ABSTRACT
Human nature has a major influence on public and private attitudes towards toleration, distancing, racism prejudice, stereotyping. The role of human nature and psychology are especially important when it involves a macro-social change such as multiculturalism. Most studies on anti-racism and multiculturalism end up with recourse to changing attitudes, and calling for toleration. If culture, identity, prejudice, racism, and toleration are deemed to be constructs, then it can be argued that they could be changed by education and/or social engineering. The participant is the moral agent or moral critic, who makes decisions, adopts attitudes, follows principles and acts tolerantly, or advocates toleration, from within the conventions of normative ethics. Their limits of toleration progressively narrowed as their distancing from the violence decreased. Related to distancing is sentimentality or posturing—fake emotion done for affect rather than effect, or private avoidance with public sensitivity.
