Page 292 - Essencials of Sociology

Theories of Prejudice 265

This was a common sentiment in Germany in the 1930s during the deep depression that
helped bring Hitler to power. People often unfairly blame their troubles on a scapegoat—
often a racial–ethnic or religious minority. Why do they do this? Psychologist John Dollard
(1939) suggested that prejudice is the result of frustration. People who are unable to
strike out at the real source of their frustration (such as unemployment) look for someone
to blame. This person or group becomes a target on which they vent their frustrations.
Gender and age are also common targets of scapegoating. So are immigrants.
Prejudice and frustration often are related. A team of psychologists led by Emory
Cowen (1959) measured the prejudice of a group of students. They then gave the stu-
dents two puzzles to solve, making sure the students did not have enough time to fin-
ish. After the students had worked furiously on the puzzles, the experimenters shook
their heads in disgust and expressed disbelief that the students couldn’t complete such
a simple task. They then retested the students. The results? Their scores on prejudice
increased. The students had directed their frustrations outward, transferring them to
people who had nothing to do with the contempt they had experienced.
The Authoritarian Personality.
“I don’t like Swedes. They’re too rigid. And I don’t like the Italians. They’re always talk-
ing with their hands. I don’t like the Walloneans, either. They’re always smiling at some-
thing. And I don’t like librarians. And my job sucks. Hitler might have had his faults, but
he put people to work during the Great Depression.”
Have you ever wondered whether some people’s personalities make them more inclined
to be prejudiced, and others more fair-minded? For psychologist Theodor Adorno, who
had fled from the Nazis, this was no idle speculation. With the horrors he had observed
still fresh in his mind, Adorno wondered whether there might be a certain type of per-
son who is more likely to fall for the racist spewings of people like Hitler, Mussolini, and
those in the KKK.
To find out, Adorno gave three tests to about two thousand people, ranging from
college professors to prison inmates (Adorno et al. 1950). He measured their ethnocen-
trism, anti-Semitism (bias against Jews), and support for strong, authoritarian leaders.
People who scored high on one test also scored high on the other two. For example,
people who agreed with anti-Semitic statements also said that governments should be
authoritarian and that foreign customs pose a threat to the “American” way.
Adorno concluded that highly prejudiced people have deep respect for authority
and are submissive to authority figures. He termed this the authoritarian personality.
These people believe that things are either right or wrong. Ambiguity disturbs them,
especially in matters of religion or sex. They become anxious when they confront norms
and values that are different from their own. To view people who differ from themselves
as inferior assures them that their own positions are right.
Adorno’s research stimulated more than a thousand research studies. In general, the
researchers found that people who are older, less educated, less intelligent, and from a
lower social class are more likely to be authoritarian. Critics say that this doesn’t indi-
cate a particular personality, just that the less educated are more prejudiced—which we
already knew (Yinger 1965; Ray 1991). Nevertheless, researchers continue to study this
concept (Solt 2012).

Sociological Perspectives
Sociologists find psychological explanations inadequate. They stress that the key to scapegoat an individual or group
understanding prejudice cannot be found by looking inside people but, rather, by exam- unfairly blamed for someone else’s
ining conditions outside them. For this reason, sociologists focus on how social environ- troubles
ments influence prejudice. With this background, let’s compare functionalist, conflict, authoritarian personality The-
and symbolic interactionist perspectives on prejudice. odor Adorno’s term for people who
are prejudiced and rank high on
Functionalism. scales of conformity, intolerance,
In a television documentary, journalist Bill Moyers interviewed Fritz Hippler, a Nazi insecurity, respect for authority, and
submissiveness to superiors
who at age 29 was put in charge of the entire German film industry. When Hitler came