Psychology of Prejudice

Understanding the psychological roots of xenophobia, racism and hostility toward asylum seekers.

Authoritarian Submission and Aggression The Authoritarian Personality

Theodor Adorno

Adorno's 1950 study identified a cluster of personality traits associated with prejudice including submission to authority, aggression toward outgroups, rigid thinking and intolerance of ambiguity. People scoring high on the F-scale (fascism scale) were more likely to hold prejudiced views toward minority groups. The theory links childhood experiences of harsh discipline to adult authoritarian attitudes.

Adorno found that some people develop a personality style where they strongly obey authority figures and simultaneously feel hostile toward groups they see as different or weaker, including asylum seekers and refugees. This often stems from growing up with strict, punitive parenting that taught them to suppress their own feelings and instead direct anger toward "outsiders" who seem to break rules or challenge the established order. Understanding this pattern helps us recognise that negative attitudes toward asylum seekers aren't usually based on facts about refugees themselves, but rather reflect the prejudiced person's deeper need for order, conformity and clear hierarchies. By creating spaces where people can safely question authority, embrace complexity and meet asylum seekers as individuals, we can help chip away at these rigid thought patterns.

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Dehumanisation and Ethical Bypassing Moral Disengagement

Albert Bandura

Bandura's theory explains how ordinary people disengage their moral standards to justify harming others. Mechanisms include dehumanisation — describing people as animals or vermin — displacement of responsibility, diffusion of responsibility and moral justification. These mechanisms allow people to support or commit acts they would otherwise consider wrong.

Albert Bandura showed how people can switch off their normal sense of right and wrong to justify treating others badly. When asylum seekers are described using words like "swarms," "floods," or "illegal," it becomes easier for people to support harsh policies they'd normally find cruel, because they've stopped seeing them as fully human. People also tell themselves it's not their personal responsibility or that tough treatment is justified to "protect our borders." Understanding these mental tricks helps us recognise when our compassion is being deliberately shut down, and reminds us to consciously see asylum seekers as individual people with families and stories, just like us.

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In-group/Out-group Dynamics Social Identity Theory

Henri Tajfel & John Turner

Developed in the 1970s, Social Identity Theory proposes that people derive part of their self-esteem from the groups they belong to. To maintain a positive self-image, people favour their in-group and discriminate against out-groups. Even arbitrary group divisions produce bias. Applied to asylum seekers, this explains how national or ethnic identity becomes a basis for hostility toward those perceived as outsiders, regardless of individual characteristics.

Social Identity Theory shows that people naturally divide the world into "us" and "them," and tend to favour their own group to feel better about themselves. When it comes to asylum seekers and refugees, this means some people see them as outsiders who threaten the national group they belong to, even without knowing them as individuals. Understanding this helps us recognise that negative attitudes often aren't based on facts or personal experience, but on a basic psychological tendency that we can challenge by emphasising our shared humanity and the things that connect us all. By consciously creating opportunities for contact and finding common ground, we can break down these artificial barriers between groups.

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Mortality Salience and Prejudice Terror Management Theory

Jeff Greenberg, Sheldon Solomon & Tom Pyszczynski

Terror Management Theory proposes that awareness of our own mortality creates existential anxiety which people manage by clinging to cultural worldviews and group identities that provide symbolic immortality. When reminded of death or existential threat, people become more hostile toward those who challenge their worldview or cultural identity. Research shows that mortality reminders significantly increase prejudice against outgroups.

When people are reminded of death or feel threatened about their own safety, they tend to cling more tightly to their own culture and community as a way of feeling secure. This makes them more suspicious and hostile toward people who seem different or "outside" their group, including asylum seekers and refugees. Understanding this helps us recognise that negative attitudes often stem from people's own fears rather than anything refugees have actually done. By addressing these underlying anxieties and emphasising our shared humanity, we can help people feel more secure without needing to push others away.

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Xenophobia Xenophobia — Fear of the Stranger

Various — cross-disciplinary

Xenophobia is an intense fear or hatred of people from other countries or cultures. Unlike most phobias listed in DSM-5 which harm only the sufferer, xenophobia causes direct harm to others and has historically been a catalyst for persecution, ethnic cleansing and genocide. Despite this it is not classified as a psychological disorder, though its symptoms — irrational fear, avoidance, aggression toward perceived outsiders — mirror recognised phobia criteria. Its roots lie in evolutionary in-group protection mechanisms that are no longer adaptive in diverse modern societies.

Xenophobia is essentially fear or dislike of people we see as "outsiders" or different from us. It likely developed from ancient survival instincts when our ancestors needed to be wary of unfamiliar groups, but in today's world this instinct is outdated and harmful. When people feel xenophobic toward asylum seekers, they're often reacting to difference itself rather than any real threat, which can lead to prejudice and discrimination. Understanding that these feelings come from primitive instincts rather than facts helps us recognise when we're being unfair, allowing us to consciously choose compassion and judge people as individuals rather than as threatening strangers.

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