Dissociation Model Of Prejudice Essay

As a Christian minority from the Middle East, the phenomenon that I have experienced since I came to the United States from Syria is the consideration of all Arabs as Muslims (Sunni or Shia). People all over the world think that Arabs follow Islam religion; however, the facts state that Arabs are 10% Christians, 5% follow other faith and 85% Muslims. In general, it is also usual to say that Arabs are terrorists, which is totally wrong from many points of views because not all Arabs are Sunni or Shia, and not all Sunni and Shia are terrorist. After six months of interacting with people, I started to feel the generalization that my friends made in school. Because of that, I was anxious about being negatively evaluated. When people saw the Cross on my neck, they usually ask me if I am a Christian or not. As a result, I had to explain to them the demographics of Arab people, so they
Dissociation Model of Prejudice suggests that processing information about others occurs in two-step: the first step triggers the stereotypes automatically, and the second step is that people have the control whether to accept the stereotype or not. By this theory, people cannot control the acceptances of the stereotype if they are distracted or not paying attention. Dissociation Model gives a cognitive explanation of the source of being prejudice. Back to my example, when people saw me for the first time and knew I am from Syria, I can usually feel the hesitation in asking the question about my religion. Some people even make the assumption that I am a Muslim. Others usually do not control their desire to know my background especially when overwhelmed. Indeed, the reason of these behaviors are the Dissociation Model of Prejudice. People, at the beginning, followed the stereotype about Arabs, but then they controlled whether to accept it or