| Chapter Introduction: | Introduction to the Handbook on Prejudice |
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and prejudice as an instrument not of identity formation but of identity politics. To be without prejudices cannot mean to be without value commitments; to resist them cannot mean to abandon long-grown sentiments, basic convictions, or deep intuitions which are an integral part of human personality development.
The aim of the study of prejudices is not to destroy bias, preferences, and value statements per se, which would destroy identities and personalities as well, but to single out as being detrimental those specific heterostereotypes that manifestly harm both those who are defined by them and those who produce them. The study of prejudice is, therefore, the study of cognitive and emotive behaviour in a social and cultural context, with special attention to the effects and consequences of such behaviour on others. We know that according to the mechanism of identity construction, an image of an in-group (“us”) is usually related to the image of a significant out-group (“them”); both images are so intimately intertwined that the self-image of the in-group cannot be upheld and maintained without the by-product and co-construct of the image of the out-group. Problematic is not the relation as such between self and other, but rather the specific form of exploiting this relation in order to denigrate and oppress the out-group. Whereas G. H. Mead referred to the “significant other” as the one with whose help the dialogic identity of the “me” is construed, the significant other constructed by prejudice is the negative foil against which the positive characteristics of the collective self-image stand out. It is the nondialogic, the negative and repressed other, who becomes the object of oppressive “othering”, depriving the respective out-group of its status, achievements, values. This intimate interaction between the images of in-group and out-group reveals the parasitic character of the heterostereotype; it is driven simply by the sheer desire to give profile, value, salience, and power to one's own image. Oppressive othering highlights the self-image and endows it with positive value, aura, and sanctity.
Though prejudice overlaps with stereotype and bias, it must not be confused with these other forms of mental orientation and value commitment. Prejudice cannot be explained—as stereotype can—on a cognitive basis alone; it is charged with collective emotions together with norms that are