How does classical conditioning play a role in the acquisition of a prejudice?

Answer 1

The acquisition of prejudice in classical conditioning is a learned behavior by repetitive conditioning and exposure. A child learns to hate others by constantly being told a certain people group is undesirable and not to be liked, loved or associated with. He also sees his relatives and friends acting badly toward a people group. Another problem can arise when a certain person from certain people group harasses, scares, misbehaves constantly around a child or adult. If one people group consistently acts badly towards another people group then that will result in learned prejudice. An example would be when police do racial profiling. Another example would be when the Germans learned to dislike the Jews due to bad experiences with some Jews and Hitler kept repeatedly tell them the Jews were undesirables. "Group think" set in and many learned to be biased against the Jews.