The 53rd Nebraska Symposium on Prejudice and Racism
Volume Editor: Cynthia Willis-Esqueda
The study of prejudice and racism is one of the oldest interests of social psychology (Allport, 1954; Stangor & Lange, 1994) and continues as a major area of interest in the social sciences, in general. Early approaches to the study of prejudice and racism focused on intra-individual processes and personality deficits, motivational aspects of inter-ethnic conflict, and the content and application of racial prejudice. With the advent of the cognitive approach to scholarship in social behavior, the focus was on the cognitive processes that promote, maintain, and transmit prejudice and how discrimination was best detected and controlled. However, the turn of the century brought with it a renewed interest in the motivational aspects of prejudice and racism. Fiske (2000) has noted that the present state of understanding stereotyping and prejudice stems from basic motives (i.e., belonging, understanding, controlling, enhancing, and trusting) and that new approaches to the understanding of prejudice and racism must include the study of a combination of cognitive and motivational aspects. That is, in order to fully understand the underpinnings of prejudice and racism, it must be remembered that motivation influences cognition (Dunton & Fazio, 1997) and cognition influences motivation (Steele, 1998). Currently, it is recognized that motivational influences must be accounted for when investigating and understanding prejudice and racism, and this has and will produce new and rejuvenated interest in scholarship on the effects of race biases. For example, the recent work on the current forms of prejudice and racism contain notions of the inherent importance of motivational aspects. In addition, current research examines the influences that prejudice and racism have for the targets of racial biases. Consequently, the 2005 Nebraska Symposium on Motivation highlighted the work of scholars who are at the forefront of research on the motivational aspects of prejudice and racism and the impact of such forces on the targets of racial bias.