Othering

Introduction

Social scientists have long been interested in attempting to understand prejudice; why it is certain groups of people may be denigrated, marginalized, and oppressed by others. History is filled with accounts of extreme and more subtle prejudices, discrimination, and oppression. Within the discipline of psychology, social psychologists have investigated group processes in order to understand how prejudice develops and how it can be changed. Much of this work has developed out of experimental social psychology, which understands prejudice as a social cognitive process, involving attitudes, thoughts, and perceptions. This, however, does not fully encapsulate the level of irrational emotions that are so often linked to explicit prejudices. Throughout history we have been faced with accounts of the hatred of certain groups of people, who are persecuted, abused, or murdered. For example the systematic murder of Jews during the holocaust, the oppression and enslavement of African...