Quote Originally Posted by The Vicious Monkey
You misunderstand me.

The first thing I would like to point out is that I spoke of the human mind and the human mind only. How other animals may or may not react in any given situation is irrelevant to my post. Though my theory may still apply for them too, as it seems to fit, but I don't know and I won't make any claims there.

I was also not saying that, in the case we don't know anything about muslims and we then see one, we would be afraid of him because of that. Absolutely not. If you know absolutely nothing about muslims, haven't even heard a word of them, and you then see one (but he does not identify himself as one, and no one else identifies him for you) your brain will fit him in the most appropriate box for him. If there is none (if, for example, he's black and you've never seen a black man before) you'll create a new "box" based on him. That "box" will then be used for the next black man you see. So if that first black man you saw was a jolly, highly out-going to the point of annoyance, you'll cautiously believe so of the next black man you see. If he is the same, your prejudice that all blacks are jolly and highly out-going to the point of annoyance will be reinforced, and for each time you meet a black man like that, those values will get deeper and deeper burned into your "black man box".

If however the first black person you meet robs you, and so does the next, and the next, and the next (and it doesn't matter if you're the one robbed, it's enough to see it on tv) and so on, then that prejudice will be given to your "black man box". You will then, when you see a black man, recognize him as that, put him in that box and be afraid of him because your box says he robs people.

I don't know if I've explained this enough, or explained it in a good way at all. But to make an example of when your brain fails to do this, I will mention fear of the dark. It's not the dark itself you're afraid of, it's the fact that you can't know what's in it, because you can't see, that scares you.

Yes, only the known can be feared. Knowledge is not necessarily correct. :P


Generally speaking one must judge every person as if he was of your own "race"; by appearance in other words. That's what there comes naturally to me anyway.