Psychology of Prejudice Ethnocentrism Germany

Psychology of Prejudice & Ethnocentrism

Germany

Context Post-WW II Consensus: • Capitalist & communist countries more bureaucratic, technological, rational, secular • Nationalism, ethnocentrism, religious passion, prejudice will recede & fade away

Context Post-1989: Consensus shattered • Resurgence of religious fundamentalism & ethnic nationalism • Re-shaping societies around globe • Main form of global strife • “New Tribalism” ?

Northern Ireland: Catholics and Protestants

Cambodia: “autogenocide”

Bosnia: “ethnic cleansing”

Rwanda

Sudan: Muslim North vs. “pagan” South

Sudan today: Darfur

Israel - Palestine

Sri Lanka: Hindus vs. Buddhists

Sri Lanka: Buddhist “fundamentalism” Aug. 18, 2006 Buddhist Monks Brawl at Sri Lanka Peace Protest

India: Muslims vs. Hindus

Muslim “fundamentalism”

Taliban: executions for immorality

France: National Front

France: North Africans riot

Christian “Fundamentalism”

U. S. : KKK

U. S. : white power

U. S. : Campus Tension

Psych. Causes of Prejudice • Cognition: faulty thinking, overgeneralization • Emotion: defense against inner conflict • Group Conflict: ideology for struggle between groups • Discomfort: unfamiliarity, anxiety

Definitions Joel Kovel, White Racism • Prejudice = Individual attitudes & stereotypes vs. • Racism = Social institutions which advantage some group(s) and disadvantage other(s)

Types of Racism / Prejudice Joel Kovel, White Racism • Dominative: – Emotionally-charged bigotry – Origin in plantation slavery • Aversive: – Emotionally cold avoidance – Origin in northern segregation • Metaracism: – Racism without deliberate prejudice – Origin in post-Civil Rights era

Dominative Racism “A racism of direct, physical oppression and sexual obsession, belongs to the Old South, especially in the years following slavery…”

Aversive Racism “The racism of coldness and the fantasy of dirt, belongs to the bourgeois life, proper, being that form of racism characteristic of the North, stable urban zones of segregation, and suburbs. ”

Metaracism “the racism of technocracy, i. e. , one without psychological mediation as such, in which racist oppression is carried out directly through economic and technocratic means… “. . . racist oppression occurs today through the seemingly automatic laws of the economic system. ”

Metaracism “. . . the real object of contemporary racism: the workless black underclass, created by structural economic injustice, cut off from their bourgeoisiefied fellows, and set adrift among family disorganization, wretched educational opportunities, dwindling public services of all kinds and decaying urban enclaves. ”

Metaracism “. . . the psychological or prejudicial part of racism is one of its most modifiable features. . . ”

Theories of Prejudice • Prejudice through Conformity • Authoritarian Personality – “projection” theory • Scapegoat Theory – Frustration aggression • Economic & Political Competition – Realistic group conflict • Low Social Status

Conformity • Eichmann • Americans who move North or South • Historical change in prejudices • Coal miners: – Prejudiced above ground – Egalitarians below ground

Authoritarian Personality / R. W. A. • Prejudice against all out-groups and deviants • Projection theory: Negative stereotypes built from projection of feared & rejected characteristics

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Scapegoat Theory • Nazi anti-Semitism • Lynchings 1882 – 1930 in South correlated with price of cotton • States with highest divorce rates have strongest support for anti-gay marriage laws & amendments • anti-Chinese pogroms in Indonesia

Scapegoat Theory

Economic & Political Conflict Realistic Group Conflict • Colonial seizures of land • Catholics & Protestants in Northern Ireland • M. Sherif: “Robbers Cave” Experiment