What are the benefits of prejudice?

Answer 1

It is particularly sad how prejudice remains a deeply rooted part of so many cultures at home and across the world. These deeper roots of prejudice and hatred are sociological and economic in nature.

One of the benefits of prejudice as a social mechanism is that prejudice is a tool whereby we may build our identity as a group. By condemning particular behavior or physical traits of other groups of people we help to define what the members of our own group are by contrasting ourselves against people who are different from us. We help to create a stronger sense of our individual identities and our identification with our own racial and ethnic roots when we use hatred and prejudice to conceptually set us apart from people of different backgrounds.

Because we invest a great deal of energy to maintain our sense of individual identity or ego we are naturally defensive regarding what we believe about ourselves and our societies. You may be familiar with the saying, 'the best defense is a strong offense' and may now understand how acting offensively toward the members of alien cultures helps to buttress our sense of individual and group identity.

Another benefit of prejudice and hatred is the manner in which turmoil and dissension within a social group may be directed outwardly away from the group and its members to relieve inner stresses that might otherwise harm individuals within the group or harm the group as a whole. By encouraging the routine hatred and condemnation of a different class of people social groups provide an outlet for anger and frustration. Prejudice defines acceptable surrogate targets for venting our internal hostility in a manner that strengthens our group rather than weakening it.