Intergroup relations & conflict

• Intergroup behaviour

  anything influenced by people’s recognition that they and others are members of distinct social groups
• Relative Deprivation

  • perceived having less than we feel entitled to, expectations vs attainments
  • relative to other conditions
  • crucial precondition for intergroup aggression (Walker & Smith, 2002).
• Relative deprivation & social unrest, Berkowitz (1962)

  intergroup prejudice and discriminatory behaviour:

  • Aversive events (e.g subjective -> instigations)
  • Aggressive associations (e.g., situational cues, past associations)
• Types of Relative Deprivation, Runciman (1966)

  • Egoistic:
  • we feel less than we feel we are entitled to
  • relative to personal aspirations or other individuals
  • Fraternalistic relative deprivation:
  • group has less than it is entitled to
  • relative to collective aspirations or other groups
• collective violence model: Berkowitz (1962)

  • relative deprivation
  • frustration (individual act of aggression)
  • amplified aversive environmental conditions (e.g heatwaves)
  • individual acts of aggression
  • aggressive stimuli
  • aggression as dominant response
  • aggression becomes more widespread through social facilitation
• Realistic Conflict Theory (Sherif, 1966)

  • groups compete over scarce resources
  • intergroup relations marked by conflict & ethnocentrism
• ethnocentrism

  evaluative preference for all aspects of own group relative to other groups
• Sherif’s Summer Camp Studies (4 phases)

  • Spontaneous friendship formation
  • In-group and norm formation
  • Intergroup competition
  • Intergroup cooperation
• Sherif’s Summer Camp Studies phase 1

  • arrival
  • engaged in various activities, friendships formed
• Sherif’s Summer Camp Studies phase 2

  • Camp divided into two groups, friendships split.
  • Groups isolated, separate living quarters & daily activities, developed norms and status differences.
• Sherif’s Summer Camp Studies phase 3

  • competitive games between the groups
  • competition & intergroup hostility
  • ethnocentric attitudes & behaviour amplified
  • intergroup relations deteriorated (hostility) -> two of the experiments concluded at this stage.
• Sherif’s Summer Camp Studies phase 4

  • Groups provided with superordinate goals.
  • Groups cooperated: reduction in intergroup conflict
  • E.g., achieve superordinate goal – everyone needed to help with broken down truck
• Realistic Conflict Theory: Nature of goals determines relations

  • Mutually exclusive goals between groups
  • realistic intergroup conflict + ethnocentrism
  • Brewer & Campbell (1976): greater derogation of more proximal tribal groups -> direct competition for scarce resources
  • Shared (superordinate) goals -> cooperation
  • reduction in conflict
  • e.g Fisher (1990, 2005): between communities & nations.
  • but competitive IG behaviour can also have the same effect
  • explicitly non-competitive or cooperative intergroup relations
• Minimal Group Paradigm (MGP) (Tajfel et al., 1971)experimental design to develop social identity theory


  effect of social categorisation alone on behaviour

  • assigned participants to 2 groups (arbitrary selection)
  • participants only knew their own group membership
  • recipient identity unknown + asked to allocate money
  • in-group favouritism
  • despite no history or self-interest or known identity of the other group
• MGP, Billig and Tajfel (1973)

  • random allocation to group X/Y toss of coin (more arbitrary)
  • eliminates possibility participants infer people in same group interpersonally similar to one another because of artist preference
  • in-group favouritism + competitive intergroup behaviour.
• Social Identity Theory

  • Social categories provide members with a ‘social identity’ = part of self-concept derived from membership of social groups
  • Positive distinctiveness and self-enhancement
• Improving intergroup relations hypotheses

  • realistic conflict theory
  • contact hypothesis (Allport, 1954)
• Improving intergroup relations, realistic conflict theory

  • super-ordinate goals gradually reduces intergroup hostility and conflict

  BUT:

  • if failure attributed to outgroup -> unsuccessful intergroup cooperation worsen IG relations
• improving integroup relations, Contact Hypothesis (Allport, 1954)


  bringing opposing social groups together improves IG relations + reduce prejudice + discrimination
• improving integroup relations, Contact Hypothesis (Allport, 1954)

  conditions for contact

  • prolonged & cooperative activity
  • between groups of equal social status.
  • within framework of official and institutional support for integration
• limitation of realistic conflict theory is that it cannot explain

  why intergroup conflict occurs in the absence of a competitive situation
• Tajfel et al's minimal group paradigm experiment was an attempt to:


  find the minimal conditions needed to observe in group favouritism