanese) to relate to us and to other people. Our culture has hundreds of ready-made stereotypes: leaders are dominant, arrogant men; housewives are nice but empty headed; teenagers are music crazed car-fanatics; very smart people are weird, and on and on. Of course, sometimes a leader or housewife or teenager is somewhat like the stereotype but it is a gross injustice to automatically assume they all are.

Prejudice, in the form of negative put-downs, justifies oppression and helps those of us "on top" feel okay about being there. Prejudice can be a hostile, resentful feeling--an unfounded dislike for someone, an unfair blaming or degradation of others. It is a degrading attitude that helps us feel superior or chauvinistic. Of course, the misjudged and oppressed person resents the unfair judgment. Discrimination (like aggression) is an act of dealing with one person or group differently than another. One may be positively or negatively biased towards a person or group; this behavior does not necessarily reflect the attitude (prejudice) one feels towards that person or group. You might recognize your prejudiced feelings are unreasonable and refuse to act in unfair ways. Common unfavorable prejudices in our country involve blacks, women, Jews, Arabs, Japanese, Germans, poor (welfare), rich, farmers, rednecks, obese, handicapped, unattractive, uneducated, elderly, Catholics, Communists, atheists, fundamentalists, homosexuals, Latinoes, Indians, and lots of others.

When we are prejudiced, we violate three standards: reason, justice, and/or tolerance. We are unreasonable if we judge others negatively without evidence or in spite of positive evidence or use stereotypes without allowing for individual differences. We are unjust if we discriminate and pay men 1/3 more for the same work as women or select more men than women for leadership positions or provide more money for male extra-curricular activities in high school than for female activities. We are intolerant if we reject or dislike people because they are different, e.g. of a different religion, different socioeconomic status, or have a different set of values. We violate all three standards when we have a scapegoat, i.e. a powerless and innocent person we blame for something he/she didn't do.

AnswerI think any specific prejudice is learned but the tendancy to dislike or fear what is different or what you do not understand is natural to all people to greater or lesser degree. Every culture at every time had prejudices, I think that is hereditary but who you hate is learned and I also think you can learn to overcome the gut reaction to dislike the new and instead choose to learn about it and appreciate it. AnswerMy opinion is that fear is the instinct, we instinctively fear that which is different. It is through acquiring wisdom and knowledge that we overcome the fear and thus the prejudice.

My sister, when very young was apparently prejudiced against the first black family who moved into our street. It soon became apparent that she was exhibiting the same reaction as she did to big dogs and people with casts on their legs, namely her reaction was fear.

Once she had made friends with the family she had overcome her fear and thus her prejudice. If she had not been allowed to play with the children of the family she would have remained fearful and the prejudice would have become entrenched.

Incidentally she is no longer afraid of big dogs or casts either.

It all depends really, prejudice towards the deformed is instinctive because in ancient times deformity usually meant disease. However, now days many prejudices are a function of the environment in which you live or grow up.

It is learned behavior. A child learns prejudice from the parents and others in their environment.

Answer:

The question is not as easily answered as many of us would like. The book "Are We Born Racist?" includes contributions suggesting that "neuroscience has discovered racial prejudice rooted in brain areas that emerged early in primate evolution and that still govern our instincts today." So, while it would be nice to be able to simply lay all prejudices at the feet of societal learning, there may very well be vestiges of earlier learned behavioral patterns that, to this day, come into play in determining our perceptions. If this is indeed true, then we need to understand and accept the existence of these instincts if we are to learn to deal with them effectively.

Answer 2

Prejudice is a learned behavior that is influenced by various factors like upbringing, environment, media, and societal norms. While biases and stereotypes can sometimes be subconscious and influenced by evolutionary predispositions to categorize information, prejudice itself is a result of socialization rather than being innate.