Racism

Sections

1 2 3

Nature Fear & The

Social Identity versus Technological
Theory Nurture Revolution
Social Identity Theory
 Social Identity
Social Identity Theory is built on the definition “Social identity is a person’s
sense of who they are, based on their group membership”. He proposed that
humans tend to divide people into “us” and “them” based on their social
identities. (Mcleod] 2019).
Social Identity
Humans favour their group while amplifying
differences with others. This isn’t inherently
bad, but it is also the root cause of social
evils like discrimination, prejudice and
favouritism.
According to psychologist Gordon Allport,
people use categories to understand their
world better and racism is simply an artifact
of that process (Cuncic 2022). We can see
how racism is just an extension of this
evolved “us” and “them” mentality.
Despite our liberal progressions, racism
exists in its watered-down version-
prejudice.
Nature vs Nurture
Nature & Nurture

Nature refers to genetics and

other hereditary factors while
nurture encompasses the
environmental factors that
influence who we are. (Cherry
2022).
Nature
Versus
Nurture
Racism is clearly influenced more by
nurture than nature. Take, for example,
Europeans. In the 1800s they believed
it was the “White Man’s Burden” to
bring civilisation to other races, but in
2022 the same race of Europeans are
making parades on racial equality. But
nature also has a role in it as we all
evolved a sense of prejudice and have
it to this day. it only becomes racism
when we act on prejudice. Most
people, even those who care deeply
about equality, show some level of bias
against other groups when tested
using the IAT (a test used to find
implicit biases). (Grewal 2011).
 Fear and the
The only thing we
have to fear, is
fear itself Technological
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Revolution
 Fear
According to Dan Gardner, fear of
something can often lead to more
devastating consequences than the thing
itself. In the same way, there is an
unreasonable and excessive fear of “out-
groups” (other races). (Mcleod] 2019).
To make matters worse, we have
“merchants of fear” (social media, news)
blowing our fear out of proportion for
their benefit. (Gardner 2009).
Social Media
Filter Bubbles
If we look at a site that sympathizes with racism, to social
media algorithm feeds us more websites agreeing with it,
giving us a false impression that “everyone thinks racism is
okay”. (Ciampaglia et al. 2018). A study’s shown that these
social media algorithms decrease exposure to ideologically
challenging news by more than 25% for conservative users,
and close to 50% for liberal users (Nikolov et al. 2015).

Confirmation Bias
We tend to evaluate information more favourably if it comes
from within our social circles, creating “echo chambers”
(another manifestation of confirmation bias). “This helps
explain why so many online conversations devolve into “us
versus them” confrontations.” (Ciampaglia et al. 2018).
 Conclusion

Racism has far-reaching effects on its victims'

mental health and future. It was an unintended
side effect of evolution and has completely
polarized humanity with the emergence of social
media. It has and always will be the dark side of
humanity and hopefully someday it’ll never see the
light of day again
Sources Mcleod], [saul. “Social Identity Theory.”
Simply Psychology, 24 Oct. 2019,
https://www.simplypsychology.org/social-
identity-theory.html.
Cuncic, Arlin. “The Psychology of Racism.”
Verywellmind.com, 2 Feb. 2022,
https://www.verywellmind.com/the-
psychology-of-racism-5070459.
Grewal, Daisy. The Evolution of Prejudice.
By Daisy Grewal on April 5 2011,
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article
/evolution-of-prejudice/.
Cherry, Kendra. What to Know About
Nature vs. Nurture. 20 Sept. 2022,
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-
nature-versus-nurture-2795392.
Sources Gardner, Dan. The Science of Fear. Edited
by Plume Publishing, Plume Publishing,
2009.
Ciampaglia, Giovanni Luca, et al. “Biases
Make People Vulnerable to Misinformation
Spread by Social Media.” Scientific
American, By Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia,
Filippo Menczer, The Conversation US on
June 21 2018,
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article
/biases-make-people-vulnerable-to-
misinformation-spread-by-social-media/.
Nikolov, Dimitar, et al. “Measuring Online
Social Bubbles.” PeerJ Computer Science,
vol. 1, Dec. 2015, p. e38.
Thank you!