(51) prejudice leads to stigma which leads to exclusionary practices

City officials tied a stabbing spree to homelessness — but the suspect wasn’t homeless • Long Beach Post News (lbpost.com)

Please tap and read the attached link above.

Reading this article about the how the schizophrenic individual that stopped taking his medicine and went off the deep end stabbing people the other day led to misinformation that he was homeless. Misinformation being spread like this about homeless people through the media can place a stigma upon them, which is prejudice. Prejudgments such as this could stem from lazy thinking, for example, automatic bias. There are all sorts of cognitive biases, which usually stem from ill- fated emotions, pre-conceived notions, resulting from fear-based issues that cause frustration and tension. The concern is how people cope with deep seated ideas that aggravate them mentally, because without objective reasoning in matters like this could lead to exclusionary practices of homeless people by escalating fear that homeless people are knife wielding mentally ill people that are a danger and a threat to society. Creating fear leads to stress, trauma, which can invoke hatred and violence within society. For example, what happened with the media representation by labeling this schizophrenic individual as being homeless was a generalization towards the homeless which would surely instigate fear of the homeless in society...

So, is stress the underlying causal mechanism that leads to prejudice, generalizing, and group projections that can promote fear, violence, and exclusionary practices?

Carelessness like this creates fear and hate, and the effects that stigmatizing people has on them could actually invoke violence. Prejudice is often subjective and overlooks objective thinking that accounts for the bigger picture of situations and circumstances that arise in life. Without logical reason, meaning, and purpose in life everything may become based off a subjective means of a person's preference, attitudes, and opinions.

Categorizing people to groups is a form of generalizing that can lead to between group tension and aggression. In the primate order studies show that it wasn't till the order became big enough to where separate groups formed that violence and killing resulted between the different groups.

The rank of the hierarchy is created this way with the aggressive males on top, and they get there by creating a social hierarchy, and bullying and harassing the lower rank individuals. The aggression is how they distinguish themselves, yet it is the stress and tension from within that leads them to having the need to be on top. There is a lot of pressure at the top, for example studies shows that a number one reason for displaced aggression is when an alpha male steps down from his position at the top of the hierarchy. There is a social hierarchy as well in society, and people get placed in an order where they will get treated as such. Studies in the neurosciences find that the emotional center of the brain the amygdala functions out of fear and that aggression is actually fear based. Meaning you will not be an aggressive person if you do not experience fear in your life. The primates that are nurturing and caring are an example of this, because they are not aggressive. Trouble is they are the ones that the aggressive types on the top of the hierarchy prod and bully.

I believe stress leads to a lower coping ability, which contributes to a lack of rationalizing environmental- releasing stimuli in a way that is necessary to positively challenge fearful thinking. This leads to stimulus generalization. Then as tensions rise so does fear and coupled with lackluster coping skills is when fear overrides rational thinking and then aggression sets in. This may seem like a way to cope with the issues and a way to curb anxiety, but the behaviors that one may partake in may create cognitive dissonance which only contributes to a worse attitude due to the tensions created by the aggressive behaviors that the individual has adapted too.