Today’s article explores how society and social phenomena shape our personality and sense of identity. We’ll examine several well-known social issues that have gained prominence in recent years: prejudice, stereotypes, stigmatization, discrimination, and racism.
The Three-Dimensional Influence on a Person
People often attribute an individual’s mental health, thinking patterns, perceptions, and behaviors solely to themselves. These traits are primarily ascribed to genetic and biological factors, which indeed influence personality and character. However, this perspective portrays a person as one-dimensional, affected only by their innate nature and not by external factors.
Modern psychodynamic theories, particularly John Bowlby’s attachment theory, highlight the crucial role of environment—especially family—in shaping a person. The surroundings in which we grow and interact significantly impact our mental health and overall personality development.
There’s a third influential factor: the society in which a person is born, lives, and interacts.
- When discussing societal influence, we primarily refer to:
- Culture
- Customs and traditions
- Socio-political and economic conditions
- Unwritten social “rules”
- Prevailing beliefs, perceptions, ideas, moral values, prejudices, and stereotypes
With this framework in mind, let’s examine the social phenomena mentioned earlier.
Prejudice
Prejudice primarily forms and manifests during childhood. A child’s influences stem from their environment, including:
- Family
- Social environment (friends, teachers, etc.)
- Society at large (culture, traditions, customs, social norms)
This constant exposure to societal experiences shapes our internal mental representations—images of ourselves, others, and the world. It also fosters stereotypes, discrimination, and racism, which become deeply ingrained habits, automatic responses, and unconscious parts of our personality.
The adoption of bias depends on three factors:
- The individual’s personality
- Their interactions with family members
- The social and cultural influences they receive
A person’s interactions with others and society inevitably impact them. As young children, in our quest for recognition and acceptance—primarily from parents—and to understand the world, we begin to create markers of what’s acceptable to others. As we approach adolescence, we absorb societal norms, identifying with or distinguishing ourselves through various tendencies, behaviors, and groups.
Consequently, perceptions, beliefs, behaviors, and eventually stereotypes and prejudices gradually form. Simultaneously, a person’s unique characteristics, personality, and sense of identity take shape.
The Psychology of Prejudice
Psychologist Gordon Allport defines prejudice as an antipathy felt and expressed towards a person from another social group. This antipathy encompasses feelings of contempt and loathing, based on false and inflexible generalizations, without any credible foundation (e.g., scientific research).
According to David Milner, prejudice comprises three elements:
- Emotional: Feelings such as disgust, antipathy, hatred, revulsion, and hostility
- Cognitive: Opinions, perceptions, beliefs, and stereotypes
- Volition: A bias or negative predisposition
Oversimplification of others’ characteristics significantly contributes to prejudice formation. This stems from our attempt to categorize people’s common features into different groups for easier recognition.
Prejudice also bolsters an individual’s psychology by increasing self-esteem while offering material advantages. People often attribute negative traits to other groups and resist changing these perceptions or opinions.
The difficulty in changing these views is also influenced by prevailing social, political, and economic conditions.
Example
It’s both easy and beneficial to feel good about oneself by belonging to a group (social, sports, or music-related). We often consider our group superior and better, along with its members, whom we see as peers sharing common feelings and experiences.
Conversely, we may view other groups (often rivals) as inferior. We might characterize members of these groups negatively, as we can’t identify with them.
For instance, distinctions like “middle class vs. upper class,” “Barcelona vs. Real Madrid,” or “metal music fans vs. rap enthusiasts” illustrate this phenomenon.
Stereotypes
Examining a person through the lens of stereotypes limits our expectations and responses to them. Many stereotypes persist due to:
- Insufficient information
- Isolation
- Confused perceptions
- Separation
Stereotypes are simplified perceptions or images that people commonly attribute to groups based on little or no knowledge. They are prefabricated patterns of perception that lead to:
- Generalizations
- Simplifications
- Distortions of reality
Stereotypes are personal and subjective assumptions that can become structural elements of an individual’s personality, often resistant to change. Failing to engage with people from different groups reinforces existing perceptions and mental images.
Consequently, stereotypes not only violate the rights of other group members but also harm them by fostering prejudice and discrimination.
Our brain’s reliance on stereotypes
The brain uses categorization to manage and process the vast amount of information it encounters. While not inherently negative, categorization guides daily experiences and helps integrate information.
People employ stereotypes to:
- Interpret
- Analyze
- Predict
complex information from our environment and those around us. We create personal interpretive constructs to represent, categorize, and evaluate others, guiding our interactions.
Stereotypes become a social problem when this simplification and categorization solidify as subjective truth, serving as an “excuse” for attitudes and behaviors—positive or negative—toward individuals or groups. These attitudes and behaviors lead to discrimination, social stigma, and racism.
Discrimination
Discrimination refers to the unfavorable treatment of individuals or groups based on:
- Racial and ethnic origin
- Religious beliefs
- Sexual orientation
- Social and economic status
- Physical disabilities
Social discrimination involves denying members of certain social groups:
- Privileges
- Prestige
- Authority
- Equal legal protection
- Other social benefits enjoyed by other groups
A person who discriminates has developed a negative attitude toward others, often categorizing them uncritically rather than considering their individual characteristics. This leads to rigid and entrenched criticism of entire groups.
Discrimination and Social Stigmatization
Social stigma is the disapproval of a person based on their characteristics or beliefs that deviate from social norms.
It involves labeling certain behaviors, attitudes, and characteristics as “undesirable” when they differ from the “normal” social standard. This labeling creates prejudices and stereotypes against individuals who exhibit these traits.
A prime example is the stigma surrounding mental health issues.
Erving Goffman, who pioneered the theory of social stigma, defines it as an unwanted difference or negative attribute. A stigmatized person fails to meet societal expectations and struggles to fulfill their assigned roles.
Stigma typically develops in four stages:
- Identification of social differences and deviations
- Association of these differences with negative behaviors, creating labels or stereotypes
- Separation of “us” (in-group) from “them” (out-group), leading to polarization
- Social degradation and discrimination of stigmatized individuals, resulting in negative behaviors or attitudes
These stages reveal that stigma emerges in social environments where the following elements coexist and interact:
- Labeling
- Stereotyping
- Separation
- Loss of social status
Racism and Nationalism
Since ancient times, humans have been aware of inequality, leading to tribal divisions. This schism breeds fear and hostility towards the unfamiliar and foreign.
Milner defines racial prejudice as a false, biased, and rigid attitude that’s difficult to change. This mindset predisposes individuals to act favorably or unfavorably towards others based on their group membership.
Group diversity is often used to justify discrimination, forcing some into conditions akin to slavery. This treatment is frequently—though not always—rationalized by assumptions of inferiority or perceived danger. At the core of this spectrum of oppression lies exclusion or unequal access to public and social goods.
Racism is deeply intertwined with nationalism because racist ideologies have shaped national identities. These identities comprise:
- Attitudes and perceptions
- Traditions, customs, and culture
- Cultural, historical, and religious origins
This has resulted in a unified perception among citizens of a state, fostering feelings of imagined superiority over citizens of other nations, where differences are emphasized.
Conclusion
All these phenomena stem from an individual’s interactions with family, society, and social experiences.
Life experiences shape our character, personality, and identity. Through these interactions and experiences, we develop perceptions, thought patterns, stereotypes, and prejudices about:
- Ourselves
- Others
- Society and the world
This integration occurs as habits form for individuals or groups, becoming familiar, automatic, and unconscious.
These habits become so ingrained that we can only become aware of them by:
- Changing our mental filters
- Shifting our point of view
- Consciously thinking beyond our presumed knowledge
Through these efforts, we can become aware of our habits and fixed perceptions.
In our complex social world, where we interact with diverse individuals, our mental schemas offer a manageable framework for responding to others. However, they often confine us to rigid, overly simplistic, and binary thinking.
While we can alter our perceptions through education and personal growth, transcending these ingrained constructs remains challenging.
References
- M Amodio, D. (2016, September 21). Stereotyping, The Neuroscience of Prejudice and Stereotyping. Nature reviews Neuroscience .
- M Amodio, Cikara M. The Social Neuroscience of Prejudice. Annu Rev Psychol. 2021 Jan 4;72:439-469. doi: 10.1146/annurev-psych-010419-050928. Epub 2020 Sep 18. PMID: 32946320.
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