The Psychological origins of prejudice, discrimination, and racism

Are people “hard-wired” to discriminate based on skin color, ethnicity, religion, place of origin, gender, sexual identity, accents, etc.? Is it hereditary? Do we have no choice?

Or, is it learned? As children, are we taught to discriminate by our parents, our greater family, in school, in church, by our friends?

If we learn to be racist, can we learn not to be racist? If so, what does that take?

Bibliography: Recent and classic publications on the psychological and social underpinnings of prejudice, discrimination, and racism.

**updated January 2025**

*Brewer, M. B. (1999). The psychology of prejudice: Ingroup love or outgroup hate? Journal of Social Issues, 55(3), 429-444.

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*Crandall, C. S., Eshleman, A., & O’Brien, L. (2002). Social norms and the expression and suppression of prejudice: The struggle for internalization. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(3), 359-378. 

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*Fiske, S. T. (1998). Stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske & G. Lindzey (Eds.), 4th ed.; The handbook of social psychology (vols. 1-2, 4th ed.) (4th ed., pp. 357-411, Chapter x, 1085 Pages). McGraw-Hill, New York, NY. 

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*Formanowicz, M., & Suitner, C. (2020). Sounding strange(r): Origins, consequences, and boundary conditions of sociophonetic discrimination. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 39(1), 4-21.

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*Gaines, S. O., Jr., & Reed, E. S. (1995). Prejudice: From Allport to DuBois. American Psychologist, 50(2), 96-103. 

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*Han, S. (2018). Neurocognitive basis of racial ingroup bias in empathy. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 22(5), 400-421. 

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*Herek, G. M. (2000). The psychology of sexual prejudice. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9(1), 19-22. 

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*Witkowska, M., Filippi, S., Formanowicz, M., & Suitner, C. (2023). Sociophonetics and language prejudice: Accent matters: a socio-psychological perspective on sociophonetics. In The Routledge Handbook of Sociophonetics, 342-364.

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For additional research about racism, prejudice, and discrimination, please search —

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Questions? Please let me know —

engelk@grinnell.edu