忘却からの帰還〜Intelligent Design

Arne Roets and Alain Van Hiel (2011)は、偏見は、ある種の思考方法に伴う心理的必要性によって生じると言う。曖昧さを嫌って、迅速に判断を下したい人々は、他人を一般化・分類する傾向がある。

People who are prejudiced feel a much stronger need to make quick and firm judgments and decisions in order to reduce ambiguity. “Of course, everyone has to make decisions, but some people really hate uncertainty and therefore quickly rely on the most obvious information, often the first information they come across, to reduce it” Roets says. That’s also why they favor authorities and social norms which make it easier to make decisions. Then, once they’ve made up their mind, they stick to it. “If you provide information that contradicts their decision, they just ignore it.”

Roets argues that this way of thinking is linked to people’s need to categorize the world, often unconsciously. “When we meet someone, we immediately see that person as being male or female, young or old, black or white, without really being aware of this categorization,” he says. “Social categories are useful to reduce complexity, but the problem is that we also assign some properties to these categories. This can lead to prejudice and stereotyping.”

People who need to make quick judgments will judge a new person based on what they already believe about their category. “The easiest and fastest way to judge is to say, for example, ok, this person is a black man. If you just use your ideas about what black men are generally like, that’s an easy way to have an opinion of that person,” Roets says. “You say, ‘he’s part of this group, so he’s probably like this.’”

偏見を持つ人々は、曖昧さをなくすべく、迅速かつ確実な判断と意思決定をおこなう必要性を強く感じている。「もちろん、誰もが意思決定しなければならないが、一部の人々は、不確実性を非常に強く嫌い、それ故に、もっとも明白な情報をすぐに信頼する。多くの場合、最初に入ってきた情報で、不確実性を減らそうとする。」とRoetsは言う、それ故に、彼らは意思決定を容易にできる、権威や社会規範を選好する。そして、彼らは一度、判断を下すと、それに固執する。「彼らの意思決定に反する情報を提示していも、彼らはそれを無視する」

Roetsは、このような思考方法は、多くの場合、無意識のうちに、世界をカテゴライズしたいという必要性にリンクしていると論じる。「我々は誰かに合うと、ただちに、男性か女性として、若いか年寄りとして、黒人か白人として、実際にそれらのカテゴリーを意識することなく、その誰かを見る。社会的分類は複雑なものを単純化するのに役立つ。しかし、そうすることの問題は、我々がある種の属性を、そのカテゴリーに入れてしまうことだ。これが偏見やステレオタイプにつながる。」

迅速な判断を必要とする人々は、カテゴリーについて自分が既に信じていることに基づいて新しい人物を判断する。「最も簡単かつ迅速に判断する方法は、たとえば、この人物は黒人だと言ってみることだ。そして、黒人とはこういうものだという自分の考えを使えば、その人物についての意見を簡単に作れる。」とRoetsは言う。「そして、こう言う『彼はこの集団の一員なので、彼はこれを好むだろう』」

[ Psychological Science (2011/12) ]

このような思考方法そのものを変えることは事実上不可能である。できそうなことは...

Roets says“To reduce prejudice, we first have to acknowledge that it often satisfies some basic need to have quick answers and stable knowledge people rely on to make sense of the world.”

「偏見を減らすには、まず我々は、世界を理解するのに、迅速な回答と安定して知識を得たいという基本的なニーズを、偏見が満たしていることを認めなければならない。」

[ Psychological Science (2011/12) ]

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Arne Roets and Alain Van Hiel: "Allport’s Prejudiced personality today: Need for closure as the motivated cognitive basis of prejudice", Current Directions in Psychological Science, Vol 20, Issue 6, 2011

Abstract: In the long history of psychological research on prejudice, Allport’s (1954) book The Nature of Prejudice is undoubtedly the foundational work, advancing ideas that remain highly influential and relevant to date. Guided by the seminal ideas of this leading scholar, we illustrate how contemporary psychological research has accumulated evidence for a basic, motivated cognitive style underlying prejudice in its different forms. Specifically, we demonstrate that Allport’s classic conception of this basic cognitive style is exceptionally well captured by the "modern" construct of need for cognitive closure (NFC), and we review the recent evidence for NFC effects on racism and sexism. Integrating Allport’s writings with contemporary research, we also show that the effects of motivated cognition on prejudice are explained (i.e., mediated) by essentialist thinking and authoritarian ideology. Finally, we discuss recent evidence indicating that, in contrast to Allport’s pessimistic predictions, intergroup contact is especially effective in reducing prejudice among people high in NFC. It is concluded that recent research on NFC provides a solid empirical basis for Allport‟s hypothesis that a general motivated cognitive style lies at the basis of prejudice.

Conclusion: Contemporary prejudice research converges in support of Allport’s (1954) seminal thesis of a motivated cognitive style underlying prejudice and also provides insight into the mediating processes of this connection. However, in contrast to Allport’s pessimistic view that prejudice-prone people are "incurable", prejudice in these individuals can be　overcome, not by seeking to change the underlying cognitive style, but by using its heightened susceptibility to the positive impact of intergroup contact.

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