Prejudged Attitudes

Through history culture has had prejudged attitudes about certain groups of people. There are three types of prejudged attitudes. They are cognitive, affective and behavioral.

The cognitive prejudged attitude is the stereotype. A stereotype is a belief of characteristics people have of certain groups of people. Stereotypes can be positive or negative. Stereotype derives from the Greek meaning for a solid impression. Stereotypes are formed by the illusory correlation which is when people think that things are related when they really are not. Stereotypes are also formed through parents and the media. For example a common stereotype of people who are Italian is that they like to cook food.

The affective prejudged attitude is prejudice. Prejudice is the disliking of a particular group. Prejudice can be based on race, ethnicity, gender, social class, age, disabilities, religion and sexuality. For example a black and a white woman apply for the same job in a company. The company gives the white women the job.

The behavioral prejudged attitude is discrimination. Discrimination is inappropriate treatment of individuals due to specific group membership. For example the Ku Klux Klan was a group that was prejudice against blacks in the south in the 1960’s.The KKK was formed in1965 with a total of 500,000 members. Today the Ku Klux Klan still exists and claims a total of 3,000 in membership.