To distinguish misjudgment of facts from errors of evaluation, it is suggested that problems about evaluation be reduced to distinctions between 'normal' and 'pathological' dislikes. Defensive mechanisms in distortion of the picture of the object are outlined, projective processes being most important. Individuals 'search' for objects onto whom to project undesirable traits, and this process may become institutionalized in group prejudices. The author feels that the reluctance to change prejudicial notions derives from an affectively unpleasant experience whenever value systems are disrupted and require reorientation to the outer world. This tendency may be traced to infantile attempts to arrange the world into good and bad objects and values. When this is upset or when it must be suspended by delay in judgment, the child experiences acute distress. So does the prejudiced adult.