Shockingly, as much as individuals may try to pose a non- prejudice face, many of them are in fact prejudicial. According to Monteith & Winters (2002), people may not want to admit that they are overwhelmed with xenophobic inclination, but the depths of their prejudices run so deep. Furthermore, an increasing body of studies shows a connection between actual behaviors and hidden biases. This means that hidden biases can be seen through actions, particularly when one is under stress.
In fact, if anyone would like to know whether they exhibit prejudice towards a particular group or have been a victim of prejudice, one should test himself or herself using the Implicit Association Tests (IATs) (Aronson, Wilson & Akert, 2012). IATs show that people who have hidden stereotypes and prejudice will always show these features in their action. It may be through eye contact or general body language and behavior. IATs are of many kinds, such as (a) weapons IAT which requires recognition of white and black faces as well as images of guns and harmless objects. (b) Gender-science IAT, which shows a relationship between females and liberal arts, and science and males. (c) Disability IAT this requires the ability of an individual to know the symbols that represents the able and physically challenged individuals (Aronson, Wilson & Akert, 2012).
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This is not to say that prejudice cannot be eliminated; prejudice can be directly rooted out of one’s system when people become self-conscious of their biases, and take affirmative actions (Piff & Kraus, 2010). Easy steps like integration and mixing with other races have shown great changes to tackling prejudice. Also developing an interest in learning about other cultures and appreciation of the world’s complexity is a major step towards the elimination of prejudice, stereotyping and biases. Prejudice may be a thing of the past if people get educated and reeducated on the subject of diversity which can change the way people think about others (Aronson, Wilson & Akert, 2012).
References
Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., & Akert, R. M. (2012). Social psychology (8th ed.) . VitalSource Bookshelf Online. Retrieved from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780205974832/
Monteith, M.; & Winters, J. (May/June, 2002). Why we hate. Psychology Today, 35 (3), 44-50, 87.
Piff, P. K. & Kraus, M. W. (2010). Having Less, Giving More: The Influence of Social Class on Prosocial Behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99(5), 771–784.
