Introduction: Motivational Aspects of Prejudice and Racism

As the two quotes above demonstrate, in the United States we are motivated to organize our social life around racial categories, and yet, at the same time, there is anxiety attached to the use of race, particularly when one is a beneficiary of one’s racial group membership.¹ Since both prejudice and racism have such a tremendous impact on the lives of both the perpetrators and targets of racism, a symposium based on the psychological investigation of motivational issues is an appropriate forum to hear from expert scholars on prejudice and racism. In 2005, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s 53rd Annual Symposium on Motivation brought together experts in the motivational aspects of prejudice and racism. It was clearly time to hear from such experts.