An understanding of prejudice is critical for resolving many pressing social problems because prejudice (a) contributes to many social problems and (b) is a consequence of social problems. These cyclical factors make prejudice ubiquitous in society.

Negative prejudice directly contributes to social problems in the form of discrimination. For example, prejudice toward certain groups is associated with discrimination in employment. In one classic study, a cohort of white participants was assigned to interview either a black or a white job applicant. The research revealed that black applicants were treated differently than were white applicants. White interviewers of black applicants kept greater physical distance from black applicants, made more speech errors during the interviews, and ended the interviews sooner. Research demonstrates that prejudice toward groups influences employment decisions, educational disparities across groups (e.g., teachers' expectations and student achievement), patterns of housing (e.g., residential segregation), political representation and underrepresentation, and even jury sentencing. Beyond these disturbing consequences, prejudice can motivate hate crimes, police brutality, and personal conflicts. Globally, prejudice played a role in some of the most heinous genocides from the Holocaust to those in Bosnia and Rwanda. Thus, prejudice can fuel both antipathy and active aggression.

Social scientists have shown that prejudice not only contributes to social problems but also results from them. When people witness disparities between groups, such as disparities of poverty and educational achievement, they develop prejudices. For example, system justification theory argues that psychological and ideological motivations lead individuals to justify and preserve the status quo, often via unconscious prejudices and stereotypes. This is an example of a social problem leading to prejudice, because to maintain the existing social order in which the majority group enjoys dominance and privilege, both minority and majority members may experience prejudice against members of the minority group and for the majority group. Indeed, studies show that members of minority ethnic groups actually favor majority ethnic group members, thus perpetuating inequity. Additionally, because people are generally motivated to believe the world is fair and that people "get what they deserve"--the "just world phenomenon"--prejudice becomes an efficient way to justify the status quo. When the status quo includes a host of social problems, such as ethnic or gender stratification in work or education, the result is prejudice.

One can quickly identify a troubling state of affairs--a vicious cycle in which negative prejudice can contribute to social disparities that, in turn, contribute to prejudice. For this reason, negative prejudice is often considered a social problem, and breaking this cycle via prejudice reduction has been a major concern of social scientists and practitioners.

References:

1) Allport, Gordon W. 1954. The Nature of Prejudice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

2) Devine, Patricia G. 1989. "Stereotypes and Prejudice: Their Automatic and Controlled Components." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 56:5-18.

3) Dovidio, John F., Samuel L. Gaertner, and Kerry Kamakami. 2002. "Implicit and Explicit Prejudice and Interracial Interaction." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 82:62-68.

4) Fiske, Susan T. and Shelley E. Taylor. 2007. Social Cognition. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.

5) Gaertner, Samuel L. and John F. Dovidio. 2000. "The Aversive Form of Racism." Pp. 289-304 in Stereotypes and Prejudice: Essential Readings, edited by C. Stangor. New York: Psychology Press.

6) Greenwald, Anthony G. and Mahzarin R. Banaji. 1995. "Implicit Social Cognition: Attitudes, Self-Esteem and Stereotypes." Psychological Review 102:4-27.

7) Jost, John T., Brett W. Pelham, and Mauricio R. Carvallo. 2002. "Non-Conscious Forms of System Justification: Implicit and Behavioral Preferences for Higher Status Groups." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 38:586-602.

8) La Pierre, Richard T. 1936. "Type-Rationalizations of Group Antipathy." Social Forces 15:232-37.

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