Gender, Race and Ethnic Relations

After the Second World War, ‘prejudice’ became an object of the new science of social psychology. Gordon Allport’s The Nature of Prejudice (1954) was both the defining text of this field and its most enduringly influential synthesis. In spite of numerous theoretical and terminological alternatives, ‘prejudice’ has remained prominent. The long-standing treatment of women as subordinates to men, usually termed sexism or misogyny, has been sometimes subsumed within the overall category of prejudice. As an increasing range of groups make collective claims for equal treatment, homophobia, fat prejudice, ableism, mental illness stigma and ageism have all become objects of study for social and political psychology (Nelson, 2009). In this chapter, we will be using the terms discrimination to designate the unfair treatment of certain groups (e.g. employers’ reluctance to hire ethnic minority individuals) and stereotypes to describe persistent overgeneralisations about groups (e.g. the belief that women are inherently nurturing). Overall, terminological nuances and disputes are beyond the scope of this chapter (for a discussion, see Dovidio et al., 2010). We aim to review and evaluate the attempts of social and political psychology to make sense of conflicts based on group identity.