Social Darwinist theory treated intergroup conflict as a natural and inevitable outcome of contact

Evidence

Nineteenthcentury thinking, dominated by Social Darwinism, was quite pessimistic. William Graham Sumner (1906) held that intergroup contact almost inevitably led to conflict. This followed from his famous contention that hostility toward outgroups is a reciprocal function of an ingroup’s sense of superiority. Because Sumner also believed that most groups felt themselves to be superior, his theory viewed intergroup hostility and conflict to be natural and inevitable outcomes of contact. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 1655

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the same pessimistic contact thesis later refined by realistic conflict theory and tribal psychology literature. — connects to: the MOC “The Enemy-Making Machine: Ours, True, and the Identity That Defends Both”