Rebekah S. answered • 12/27/20
College Senior, Psychology Tutor
From what I've learned in my social psychology classes, I will pick a specific evolutionary theory: Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection (theory of evolution). In natural selection, organisms have genes that allow them to adapt (or have their kin adapt) to be safe in the environment they're in. We will call the genes traits for this answer. With this in mind, if said organism does not have a the trait that their peers adapted for to be safe, they have a less likely chance of surviving. If they do survive, they will look different than their peers (nationalgeographic).
With this in mind we'll look at the definition of prejudice. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, definition 2c, it is " an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics." Given that the traits can be physical, such as coloring (bug shell may be more colorful, a person may be in a more racist area) hostility can emerge from the others around them over the difference in appearance (for people, bugs may just want to survive). Therefore, I do think evolutionary theories help us understand prejudice.
References:
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/theory-evolution/#:~:text=The%20theory%20of%20evolution%20is,279
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prejudice
