So why do we categorize things?
A hammer, a tree, and a pig. All three of these items just activated different cortexes in your brain, assigning them into their categories. When you see a person, your brain processes their image and assigns them a "category" as well, and in only a split second. You likely register someone as being within the same group as you, or being in a group independent of you. In the psychological world, these are called "in-groups" and "out-groups". In order to understand why we do this, we must go back to what our primal brains were designed for
A Lion, a Tiger, and a Panther
![Picture](/uploads/4/8/8/3/48839287/3088919.jpg?411)
It is important to remember that our brains are still primal. We are animals, and our brains are designed for our best survival. We categorize things because it is easiest for our brains to process things that way. It also can provide new information about stuff we don't know. For instance, if you were a pre-civilized person, and you knew what a lion was, and you knew what a tiger was, and you knew they were both dangerous, you would probably have them recognized in the same category in your brain. They both activate a space in your brain dedicated to 'big cats' and they both activate a space in your brain that recognizes danger and triggers a fight or flight response. Now say you are walking along and you see a panther. You have never seen a panther before and you have no idea what it's behavioral patterns are. However, your brain sees the same physical characteristics (facial shape, fur, legs, etc) as other big cats, and recognizes that it is dangerous, and now you need to fight or flee.
Fear in Conditioned Prejudice
Many researchers suggest that fear is the major factor in prejudice. This theory suggests that humans are born with a natural tendency to fear individuals outside our social group. This could be because we can't assume we know enough about them, as they aren't in the same category as us. Neuroscientists Elizabeth Phelps and Andreas Ollson from New York University propose that “millennia of natural selection and a lifetime of social learning may predispose humans to fear those who seem different from them” (Strategic Leadership Institute). Some people, who are born with William's disease (see right), don't have this tendency to fear others.
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William's disease:
William's disease is a genetic disorder that, among many other things, effects one's natural fear against other social groups. People with William's disease are often said to be 'born blind" to race. |
Why we hang with our own "pack"
The tendency to stay with people within the same racial group may be due to our path of evolution, and the fact that we are pack animals. Let's use dogs as an example here. Similarly to the way huskies adapted to have thicker fur in order to live in intense cold, Africans adapted to have a higher production of melanin in order to not suffer from diseases in the sun. Like dogs, we are pack animals. Before we were civilized, we traveled in packs in order to hunt and build shelter the best. Huskies, who were adapted to the cold, knew not to leave their pack for a pack of short-haired Great Danes, who are adapted to heat. If this theory is true, a fair-skinned human would have a innate sense to not join a "pack" of dark-skinned humans, knowing that they were built for a different environment.
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