PSYC 386 - Seminar: Origins of Prejudice

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

Before children are old enough to tie their shoes, they already hold rich prejudices based on race, gender, weight, disability, and more. How do these prejudices first form? This course examines how “nature” (i.e., heuristics embedded into our cognitive architecture, such as ingroup bias, social essentialism, and familiarity preferences) and “nurture” (i.e., inputs from parents, schools, and neighborhoods) jointly drive prejudice formation and development from infancy through childhood. Drawing on research from cognitive, developmental, and social psychology, we discuss how prejudice is learned and how it can be unlearned. Rebecca Peretz-Lange.

Prerequisite(s): PSYC 201 or PSYC 231, a research methods course in Psychological Science, and permission of the instructor.

One 2-hour period.

Course Format: CLS