Resource inequality creates intergroup conflict only when subordinates reject their negative self-image

Evidence

A tentative hypothesis about intergroup conflict in stratified societies can now be offered: An unequal distribution of objective resources promotes antagonism between dominant and subordinate groups, provided that the latter group rejects its previously accepted and consensually negative self-image, and with it the status quo, and starts working toward the development of a positive group identity. The dominant group may react to these developments either by doing everything possible to maintain and justify the status quo or by attempting to find and create new differentiations in its own favor, or both. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2699

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Tajfel’s social identity theory and the notion that acceptance of negative self-image maintains status quo — parallels the concept of internalized oppression (e.g. from decolonial writers). — connects to: Addressing top-bottom resource inequality can dissolve identity-based intergroup competition. — Nurit Shnabel and Johannes Ullrich, Identity Needs in Intergroup Relations:…, 139; the MOC “The Enemy-Making Machine: Ours, True, and the Identity That Defends Both”
• SEED: Article angle: the psychology of ‘awakening’ — what exactly triggers a subordinate group to reject its internalized inferiority and start the conflict cycle.