You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Prejudice is defined as an unprovoked or unjustified antagonism, or a preconceived opinion. Antagonism toward groups may be 'normal'. Its causes are
threefold: the primal anxiety evoked by strangers (as seen in infants); competition (one's chances of achieving one's ends are diminished when others seek the same ends); and cultural differences (especially differences in sexual mores). Tolerance is possible if the difference of opinion does not extend to fundamental values; for example, an agnostic can be tolerant of religious and irreligious attitudes alike, for they mean little to him. Tolerance is also possible when issues touch on fundamental values if the belief in them does not carry full conviction. We can also be tolerant if we feel no allegiance to anything or anybody.
Ideas that closely resemble paranoid systems play a great role in collective hatreds, although the individuals who share such collective opinions are not necessarily suffering from paranoia. Anti-Semitism is an example. More simple forms of prejudice (in the sense of preconceived ideas) are due to lack of differentiation between the characteristics of an individual and the statistical average of the group to which he belongs. Judging the new in terms of the old is another intellectual factor in prejudice. Emotional factors such as intense love or hatred impair our powers of judgment. We believe only good of those we love and evil of those we hate. Paranoid ideas are the extreme example of prejudice that defy all attempts at correction.