Nonprejudiced attitudes, according to Devine (1989), require conscious, controlled processing to override the automatic, nonconscious response of stereotyping. Staub (1989) makes a similar argument that devaluation and scapegoating are also often automatic. Many people respond to outgroups by devaluing their members and using them as scapegoats when they are forced to live under difficult conditions, but others consciously inhibit these automatic responses. The latter have a developed sense of individual responsibility (Staub, 1989) and internalized values (Devine, 1989; Kelman & Hamilton, 1989). They evaluate their psychological reactions in light of their personal goals, values, and beliefs, and often set their instinctive reactions aside. This controlled processing, however, is often difficult.

Political tolerance fits into this genre of attitudes that are difficult to hold: the tolerant find a group to be noxious and its espoused ideas offensive, yet they are willing to give the members of this group freedom of speech and of assembly, and the right to be a vocal part of the democratic political system.