Using a Diversity and Inclusion Approach in Designing Learning for All (in Full Human Dimensionality)

Review Of The Literature

Over the years, a number of different explanations have been created to explain human prejudice, a biased and negative impression of others not based on facts but some preconception or prejudgment. A biological explanation of this phenomenon is that the human brain is hardwired to create quick impressions in order to enable quick responses (to enable survival). These impressions are short-cuts to actually fully learning about another. If a human brain has both System 1 and System 2 thinking, the first fast and unconscious, and the second conscious and controlled, prejudice comes from System 1 impressions uncorrected by System 2 thinking. Prejudice is thought of as an “ultimate attribution error”:

The fundamental attribution error occurs when people over-emphasize an agent’s internal characteristics for their behaviors and under-emphasize potential contextual causes. Attribution errors, overall, overweight the underlying cause and so misunderstand the actual situation. Certain personality types, those prone to so-called “essentialist beliefs” (beliefs that a social category has a fixed, inherent, identity-defining nature”) are more prone to prejudice (Allport, 1954, as cited in Haslam, Rothschild, & Ernst, 2002, p. 87). Other research suggests that traits such as “authoritarianism, rigidity and ambiguity intolerance” may also link to prejudice (Haslam, Rothschild, & Ernst, 2002, p. 87). Others suggest that racism “is not a universal feature of human psychology but a historically developed process. Racism begins with the exploitation of people or peoples and with the psychological consequences to which the exploitation leads” (Gaines & Reed, Feb. 1995, p. 96).