Introduction
Prejudice is an intrinsic part of society as all people form different opinions about themselves, others, and various social phenomena. It can be defined as an attitude and a “preconceived negative judgment of a group and its individual members” (Myers & Twenge, 2018, p. 238). There is a debate about whether prejudice is an innate social or learned behavior and whether society can address it effectively. This essay hypothesizes that prejudice is a learned behavior due to the impact of home life, peer groups, and school curriculum on individuals.
Literature Review
Prejudice a major societal problem: Review
The first article selected for the purposes of this paper discusses prejudice as a societal problem and its impact on various communities. Levinson and Sanford (2020) aim to emphasize stigmatization, domestic violence, crime, social protests, dislocation, health disparities, and genocide as the consequences of discrimination and bias. The authors speculate that prejudice is a learned behavior, and when widespread in society, it causes the repercussions mentioned above (Levinson & Sanford, 2020). The authors utilized a review methodology in order to consider the effects of prejudice on society thoroughly.
According to Levinson and Sanford (2020), exposure to negative preconceptions leads to prejudice becoming embedded in society. An emphasis is put on children being subjected to damaging behavior patterns and learning them from an early age. The strength of the article lies in a detailed exploration of the influence of different types of prejudices on various communities and their varying outcomes. The study’s main limitation lies in its review methodology, which prohibits accounting for gaps in the existing literature.
The selected article directly supports the proposed hypothesis that prejudice is a learned behavior. Levinson and Sanford (2020) state that people do not instinctively have preconceptions, and prejudices are learned over time through interactions with society. The authors note that behavior patterns are often acquired at an early age, and home life is the most significant contributor to negative prejudices being perpetuated in society. As a learned behavior, prejudices can be and should be addressed by communities in order to alleviate their adverse effects.
Peer attitudes and the development of prejudice in adolescence
The second article considers the role of peer attitudes in the development of negative preconceptions in adolescence. According to Hjerm et al. (2018), social environment and context are crucial because people, specifically during their teenage years, as most individuals are highly susceptible to social influences. The study’s purpose is to examine the impact and interrelation of the attitudes of nominated friends, prestigious peers, and teenagers’ own position in the peer network on the formation of prejudices (Hjerm et al., 2018). The researchers employed a longitudinal study to assess the effect of peer attitudes on individuals aged 13 and 30.
Hjerm et al. (2018) discovered that peer prejudice has a significant impact on the development of individual biases. The less central the teenagers are in their peer group, the more prejudiced they are (Hjerm et al., 2018). The main strength of the research study is the exploration of the interrelation of peer attitudes, respondents’ beliefs, and their position within the peer network. Nevertheless, the authors do not account for the reasons behind the choice of the friend group before adolescence.
The discussed article contributes to the support of the proposed thesis that prejudice is a learned behavior. The authors provide evidence that peer networks significantly affect the beliefs of adolescents over time, supporting the notion that negative preconceptions are acquired during social interactions. Furthermore, Hjerm et al. (2018) point out that every member of a peer network, regardless of their position in it, can impact the development of their peer biases. Thus, prejudice is a behavior that can be learned both at home and outside it.
Learned inequality: Racial labels in the biology curriculum can affect the development of racial prejudice
The third article evaluates the effect of school curricula on the development of prejudices. Specifically, the author considers the impact of the application of racial labels in biology on the formation of negative preconceptions about different races. The purpose of the article is to determine the effect of exposure to racial terminology on adolescents’ beliefs about race and their levels of racial prejudice. The author argues that a biology curriculum that uses racial terminology leads to the continuation of “genetically deterministic beliefs about racial difference” and individuals losing interest in building cross-racial social relationships (Donovan, 2016, p. 384).
Donovan (2016) performed a field experiment with two groups of students from similar backgrounds being assigned to two biology classes with different biology curriculum treatments. The trial showed that a curriculum containing racial labels leads to students exhibiting higher levels of prejudice and being less interested in building cross-racial relationships. The study’s strength is its experimental design, which allowed the assessment of the effect of different biology curricula on similar groups of students. However, the researcher did not account for potential additional exposure to information about racial bias.
Overall, the research study supports the hypothesis that prejudice is a learned behavior. The author concludes that a biology curriculum containing racial terminology contributes to adolescents developing harmful notions of genetic differences between races, including those in intelligence. The article endorses the idea that exposure to certain social conditions contributes to the development of specific behavioral patterns and preconceptions. Thus, racial prejudice and other types of bias are learned behaviors.
Conclusion
In summary, prejudice is a learned behavior that can be characterized as a preconceived negative notion about groups of people or individuals belonging to these groups. The reviewed literature supports the hypothesis that prejudice is learned, as Levinson and Sanford (2020) note the effect of home life, and Hjerm et al. (2018) notice the impact of peer networks. Meanwhile, Donovan (2016) argues that the school curriculum also contributes to the development of negative preconceptions. Thus, individual levels of prejudice are directly impacted by one’s social environment.
References
Donovan, B. M. (2016). Learned inequality: Racial labels in the biology curriculum can affect the development of racial prejudice. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 54(3), 379–411. Web.
Hjerm, M., Eger, M. A., & Danell, R. (2018). Peer attitudes and the development of prejudice in adolescence. Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, 4, 1–11. Web.
Myers, D. G., & Twenge, J. M. (2018). Social psychology (13th ed.).
Levinson, D. J., & Sanford, R. N. (2020). Prejudice a major societal problem: Review. IDOSR Journal of Applied Sciences, 5, 43–54. Web.