The Psychology of Prejudice: Ingroup Love and Outgroup Hate?

Allport (1954) recognized that attachment to one's ingroups does not necessarily require hostility toward outgroups. Yet the prevailing approach to the study of ethnocentrism, ingroup bias, and prejudice presumes that ingroup love and outgroup hate are reciprocally related. Findings from both cross-cultural research and laboratory experiments support the alternative view that ingroup identification is independent of negative attitudes toward outgroups and that much ingroup bias and intergroup discrimination is motivated by preferential treatment of ingroup members rather than direct hostility toward outgroup members. Thus to understand the roots of prejudice and discrimination requires first of all a better understanding of the functions that ingroup formation and identification serve for human beings. This article reviews research and theory on the motivations for maintenance of ingroup boundaries and the implications of ingroup boundary protection for intergroup relations, conflict, and conflict prevention.

[1]  M. Sherif,et al.  Groups in harmony and tension : an integration of studies on intergroup relations , 1954 .

[2]  G. Āllport.  The Nature of Prejudice , 1954 .

[3]  M. Gluckman,et al.  Custom and Conflict in Africa , 1955 .

[4]  M. Freedman,et al.  The Functions of Social Conflict , 1959 .

[5]  R. F. Murphy,et al.  Intergroup Hostility and Social Cohesion , 1957 .

[6]  S. Lipset.  Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy , 1959, American Political Science Review.

[7]  S. Lipset.  Political Man: The Social Bases of Politics , 1960 .

[8]  Muzafer Sherif,et al.  In common predicament : social psychology of intergroup conflict and cooperation , 1967 .

[9]  D. Campbell,et al.  Ethnocentrism: theories of conflict, ethnic attitudes, and group behavior , 1973 .

[10]  H. Tajfel,et al.  Social categorization and intergroup behaviour , 1971 .

[11]  T. Pettigrew,et al.  Race and Relative Deprivation in the Urban United States , 1972 .

[12]  John C. Turner,et al.  Social comparison and social identity: Some prospects for intergroup behaviour , 1975 .

[13]  Ethnocentrism and intergroup attitudes: East African evidence. , 1977 .

[14]  J. Dovidio,et al.  The subtlety of White racism, arousal, and helping behavior. , 1977 .

[15]  M. Brewer.  In-group bias in the minimal intergroup situation: A cognitive-motivational analysis. , 1979 .

[16]  Robert A. Baron,et al.  Effects of Victim's Pain Cues, Victim's Race, and Level of Prior Instigation upon Physical Aggression , 1979 .

[17]  R. W. Rogers,et al.  Deindividuation and anger-mediated interracial aggression: Unmasking regressive racism. , 1981 .

[18]  J. Dovidio,et al.  Race of Victim, Nonresponsive Bystanders, and Helping Behavior , 1982 .

[19]  Rupert Brown,et al.  Superordinate goals and intergroup conflict , 1983 .

[20]  H. Schreiber,et al.  Better or just different? Positive social identity by discrimination against, or by differentiation from outgroups , 1983 .

[21]  S. Schwartz,et al.  Intergroup aggression: its predictors and distinctness from in-group bias. , 1989, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[22]  R. Kosterman,et al.  Toward a measure of patriotic and nationalistic attitudes. , 1989 .

[23]  B. Simon,et al.  Better or different? III. The impact of importance of comparison dimension and relative in-group size upon intergroup discrimination. , 1989 .

[24]  Charles Stangor,et al.  Affective and cognitive determinants of prejudice , 1991 .

[25]  M. Brewer.  The Social Self: On Being the Same and Different at the Same Time , 1991 .

[26]  Brian Mullen,et al.  Ingroup bias as a function of salience, relevance, and status: An integration , 1992 .

[27]  B. Simon,et al.  Categorization is not enough : intergroup discrimination in negative outcome allocation , 1992 .

[28]  Norman Miller,et al.  Cross‐cutting category membership with role assignment: A means of reducing intergroup bias , 1993 .

[29]  J. Dovidio,et al.  Stereotypes and evaluative intergroup bias. , 1993 .

[30]  Jim Sidanius,et al.  The psychology of group conflict and the dynamics of oppression: A social dominance perspective. , 1993 .

[31]  R. Spears,et al.  PEOPLE LIKE US : THE INFLUENCE OF PERSONAL DEPRIVATION AND GROUP MEMBERSHIP SALIENCE ON JUSTICE EVALUATIONS , 1994 .

[32]  Joseph G. Weber.  The Nature of Ethnocentric Attribution Bias: Ingroup Protection or Enhancement? , 1994 .

[33]  S. Feshbach.  Nationalism, Patriotism, and Aggression , 1994 .

[34]  Thomas F. Pettigrew,et al.  Subtle and blatant prejudice in Western Europe , 1995 .

[35]  H. Triandis.  Individualism And Collectivism , 1995 .

[36]  Eiji Takagi.  The Generalized Exchange Perspective on the Evolution of Altruism , 1996 .

[37]  L. Caporael.  The Evolution of Truly Social Cognition: The Core Configurations Model , 1997, Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

[38]  M. Brewer.  On the social origins of human nature. , 1997 .

[39]  J. Duckitt,et al.  Group identification and intergroup attitudes: a longitudinal analysis in South Africa. , 1998, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[40]  J. Citrin,et al.  Cultural diversity and multicultural politics: Is ethnic balkanization psychologically inevitable? , 1999 .

[41]  M. Wenzel,et al.  Social Discrimination and Tolerance in Intergroup Relations: Reactions to Intergroup Difference , 1999, Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.