Violent instances of intergroup conflict in recent memory have usually involved cultural groups, but theory and research on the psychology of intergroup relations is largely culture free. The two most prominent theories, realistic group conflict theory (RGCT) and social identity/self-categorization theory (SIT/SCT) provide fundamental insight into basic processes in intergroup relations: (1) th...

Humans are very interesting beings since they relate and depend on each other for survival. Understanding their behaviors calls for an intensive study and critical contemplations on how they relate especially in their diverse social groups settings. Scholars such as Hogg and Abrams (2003) have identified that “social identity processes generate intergroup mannerisms, and intergroup mannerisms m...

Polarization between groups is a major topic of contemporary societal debate as well as of research into intergroup relations. Formal modelers of opinion dynamics try to explain how intergroup polarization can arise from simple first principles of interactions within and between groups. Models have been proposed in which intergroup attitudes affect social influence in the form of homophily or x...

Intergroup contact and evaluations about race-based exclusion were assessed for majority and minority students in fourth, seventh, and tenth grades (N = 685). Students were presented with scenarios depicting cross-race relations in contexts of dyadic friendship, parental discomfort, and peer group disapproval. Participants reporting higher levels of intergroup contact gave higher ratings of wro...

Whereas much social psychological research has studied the in-group and out-group implications of social categorization and collective identity ("we"), little research has examined the nature and relevance of collective psychological ownership ("ours") for intergroup relations. We make a case for considering collective psychological ownership as an important source of intergroup tensions. We do...

INDIVIDUAL PROCESSES IN INTERGROUP BEHAVIOR ................................ 3 From Individual to Group Impressions ...................................................................... 3 GROUP MEMBERSHIP AND INTERGROUP BEHAVIOR .................................. 7 The Scope and Range of Ethnocentrism .................................................................... 8 The Development of Eth...

In 1994, a controversial book hit newsstands. Its claim was that the consistent gap in intelligent quotient (IQ) scores between Black and White students was the result of genetic differences between the races. This proposition that one class of people is intellectually inferior to another was not a new claim. In the 1800s, Sir Francis Galton was one of the early psychologists to study intellige...