The very structure of the word "prejudice" implies something that precedes reason, reason, occurs without its participation and therefore contradicts logic. But for a person who shares such opinions, illogicality is not obvious, prejudices build their own logic.
A prejudice is a judgment that a person does not even try to subject to rational ("rational") critical analysis. Prejudices take the form of superstitions, social stereotypes, pseudoscientific beliefs.
Prejudice and thinking
Paradoxically, the origin of prejudice is rooted precisely in "reason" - logical thinking. Its main function is to search for patterns, to predict events based on existing experience, therefore, logical thinking is very afraid of accidents and chaos. Lack of information, on the basis of which it would be possible to make forecasts, "knocks the ground out from under the feet" of logical thinking. If objectively there are no regularities, in an attempt to “find” them, it begins to create them.
A typical example of such a finding of false patterns is stereotypes of social perception, which are one of the most dangerous categories of prejudices.
When meeting with a stranger, some uncertainty arises, because it is not known what can be expected from him, how to communicate with him. And so the human mind is trying to predict communication, "guess" the personal qualities of the interlocutor for any detail, be it nationality, profession, age or appearance. In most cases, such judgments are negative, because the main task of forecasting is to avoid dangerous situations: "a blonde means she is not distinguished by intelligence", "a teenager means a bully and a drug addict", etc.
A critical analysis could easily break such judgments. One might wonder what connection could exist between hair color and the level of intelligence, where healthy and law-abiding adults would come from if all adolescents were using drugs. But there will be no critical analysis. A person can meet as many smart blondes and decent teenagers as he wants, but they will all be perceived as exceptions to the rule.
Prejudice and society
Many prejudices are learned through group influence. Belonging to a particular social group, be it a family, a school class, a professional group or a nation, a person assimilates all its group norms, including prejudices. The key principle in this process - "everyone says so", who "everyone" is - is not clear. For example, a person may not remember who and when first told him that a black cat brings misfortune or that genetically modified foods are harmful - but he continues to believe it.
The persistence of such prejudices is determined by the number of people who share them. For example, in the first years after the Great Patriotic War, most of the population of the USSR was convinced that "all Germans are fascists." As people who had no negative experience with the Germans were born and matured, this prejudice gradually faded away, and today only a few elderly people who remember the war are under its rule. Modern children no longer learn this stereotype, even if they communicate with great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers.
Prejudice and experience
In some cases, prejudice comes from personal experience. This happens if acquaintance with any phenomenon or social group turns out to be negative. In particular, if a person is almost unfamiliar with a particular social group, the attitude towards one of its members can be transferred to the group as a whole. For example, a person first came to an Orthodox church, where someone made a sharp remark to him - and since then he is sure that Orthodox Christians are not distinguished by tolerance and tact.
This mechanism of the emergence of prejudices should be remembered when one finds himself in the position of a representative of a particular social group. For example, a Russian who abuses alcohol abroad not only turns others against himself personally, but also reinforces the well-known stereotype “all Russians are drunkards”.
