Group conflict attitudes reduce to perceived incompatible interests, relative deprivation, and threat

Evidence

These investigations have not, however, aimed to provide a general definition of group conflict attitudes or to elaborate on the various forms that such attitudes may take. Toward this end, it is suggested that group conflict motives are attitudes directly concerned with the competitive aspects of group relations and attempts to alter those relations. They concern the distribution of scarce values and resources between social groups, as well as attempts to affect the process and pattern of their distribution. More specifically, three types of attitudes reflect group conflict motives: perceptions of incompatible group interests, perceptions and evaluations of relative group standing (fraternal deprivation), and perceived threats or challenges to group interests. Each type of attitude invokes a sense of in-group position vis-à-vis an out-group, and yet, these attitudes are not primarily expressions of intergroup affective orientations or trait beliefs about an out-group (stereotypes). — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3364

Categorization

• DEFINE: Provides a working definition and taxonomy of ‘group conflict motives’ distinguishing them from stereotypes and affect.
• XREF: connects to: Perceived group inequity motivates distress that drives restorative action — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 431; the MOC “The Enemy-Making Machine: Ours, True, and the Identity That Defends Both”