Ingroup Identification and Intergroup Conflict: When Does Ingroup Love Become Outgroup Hate?

Abstract

Abstract Social psychologists’ interest in social identity and ingroup bias arose in the context of research on intergroup relations (Tajfel & Turner, 1986; Brewer & Brown, 1998). As a consequence, there has been a coupling of the study of ingroup favoritism and outgroup prejudice, the implicit assumption being that the more we know about why individuals become attached to their ingroups, the more we will understand why they come to dislike or derogate outgroups. The present chapter seeks to challenge that assumption by examining more carefully the nature of the relationship between ingroup love and outgroup hate. The basic thesis is that the formation of ingroups and ingroup identification arises independently of attitudes toward outgroups. Attachment to ingroups is presumed here to be the primary process, fundamental to individual survival and well-being. lngroup identification thus precedes outgroup hostility and intergroup conflict but is not by itself a sufficient explanation for such conflict. Instead, as this chapter will argue, we need to trace the steps that lead from ingroup formation to outgroup hostility, specifying the conditions under which the two become entangled.