Prejudice is a preconceived attitude toward a person or social group, formed without adequate knowledge, thought, or reason, and persisting despite contrary evidence. Parameters: (1) an evaluative attitude (favorable or unfavorable) directed at a social category; (2) formed prior to and independent of direct experience; (3) maintained through socialization, in-group/out-group dynamics, and cognitive shortcuts like stereotyping. Persistence mechanism: sustained by language, cultural narratives, institutional practices, and intergroup contact patterns. [formal: praeciudicium | substrate: behavior | horizon: a life | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.01]
Accepted ontology entry
prejudice
Prejudice is a preconceived attitude toward a person or social group, formed without adequate knowledge, thought, or reason, and persisting despite contrary evidence. Parameters: (1) an evaluative attitude (favorable or unfavorable) direct…
Definition
Why it is in scope
A human-made social-psychological concept: a preconceived attitude toward a person or group formed without adequate knowledge, thought, or reason. Used in psychology, sociology, and everyday discourse to categorize biased attitudes that precede experience.
Names and aliases
- prejudiceen · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
- cmsgj8e2500mwywh501bg68ymINSTANCE_OF →
Prejudice is a specific kind of cognitive distortion — a systematic error in thinking that affects decisions and judgments. A competent speaker would say prejudice is a type of cognitive distortion.
- cmrmg7e5w006ed1nl34thcxdmDEPENDS_ON →
Removal test (Law 8): remove categorization — does prejudice stop OPERATING? Yes. Prejudice is a preconceived judgment applied to categorized targets — it cannot function without the capacity to categorize. Categorization is the mechanism prejudice exploits. Direct object-level dependency, not meta-level.
Relations to this entry
- cmroybpm605vnd1nlnb9ns49d← INSTANCE_OF
A stereotype IS a kind of prejudice — a preconceived, oversimplified belief about a category of people or things. The sense is cognitive prejudice: a fixed judgment that operates without individual assessment.
Record identity
- Created
- Jul 30, 2026, 4:07 PM UTC
- Content hash
- 84752229dadf171c169f52dd627ab360ac26d93e99833118a17de8189ccc3c05