Prejudice

Prejudice is, as the name implies, the process of "pre-judging" something. It implies coming to a judgment on a subject before learning where the preponderance of evidence actually lies, or forming a judgment without direct experience. Holding a politically unpopular view is not in itself prejudice, and politically popular views are not necessarily free of prejudice. When applied to social groups, prejudice generally refers to existing biases toward the members of such groups, often based on social stereotypes; and at its most extreme, results in groups being denied benefits and rights unjustly or, conversely, unfairly showing unwarranted favor towards others.

This is different than viewpoints accumulated though direct life experience, which are neither prejudiced, conditioned or necessarily instinctive: they are not pre-judgments but post-judgments. Some argue that all politically-based views stem from a lack of sufficient life experience; this, however, provokes the question of how much life experience is required before a point of view is no longer regarded as prejudiced. If no amount of experience entitles a person to a viewpoint - if every is biased - then there can be no objectivity. Judgements based on experience may, however, be coloured by prejudice. One might imagine a continuum from "prejudiced" to "based on experience," with many, if not most, views coming somewhere between the two extremes.

Fallacious extension of one's own negative past experiences to the general case can be harmful; it can be termed bias, or more colloquially, "lumping". If a person has developed the concept that members of one group have certain characteristics because of a sour past acquaintance with a member of that group, s/he may presume that all members of the group have such characteristics. For example, a person who has had a series of bad relationships with members of the opposite sex may develop a prejudice against that sex, thus adopting the prejudice known as sexism. This is typical of all prejudice: racism, linguicism, ageism, religious intolerance, heterosexism, prejudice based on differing political stances, etc.

In other cases, it may be a matter of early education: people taught that certain attitudes are the "correct" ones may form opinions without weighing the evidence on both sides of a given question. Many prejudicial behaviors are picked up at a young age by children emulating their elders' ways of thinking and speaking, with no malice intended on the child's part. The prejudiced adult might even be shocked to hear a slew of racial slurs and their own half-cocked opinions on various groups echoed back at them from their children. Early learning is highly influential, however, prejudice can be learned at any age. In Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice, the heroine forms a strong opinion of a man's character before she hears his side of the story. The balance of the facts, when finally made known to her, challenges and ultimately overturns this prejudice. Prejudice is also a theme in To Kill a Mockingbird, in which a man is wrongly tried and convicted because of his race. Sociologists have termed prejudice an adaptive behavior. Biased views are necessary at times for human survival: we don't always have time to form a legitimate view about a potential foe before adopting a defensive stance that could save our lives. Conversely, prejudice is non-adaptive when it interferes with survival or well-being (e.g., refusing to patronize the only doctor in a town who could save you because he or she is black, or rejecting a potential friend/partner because of ethnicity).

Differing opinions of what constitutes prejudice can prompt us to reconsider our views, with an emphasis on self-understanding. Does, for example, criticizing another person as being prejudiced in itself sometimes involve pre-judging the very person being criticized? Another interesting intellectual conundrum is to consider whether deeply-held spiritual or religious views are also prejudiced, since they are not necessarily based on direct experience.

There is some confusion between common and legal usages of the term "prejudice." In law, the phrase "with prejudice" implies a judgment having been made after the presentation of evidence; it does not imply any form of bias.