Programs for Eliminating Prejudice

Prejudice can be reduced via six different conditions, including mutual interdependence; a common goal; equal status; informal, interpersonal contact; multiple contacts; and social norms of equality. Research substantiates the importance of each of these six conditions for reducing or eliminating prejudice. Ideally, all six of these conditions will be in place to ensure that prejudice is reduced. Moreover, applying these six conditions can help organizations perform better and achieve tangible goals. For example, Fiske (2000) found “building on interdependence was essential for successful intergroup contact,” (p. 115). Programs that are designed to reduce or eliminate prejudice need to focus on at least two, if not more, of these conditions. Interdependence is linked to the achievement of common goals, another condition for reducing prejudice. When an organization actively pursues and enforces policies that ensure equal status of all employees or members, it leads to a normative environment that does not support prejudice. However, formal methods of reducing prejudice such as equal status may not be sufficient. Research also shows that informal interpersonal contact is also important for reducing prejudice. A program that reduces prejudice should ideally focus on both informal and immediate interpersonal contact and generating social norms of equality.
Contact between different groups is itself insufficient for reducing prejudice. “Research on equal-status interracial contact suggests that such contact lessens prejudice,” but not just when an institution or organization mandates contact (Robinson & Preston, 1976, p. 911). Prejudicial attitudes and beliefs are often perpetuated when equal status is embedded in rules or laws, but not necessarily experienced in practice. Therefore, a program that also encourages informal interpersonal contact will be necessary. Schools and workplace organizations can work hard to implement programs that create team-based activities that not only encourage interpersonal contact and multiple contacts, but also help the individuals come up with a common goal they can reach together. The importance of common goals and interdependence cannot be underestimated; when the individual members of a team realize that they need each other to achieve a common goal, their stereotypes, biases, and beliefs fade away. Yet as Pettigrew & Tropp (2000) point out, it is not just common goals and mutual interdependence, but also equal status and continual contact that become necessary for reducing prejudice.
A program that reduces prejudice operates on multiple levels to achieve all six of the necessary conditions. For example, the program is both administrative and personal, with top-down mandates to reduce prejudice via the creation of common goals and the enforcement of non-discrimination norms. The program also needs to work from the bottom up, requiring each person to take personal responsibility for creating a safe and supportive work environment in which all people enjoy equal status, engaging in frequent informal interpersonal contact with multiple people. Just having one friend from a different background is not enough; multiple contacts are needed to ensure that the social norms of equality are maintained over time. With sufficient ground-up methods for reducing prejudice, it is possible to create a culture that does not tolerate discrimination at all. Prejudice is much more than a cognitive issue, which is why frequent emotional connectivity with people from different backgrounds or statuses will be helpful in reducing prejudice (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2000).
Therefore, the program needs to be implemented both from the top-down, and from the bottom up. Equal status and other top-down approaches to reducing prejudice are necessary for enforcing the social norms of equality. However, research shows that in addition to creating an organizational culture or society that does not tolerate prejudice at any level, people need to be actively engaged with one another to recognize their mutual interdependence and common goals. Working together diligently to dispel stereotypes and biases, people from multiple backgrounds can commit to creating an egalitarian society.





References

Fiske, S.T. (2000). Interdependence and the reduction of prejudice. In Reducing Prejudice and Discrimination. Psychology Press.
Pettigrew, T.F. & Tropp, L.R. (2000). Does intergroup contact reduce prejudice? In Reducing Prejudice and Discrimination. Psychology Press.
Robinson, J.W. & Preston, J.D. (1976). Equal-Status Contact and Modification of Racial Prejudice: A Reexamination of the Contact Hypothesis. Social Forces 54(4): 911-924.