PREJUDICE, PREJUDGMENT, SOCIAL SOURCES OF PREJUDICE
A prejudice is a prejudgment, an assumption made about someone or something before having adequate knowledge to be able to do so with guaranteed accuracy. The word prejudice is most commonly used to refer to a preconceived judgment toward a people or a person because of race, social class, gender, ethnicity, age, disability, political beliefs, religion, sexual orientation or other personal characteristics. It also means beliefs without knowledge of the facts and may include "any unreasonable attitude that is unusually resistant to rational influence." Prejudice, stereotyping, discrimination, racism, sexism: The terms often overlap. Before seeking to understand prejudice, let’s clarify the terms. Each of the situations just described involved a negative evaluation of some group. And that is the essence of prejudice: an unjustifiable negative attitude toward a group and its individual members. Prejudice is prejudgment; it biases us against a person based solely on the person...