Intergroup Relations

Intergroup relations involve the feelings, evaluations, beliefs, and behaviors that groups and their members have toward another group and its members. Negative intergroup relations typically involve prejudice (negative feelings and evaluations), stereotypes (beliefs about groups and their members), and discrimination (unfair treatment). However, intergroup bias does not necessarily require overtly negative orientations toward another group. Particularly when social norms prohibit negative treatment of certain groups, intergroup bias may reflect unusually favorable attitudes about members of one’s own group and preferential treatment toward them, rather than hostility or ill treatment of other groups.

The nature of intergroup relations is determined by psychological processes associated with social categorization, by the personalities and motivations of group members, and by the functional relationship between the groups. These processes apply to ...