Page 350 - The Social Animal

332 The Social Animal

battles have been instigated by vulnerable leaders trying to consoli-
date power by generating an outside enemy. In so doing, they impose
order and cohesion among their citizens and create a scapegoat for
the country’s economic problems.

The Maintenance of Self-Image and Status A powerful
determinant of prejudice is embedded in our need to justify our be-
havior and sense of self. In the previous two chapters, we have seen
that, if we have done something cruel to a person or a group of peo-
ple, most of us will try to derogate that person or group to justify our
cruelty. If we can convince ourselves that a group is unworthy, sub-
human, stupid, or immoral, it helps us to keep from feeling immoral
if we enslave members of that group, deprive them of a decent edu-
cation, or aggress against them. We can then continue to go to
church and to feel like good Christians because it isn’t a decent fel-
low human we’ve hurt. Indeed, if we’re skillful enough, we can even
convince ourselves that the barbaric slaying of old men, women, and
children is a Christian virtue—as the crusaders did when they
butchered European Jews on their way to the holy land, where they
butchered thousands of Muslims, all in the name of the Prince of
Peace. Again, this form of self-justification serves to intensify subse-
quent brutality. It preserves the self-image, but also leads to increased
hostility against the target person or group.
By the same token, if our status is low on the socioeconomic hi-
erarchy, we may need the presence of a downtrodden minority group
to feel superior to somebody. Several studies indicate that a good pre-
dictor of prejudice is whether a person’s social status is low or declin-
63
ing. For example, Jennifer Crocker and her colleagues found that
college women who belonged to low-status sororities expressed more
prejudice and disparagement of other sororities than did members of
higher-status sororities. Similarly, when researchers have investi-
64
gated the prejudice of whites against blacks or of Gentiles against
Jews, 65 they found that those whose social status is low or declining
are more prejudiced than those whose social status is high or rising.
Moreover, white people who are near the bottom in terms of educa-
tion, income, and occupation are most likely to dislike blacks and
most likely to resort to violence to prevent the desegregation of
67
schools. 66 Steven Fein and Stephen Spencer found that threats to
self-esteem tend to increase prejudicial responses. In their experi-