Prejuicio Intergrupal Desde Una Perspectiva Evolutiva Y Social

anales de psicología
2011, vol. 27, nº 3 (octubre), 575-581

© Copyright 2011: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Murcia. Murcia (España) ISSN edición impresa: 0212-9728. ISSN edición web (http://revistas.um.es/analesps): 1695-2294

Special Issue: Prejudice: Sociodevelopmental perspectives
Introduction. Intergroup prejudice from a developmental and social approach
IleanaEnesco1, and Silvia Guerrero2*
1 2

Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain) Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (Spain) Abstract: The aim of this Special Issue is to gather research from developmental and social psychologists, from Spain and other countries, in the broad area of prejudice and intergroup attitudes. The Monograph includes review papers and empirical studies that present differenttheoretical assumptions, research procedures, and types of population. Most contributions are related to the study of children’s and youth’s attitudes toward different racial-ethnic groups, ingroup bias or ethnic identity, and three articles address other forms of prejudice that have an undeniable social significance in our Western societies: biases toward homosexuality, disability, and body size. Keywords: Prejudice; attitudes; children; adolescents; developmental approach; social psychology.

Título: Introducción. El prejuicio intergrupal desde una perspectiva evolutiva y social. Resumen: El objetivo de este Tema Monográfico ha sido reunir investigaciones de psicólogos evolutivos y sociales, españoles y extranjeros, en el amplio ámbito del prejuicio y las relaciones intergrupales. Seincluyen trabajos de revisión y estudios empíricos con distintos presupuestos teóricos, procedimientos de investigación y tipo de poblaciones. La mayoría de las contribuciones abordan el estudio de las actitudes de niños, adolescentes y jóvenes hacia la diversidad étnico-racial, el sesgo endogrupal o la identidad étnica, y tres artículos tratan otras formas de prejuicio intergrupal de innegableimportancia social en nuestra cultura occidental: los prejuicios hacia la homosexualidad, la discapacidad y la gordura. Palabras clave: Prejuicio; actitudes; niños; adolescentes; enfoque evolutivo; psicología social.

Intergroup prejudice seems inherent to human societies and is no less acute today than it has been throughout history. Despite great material and democratic progress in Western societies,discrimination and social exclusion of the migratory masses from "beyond the frontiers" of the comfortable Western world are practiced extensively in the more advanced countries. Even worse, some values concerning justice, allegedly consolidated in our European Community, are at risk of foundering due to fear—or political opportunism that incites it—being invaded by outsiders. As J. I.Torreblanca writes in his article on "The xenophobe abyss" which Europe may be heading towards (El País, May 13, 2011): “It only took a few more than 20,000 Tunisians to question one of the greatest achievements of European integration: the abolition of border controls between Member States, set by the Schengen Agreement of 1985.” And he reminds us that, whereas in 1995, the European Community accepted morethan 600,000 refugees from the war in Yugoslavia, today Europe trembles when faced by a few young men from North Africa. Poverty, color, religion, or culture are, however, only some of the reasons that may lead to discrimination, exclusion, and intolerance. In fact, prejudice may be aimed at almost any social group that is attributed some kind of atypicality (physical, intellectual, moral,cultural, etc.), compared to a reference group. Thus, in addition to the ethnic, racial or national prejudices, other groups such as women, gays, fat people, people with disabilities, the elderly,
Dirección para correspondencia [Correspondence address]: Silvia Guerrero. Facultad de Educación. Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha. Avda. Carlos III s/n (Fabrica de Armas) 45004. Toledo (Spain). E-mail:...