Introduction Nature and Formation of Groups Groupthink (Box 7.1) Type of Groups The Minimal Group Paradigm Experiments (Box 7.2) Influence of Group on Individual Behaviour Social Loafing Group Polarisation Conformity, Compliance, and Obedience The Autokinetic Effect (Box 7.3) Group Pressure and Conformity : The Asch Experiment (Box 7.4) Cooperation and Competition Sherif’s Summer Camp Experimen...

The literature on social polarization predicts that redistributive conflicts will be most intense in societies with two equally large groups. However, the effect of relative group size on the risk of onset of violent conflict remains unexplored. In this paper we study a game between a rentextracting government and an excluded social group which can explain the determinants of conflict onset and...

Darwin was initially puzzled by the processes that led to ornamentation in males-what he termed sexual selection-and those that led to extreme cooperation and altruism in complex animal societies-what was later termed kin selection. Here, I explore the relationships between sexual and kin selection theory by examining how social competition for reproductive opportunities-particularly in females...

We introduce status conflicts-defined as attempts to defend or elevate one's own relative status (i.e., prominence or respect)-as a key group process that affects task group performance. Using mixed research methods, we qualitatively identify the characteristics of status conflicts, validate a four-item survey scale that distinctly measures status conflict, and investigate the relationship betw...

The spatial structure of genetic diversity underlying social variation is a critical determinant of how cooperation and conflict evolve. Here we investigated whether natural social groups of the cooperative soil bacterium Myxococcus xanthus harbor internal genetic and phenotypic variation and thus the potential for social conflict between interacting cells. Ten M. xanthus fruiting bodies isolat...

This paper studies costly conflict in a world of complete information, in which society can commit to divisible transfers among all potentially warring groups. The difficulty in preventing conflict arises from the possibility that there may be several conflictual divisions of society, each based on a different marker, such as class, geography, religion, or ethnicity. It is shown that this diver...

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...

1. Evolution, morality, and conflict between groups. 2. Parental investment and conflict within the family. 3. Co-operation, conflict, and emotional development. 4. Emotional development and parental investment. 5. Identification, projection, and images of self and others. 6. Projection and self-esteem. 7. The social externalization of internal conflict. 8. The individual, the family, and group...