Analysis of Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Social Group Dynamics

This essay examines the pervasive issues of stereotypes and prejudice within society, analyzing their roots in social cognition and group dynamics. It explores how biases are formed and maintained, focusing on the Social Identity Theory (SIT) and the Realistic Group Conflict Theory to explain how individuals identify with groups and how competition for resources can exacerbate prejudice. The essay delves into how stereotypes, often born from prejudice, can lead to discrimination based on factors like race, gender, and religion. It highlights the interdependence of stereotypes and prejudice, illustrating how personal biases and social competition contribute to their perpetuation. The analysis includes examples of how stereotypes impact individuals and groups, emphasizing the role of upbringing and social influences in shaping these biases.

Running head: STEREOTYPE AND PREJUDICE
Stereotype and Prejudice
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1STEREOTYPE AND PREJUDICE
Stereotypes and prejudices are the set of biases, which help in creating a divide in the
society. In this essay, the stereotypes and prejudices are analyzed as the social bias, which create
a divide in the society. The social cognition and the related issues leading to the inculcation of
the stereotypes and prejudices are studied in detail. The Social Cognition Theory (SIT) is studied
as the chief cause of the stereotypes and prejudices in the society. The identification with the
society by an individual often leads to the acceptance of social stereotypes according to this
theory. The theory is analyzed in relation to the Realistic Group Conflict Theory. Analyzing
these theories one can ascertain the correlation between prejudice and stereotypes.
The stereotypes are a set of ideals of beliefs attached to the group of people by another.
The stereotypes can be of different based on the behavioral patterns of the society they are about
and the beliefs of the society they are in (Hamilton 2015). The prejudice is the negative behavior
towards an individual or group based on their belonging into a certain social group (Kite and
Whitley Jr 2016). The prejudices and the stereotypes are interdependent on each other as they are
often resultant of the prevalence of the other. The stereotypes often arise due to the prejudice that
one society has for another, and the prejudice may arise out of the stereotypes that are prevalent
in the society. Social Identity Theory (SIT) propounded by Tajfel and Turner (1978) can explain
the cognitive reason for the indoctrination of the stereotypes and prejudices in the society. The
SIT depends on the cognition of human and the need of an individual to identify itself with the
society. When an individual identifies oneself with a certain group of society, they follow the
norms and the rules of the society. The adhering to the common notions and the behaviors in the
society helps in the formation of the ideology of “We” and “Them” that is that who can be
considered as the one who is not. The social identity of an individual and can based on a number
of thing and multiple identities at ones such as religion, nationality, political ideology among

2STEREOTYPE AND PREJUDICE
other belief (Christ et al. 2014). The identifications of oneself with a certain belief system make
the individual to question the belief system of the others, who are considered as “them” (Smith
2014). The different societies thus formed have a sense of competition of supremacy among
themselves. The ideologies of conflict among the societies lead to the formation of negative
ideals among the competing societies about each other leading to the formation of stereotypes.
The competitive societies also see the any help from the competitors as the infiltration from then
leading to the prejudices.
One of the other important theories working in cohesion with the SIT to give rise to the
Stereotypes and Prejudices is the Realistic Group Conflict Theory. The realistic group conflicts
occur when the groups are in conflict for a resource, which is considered as limited. This theory
greatly explains the favoritism shown by the companies and organizations in a certain society
(Mackie and Hamilton 2014). The people owning an organization in America show a prejudice
towards the Muslims who are ardent followers of the religion and have physical attributes to
show for it. This is because of the fact that there is a common misconception or stereotype or
misconception that people who are ardent followers of Islam have a terrorist link (Mohammed
2015). These stereotypes are born because anyone with that attributes are considered outsiders in
the American society more so after the 9/11 attacks. The stereotypes have been reinforced
because of the rising terrorism in the Islamic countries. The stereotypes thus created create issues
for the people seeing to work from poor countries like Bangladesh. The stereotyping leads to
prejudices for a number of people in the society. The stereotypes and the prejudices are not only
prevalent as cultural but are also gender and color based. The stereotype of women being bad
drivers, leads to the prejudice against them in Saudi Arabia where women were not allowed to
drive for a long time until recently (Danforth 2016). The societies base their prejudices on the

3STEREOTYPE AND PREJUDICE
stereotypes prevalent in the society and this has cause a number of social biases. The most
common bias seen in the history of human kind was the treatment of Africans among the
Americans and the Europeans.
The stereotype and the prejudice are interdependent on each other and may be each
other’s result in most cases. The stereotypes prevalent in the society lead to a number of
prejudices and which in turn give rise to other stereotypes in the society. The most important part
of the stereotyping and prejudice and the personal bias in the social identity theory is the
inclusion of personal choices (Fiske and North 2015). It is not always that the individual
develops stereotypes based on the society they identify to, but they identify to the society, which
have the common stereotype and prejudice preference as them. For example, a person, who is
strictly patriarchal, will try to interact with the people who ascribe to the similar ideals as him. It
is not only that the stereotypes lead to prejudice in the society, there are a number of cases where
individual prejudices lead to the stereotyping of a certain society. One of the most important
cases to exemplify this was the hatred of Adolf Hitler towards the Jews, which led to the death of
a large number of Jews. Prejudices lead to a society being partial to the other lead to the other
being the downtrodden and on this scenario; they may take up action ascertaining the stereotype.
For example, in the American societies the people from certain parts of the city are treated with
partiality in many states leading to stay in lower jobs than their counterparts. This is because they
are thought to be of the criminal background. In this scenario, the people forced by their
untowardly conditions turn to crime.
The stereotypes and prejudices are therefore dependent on each other. The stereotypes are
often caused due to the society and the inculcation of a set of ideals among the individuals
leading to the prejudices is a long term nurturing and seeding of the ideologies (Koenig and

4STEREOTYPE AND PREJUDICE
Eagly 2014). Most of the stereotypes and the prejudices that are deeply fed into the human mind
id the result of the upbringing of the individual. The prejudices arising out of these stereotypes
are due to the social competition among the different social groups. The social competition leads
to competitiveness, which leads to further imbibing of the stereotypes and prejudice due to
partiality.
Thus, it is seen in this essay that the stereotypes and prejudices are prevalent in the
society and interdependent onto each other. The biases prevalent in the society are due to the
different identification of individuals among these typographies leading to the bifurcation in the
society. The cognition of these biases in the society is the result of the identification of
individuals in a certain society and their competition for supremacy with the other societies.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the stereotyping and the prejudice is prevalent due to the
inculcation of ideologies, rather than habitual preferences.
\

5STEREOTYPE AND PREJUDICE
References
Christ, O., Schmid, K., Lolliot, S., Swart, H., Stolle, D., Tausch, N., Al Ramiah, A., Wagner, U.,
Vertovec, S. and Hewstone, M., 2014. Contextual effect of positive intergroup contact on
outgroup prejudice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(11), pp.3996-4000.
Danforth, L.M., 2016. Crossing the Kingdom: Portraits of Saudi Arabia. Univ of California
Press.
Fiske, S.T. and North, M.S., 2015. Measures of stereotyping and prejudice: Barometers of bias.
In Measures of personality and social psychological constructs (pp. 684-718).
Hamilton, D.L. ed., 2015. Cognitive processes in stereotyping and intergroup behavior.
Psychology Press.
Kite, M.E. and Whitley Jr, B.E., 2016. Psychology of prejudice and discrimination. Psychology
Press.
Koenig, A.M. and Eagly, A.H., 2014. Evidence for the social role theory of stereotype content:
Observations of groups’ roles shape stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 107(3), p.371.
Mackie, D.M. and Hamilton, D.L. eds., 2014. Affect, cognition and stereotyping: Interactive
processes in group perception. Academic Press.
Mohammed, S.N., 2015. The Muslims Next Door: Transgressive Hybridity in TLC's All-
American Muslim. Mass Communication and Society, 18(1), pp.97-118.

6STEREOTYPE AND PREJUDICE
Smith, E.R., 2014. Social identity and social emotions: toward new concepitualizations of
prejudice. Affect, cognition and stereotyping: Interactive processes in group perception, 297.