Decease… Death… Die…

The types of prejudices

The presence of this of that prejudice is seriously distorting for its bearer the process of perception of people from other ethnical or social-cultural groups.

The bearer of the prejudice sees only what he wants to see and not what is there in reality. As a result the huge number of positive qualities of the prejudice’ object is not counted during the communication and interaction. Then, in the environment of people who are infected by the prejudices, unconscious feeling of anxiety and fear arises in front of those who is the object of discrimination for them.

The bearers of prejudices see the potential threat in their face and this generates more distrust towards them. And then, in addition, the existence of prejudices and based at them traditions and practice of discrimination, segregation, infringement of the civil rights, in the final analysis, it is distorting the self-appraisal of objects of these prejudices.

The feeling of the social inferiority is imposed on the significant number of people and as a reaction to this feeling – the readiness to the assertion of the personality full value through the interethical and intercultural conflicts is arising.

The consequences arise in the result of influence of some, one prejudice or a group of prejudices. All depends on the fact – to which type does the corresponding prejudice belong.

The types of prejudices are the following:

1) Bright groundless prejudices (where there is an open statement) – that the members of the alien group according to these or that features are worse than the representatives of the own group.

2) Symbolic prejudices are based at the presence of the negative feelings in relation to the members of the alien group which are perceived as the threatening to the cultural basic values of the own group.

3) Tokenize type of prejudices is expressed in the provision of the different forms of the social advantage to the representatives of the ethnic and social-cultural groups in society to create the visibility of justice. The prejudices of this type supposes the presence of the negative feelings in relation to the alien group, however the members of the own group don’t want to avow themselves that they have prejudices in relation to others.

4) Prejudices of the “long arms” mean the positive behavior in relation to the members of the alien group only in the certain circumstances (for example, casual acquaintanceship, formal meetings). In situation of more close encounters (for example, neighborhood) unfriendly behavior is demonstrated.

5) Physical likings and antipathies as a type of prejudices means the presence of the open negative attitude towards the members of the alien group in case if their behavior really doesn’t suit the members of the own group.

6) “Familiar and unfamiliar”. This type of prejudices means the refusal from the contacts with the members of the alien group as the people of the given group are always feeling discomfort during the communication with the aliens and that’s why they prefer to interact with people of their own group because such interaction doesn’t arouse deep nerve and emotional experiences.

The problem of correction and change of the prejudices

The prejudices hardly yield to the change and if they some day were accepted, and then it is very difficult to refuse them. The ethnical prejudices distinguish by the special “vitality” in this relation. It is impossible to take away the prejudice, to cross it out from the people consciousness. It is only possible to make it more well-founded, grounded, and accessible for understanding, to modify and describe it.

Stereotypes and prejudices are changing very slowly and very difficult.

People are inclined to remember that information which is supporting the prejudice, and to ignore that information which is not contradicting them. That’s why, if the prejudices were some day adopted by the person, then they would become apparent during the long time.