Why are people

prejudiced?

Short people got no

reason to live.
Randy Newman

140 JOB-PLACEMENT OFFICERS

were asked to choose between 2
applicants.
identical qualifications, but
one was described as 61, the
other as 55
102 judged the taller applicant to
be better qualified.
1 preferred the shorter.

5,000 MEN with 25 years

experience in different careers:
How much money were they
making?
Men who are 56 or 57
Men who are 60 or 61
The taller men were earning
$2,500 more.

Starting salaries of male

librarians:
Men divided into two ways:
Over 6 and under 6
Top half of their class
academically and bottom half
Salary difference was 3 times
greater in the short/tall
comparison.

U. S. Presidential
Elections

Only two presidents have been

shorter than average for males of
their time. (James Madison and
Benjamin Harrison)

Since 1904, the shorter candidate

has been elected only once.

Heavier women earn less:

Sample of 1,442 white female
workers
Heavier women (65 pounds
heavier) earn 7% less.
But . . . this was not true for
African-American or Hispanic
women.

Morals:
1. Prejudice may be
unconscious.
2. We are very good at making
up objective reasons to
justify our prejudiced
judgments.

Stereotypes

Jews
Gays
AfricanAmericans
Women

Like other ethnic groups, Southerners have

differed from the national norm: they have
been poorer, less well-educated, more rural,
occupationally more specialized. They also
differ culturally in important respects; and
their political behavior has been distinctive.
Although Southerners are not usually
identifiable by name or appearance, their
accent usually serves as an ethnic marker. . . .
They are seen, and see themselves, as less
energetic, less materialistic, more traditional
and conventional, more religious and
patriotic, more mannerly and hospitable, than
other Americans.
John Shelton Reed, in Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic
Groups, ed. Stephen Thernstrom (Harvard University Press, 1980),
944-45.

All men are created

equal . . .
Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of
Independence (1776)

He [the King] has waged cruel war against

human nature itself, violating its most
sacred rights of life and liberty in the
persons of distant people who never
offended him, captivating and carrying them
into slavery in another hemisphere, or to
incur miserable death in their transportation
thither. This piratical warfare, the
opproprium of INFIDEL powers, is the
warfare of the CHRISTIAN King of Great
Britain. Determined to keep open a market
where MEN should be bought and sold, he
has prostituted his negative for suppressing
every legislative attempt to prohibit or to
restrain this execrable commerce.
Thomas
Jefferson, draft of the

The Principle of Equality

Individuals are to be treated
in the same way.

The Principle of Equality

Individuals are to be treated
in the same way unless there
is a relevant difference
between them.

Relevant Differences:
Whether a difference is relevant
is a matter for rational
assessment.
Whether a difference is
relevant depends on the type of
treatment in question.

Criteria of Relevance
The Ability to Benefit: Individuals
may be treated differently if there
is a difference in their abilities to
benefit from (or to be harmed by)
the type of treatment involved.
Desert: Individuals may be treated
differently if there is a difference in
what they deserve.

Two Assumptions:
1. People in one group
will often have something
to gain by treating
members of another
group differently.
2. Everyone accepts the
Principle of Equality.

Stereotypes supply the

(fictitious) relevant
differences needed to
make the mistreatment of
individuals consistent with
the Principle of Equality.

HOW STEREOTYPES ARISE

1. I have something to gain by treating
the members of another group
differently than the way in which I
want my own group treated.
2. Therefore, I am motivated to treat
them differently.
3. But, I believe in the Principle of
Equality.
4. Therefore, I cannot treat them
differently unless there is some
relevant difference between them and
me.

5. But, no such differences exist.

6. This means that, if I am to treat them

differently, I must persuade myself
that there are such differences.
7. So I persuade myself. To make it
easier to persuade myself, I draw
upon facts, distorting and
exaggerating them.
8. And thats where the stereotypes
come from.
(And thats also why they are so hard to
dislodgebecause if a person abandons
these beliefs, he/she will also have to
abandon the conduct that the beliefs
justify.)

(The End)