Emotions and Prejudice Psychologists Lasana Harris and Susan Fiske (2006) examined the link between prejudice and negative emotions. They used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the brains of participants viewing images of people often stereotyped as incompetent, such as the elderly or disabled. Participants who viewed these images showed higher levels of activity in the prefrontal cortex, as indicated here by the orange spot circled in red. This pattern occurs when people experience pity.

Harris, Lasana T., & Fiske, Susan T. (2006). “Dehumanizing the lowest of the low.” Psychological Science, 17(10), 847-853. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.