We developed a new experimental design to test whether or not individuals engage in conflict between social groups because they seek to harm outgroup members. Challenging prominent social psychological theories, we did not find support for such negative social preferences. Nevertheless, subjects heavily engaged in group conflict. Results support the argument that processes that act within socia...

Conflicts of interest over resources or reproduction among individuals in a social group have long been considered to result in automatic and universal costs to group living. However, exploring how social conflict varies with group size has produced mixed empirical results. Here we develop a model that generates alternative predictions for how social conflict should vary with group size dependi...

Past research suggests that small groups are self-organizing systems, and that social resilience may be measured as the meta-flexibility of group dynamics: the ability to shift back and forth from flexiblity to rigidity in response to conflict. This study extends these prior results, examining the impact of experimentally induced internal conflict and group-level conflict resolution on group dy...

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2017.01.017 0003-3472/© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Conflict between groups is a notable feature of many animal societies. Recent theoretical models suggest that violent intergroup conflict can shape patterns of within-group cooperation. However, despite its prevalence in social species, the adaptive ...

Conflict between groups (intergroup conflict) is common in many social species and is widely discussed as an evolutionary driver of within-group dynamics and social structure. However, empirical studies investigating the impacts of intergroup conflict have focused on the immediate aftermath, when behavioral changes may be the direct result of elevated stress levels or territorial exclusions. De...

Social music listening is a prevalent and often fruitful experience. Social jukeboxes are systems that enable social music listening with listeners collaboratively choosing the music to be played. Naturally, because music tastes are diverse, using social jukeboxes often involves conflicting interests. Because of that, virtually all social jukeboxes incorporate conflict management mechanisms. In...

Social identities are associated with normative standards for thought and action, profoundly influencing the behavioral choices of individual group members. These social norms provide frameworks for identifying the most appropriate actions in any situation. Given the increasing complexity of the social world, however, individuals are more and more likely to identify strongly with multiple socia...