The Role of Emotion in Prejudice – Prejudice and Bias (PSY)

00:00 Emotion plays a role in prejudice.

00:03 And we know that emotion and cognition or how you think plays a very important role in shaping a prejudice.

00:08 Now, we know that if you’re upset, then that might shape the way you execute your prejudice.

00:15 We also know that fear and frustration are emotional drivers behind prejudice.

00:21 So when you’re scared or you’re frustrated, it’s very easy for you to show prejudice against another group or another individual.

00:31 So if you are afraid of perhaps a new culture or group of individuals moving into your neighborhood or your territory, you might be a little bit apprehensive and afraid.

00:42 What is this going to do to my neighborhood? And is this going to do to me? And I have no power over this. Nobody is allowing me to choose if they can come in.

00:50 They're just coming in and now you are frustrated.

00:51 So your reaction might be, “Well, I don’t know about those people that come from that town.

00:58 That town called Bumsville.

01:00 Those Bumsville people, they are just really, really lazy, and they steal and you’re thinking this.

01:06 And is that really founded on actual evidence? Do you really know for a fact that the people from Bumpsville are actually that lazy or that terrible? And you don’t.

01:16 But because you are afraid and you are frustrated, you actually imply and roll out that prejudice.

01:23 This can elicit the natural reaction of hostility as well from both sides.

01:28 Now, all of a sudden, I’m laying out this prejudice against this group.

01:32 And it’s gotten mean to a heightened state of arousal.

01:38 And in the moment, something even perceived happens, so they actually do something maybe by mistake or inadvertently that aligns with my prejudice.

01:48 Now I can become extremely hostile.

01:50 Now if you flip it, the receiver of the prejudice might by self-defense become quite hostile as well.

01:58 when he or she feels, or the group feels that they’re not being welcomed and then instead there is this prejudice they might be hostile as well.

02:06 A scapegoat, which I think is why we have this beautiful figure of weird looking goat.

02:12 It refers to the individual at whom this place hostility is directed.

02:18 So, you might actually identified with the certain individual or group that’s going to be the brunt of your prejudice.

02:27 And, again it might be – most of the time it is displaced. It’s not appropriate.

02:32 but you find, “Hey that person I think he’s the one that’s responsible.

02:35 And all the prejudice, all the hostility and everything is directed towards that one individual even though it’s not really founded.