Existence and Prevention of Social Exclusion of Religious University Students due to Stereotyping

Man is born into a tangle of standard processes and behaviour patterns created and modified over time. Through gradual socialization, he acquires the attributes of his own culture and gets acquainted with the admissible modus operandi for the social group he is a member of; he also deepens these principles and confronts them with the experiences of others. Stereotyping is a process that represents the initial classification of phenomena and people, which it categorizes into groups and assigns them positive or negative characteristics. Stereotypes form the ideas that people have about themselves and 'their' group with which they identify and are aimed at members of other groups with which they do not identify. Negative stereotypes about other people arise from pursuing one's own positive social identity and positive self-presentation. Stereotyping of believers occurs precisely because of perceived differences between 'we' and 'them' (for example, in attitudes and values, possibly in 'religious' practice). Stereotypes are often the unconscious 'beginning' of a range of known intolerant attitudes; they can lead to racism, anti-Semitism, ethnic discrimination, and other forms of intolerance. According to the experts, no nation has innate attitudes to hate, as they cannot be inherited in a biological-psychological sense. Intolerance is acquired, often to justify negative attitudes and behaviours. Using the qualitative method of guided group interviews (the so-called focus group), we examine the existence of stereotypes in university students towards their religious classmates. We consider the potential of social exclusion of young believers due to stereotypes and present current measures in prevention.