On the nature of contemporary prejudice: The third wave

This article examines how social and historical developments have influence d the intellectual climate surrounding the study of prejudice and illustrat es how these advances are reflected in the study of one type of racial bias , aversive racism. Three waves of research are identified. In the first wav e, prejudice was assumed to reflect psychopathology. In the second, it was viewed as rooted in normal processes. The third wave emphasizes the multidi mensional aspect of prejudice and takes advantage of new technologies to st udy processes that were earlier hypothesized but not directly measurable. R esearch on aversive racism is presented to demonstrate the transition of re search across the second and third waves and to show how unconscious biases can significantly influence race relations.