The goal of reducing prejudice can be accomplished by : (A) Correctin…

The initial step in effectively addressing prejudice involves gaining knowledge about its causes or origins. Consequently, the strategies employed to handle prejudice would be successful if they focus on (goals):

(a) Minimizing opportunities that facilitate the acquisition of prejudiced beliefs.

(b) Altering such attitudes that contribute to prejudice.

(c) Deprioritizing a narrow social identity centered around the ingroup.

(d) Discouraging the tendency towards selffulfilling prophecy among the victims of prejudice.

These goals can be accomplished through :

• Education and information dissemination, for correcting stereotypes related to specific target groups, and tackling the problem of a strong ingroup bias.

• Increasing intergroup contact allows for direct communication, removal of mistrust between the groups, and even discovery of positive qualities in the outgroup. However, these strategies are successful only if : - the two groups meet in a cooperative rather than competitive context, - close interactions between the groups helps them to know each other better, and - the two groups are not different in power or status.

• Highlighting individual identity rather than group identity, thus weakening the importance of group (both ingroup and outgroup) as a basis of evaluating the other person. More details about social identity and intergroup conflict have been presented in the next chapter on Social Influence and Group Processes.