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Collective Reactions to Threat: Implications for Intergroup Conflict and for Solving Societal Crises
Author(s) -
Fritsche Immo,
Jonas Eva,
Kessler Thomas
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
social issues and policy review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.798
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1751-2409
pISSN - 1751-2395
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-2409.2011.01027.x
Subject(s) - ethnocentrism , prosocial behavior , social psychology , group conflict , terrorism , psychology , perspective (graphical) , control (management) , empirical evidence , political science , economics , epistemology , philosophy , management , artificial intelligence , computer science , law
Personal and collective threat can breed ethnocentrism and intergroup conflict. We present a model of group‐based control to elucidate motivational underpinnings of these effects from a social psychological perspective. Reviewed empirical evidence illustrates the effects of personal threat on ethnocentric attitudes. Moreover, evidence reveals that perceived lack of personal control of important aspects of one's life induces people to support and defend social in‐groups. This is because people heuristically believe that groups are homogeneous actors of shared goals that may promise the symbolic restoration of group members’ sense of global control. We discuss the effects complex real‐world threats (economic crises, terrorism, and climate change) have on ethnocentric tendencies and how we explain this within the control model. Finally, we elaborate on implications for reducing ethnocentric threat responses and on possible prosocial consequences of threat that may help to solve societal crises.