The role of personality and group factors in explaining prejudice

There has been renewed attention to personality as an explanation of prejud ice. For example, Altemeyer (1988) argued that individual differences in au thoritarianism should predict levels of prejudice. The personality approach focuses on individuals' psychology as individuals. In contrast, social ide ntity theory and self-categorization theory explain prejudice in terms of C ollective psychology in interplay with the realities of intergroup relation ships and social life. Based on this alternative analysis, there is unlikel y to be a simple relationship between individual differences and prejudice. A study is reported (N = 97) that examined (a) whether authoritarianism pr edicts prejudice when people act in terms of the shared normative character istics of their group memberships and (b) the context dependence of the rel ationship between authoritarianism and prejudice. The implications of the r esults for a broader understanding of prejudice are discussed. (C) 2001 Aca demic Press.