Prejudice

Gordon Allport (1954) famously defined prejudice as “an antipathy based upon a faulty and inflexible generalization. It may be directed toward a group as a whole, or toward an individual because he [sic] is a member of that group” (p. 9). This definition of [Page 650]prejudice as hostility, dislike or the generalized negative evaluation of an entire group of people remains a core component of the definition of prejudice in many areas today.

As various commentators have argued, however, the definition of prejudice-as-antipathy is incomplete. Focusing on antipathy misses the powerful effect that patronizing attitudes which position one group as weaker than the other and in need of protection can have for maintaining social inequality and hierarchy. Because of this, many recent psychological theories have taken ...