The psychology of prejudice and discrimination, social identity theory explained

By M.Farouk Radwan, MSc.

The psychology of prejudice and discrimination

What if someone felt that he is worthless and found no way to prove that he is adequate, Won’t it be a good idea to put others down in order to feel worthy?

When a person fails to find a way to feel adequate and when that feeling is combined with his lack of desire to work hard or to exert effort he tends to look for an easy way to elevate his worth such as downgrading others.

Sometimes the person's values might prevent him from doing so to others and so in such a case he might try to elevate his self worth by claiming that he belongs to a group that has a high status.

In that case also the person will feel that he is worthy not because he has achieved something but because of believing that there are many others who are less worthy than him.

Social Identity Theory

The social identity theory attempts to explain the reason behind prejudice and discrimination.

It states that the person who wants to feel worthy usually seeks a group that appears to be superior to others in order to lift his self worth.

You might be thinking that you never do so but when you read the next few lines you will discover that this process is usually too stealth to be noticed.

The clever student who becomes friends with others who don't study at all attempts to elevate his worth by setting up this imaginary environment where he can become the best.

Instead of studying hard and becoming a better person he decided to find another group of people who seem to be less worthy than him.

Of course determining the worthiness of others happens according to the person's beliefs and preferences not according to reality.

In short many of those who discriminate or judge others do it in order to feel good and not because others are really less worthy than them.

People who discriminate lack self confidence

The subconscious mind learns a certain thinking pattern if it was repeated over and over. If you kept thinking that your group is better than some other group then your subconscious mind will conclude that there are other groups that are better than yours.

Based on this thinking pattern you will feel worthy when being with some people and totally worthless when being with others!!

This is also why many people have yoyo like self confidence that changes often.

Final words about discrimination

After knowing that the main reason for discrimination is related to the discriminator's personal problems you should never feel bad when someone attempts to act superior to you.

People who discriminate don’t feel worthy and that’s why they do so. On the other hand if you found yourself involved in discrimination then you must take serious steps to build your self confidence.

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