Intergroup Reconciliation between Flemings and Walloons: The Predictive Value of Cognitive Style, Authoritarian Ideology, and Intergroup Emotions

Social dominance orientation as an obstacle to intergroup apology

Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) has engaged the interest of social and personality psychologists as it has deep implications for the psychology of intergroup conflict, particularly regarding factors such as prejudice and discrimination, as well as international conflict resolution. Nevertheless, few studies have directly assessed how SDO relates to intergroup reconciliation. This study (effective N = 819) measured participants’ SDO along with their attitudes toward various governmental apologies to test the hypothesis that SDO is associated with unwillingness to issue intergroup apologies. The results showed that SDO was negatively correlated with supportive attitudes toward government-issued international apologies. This negative correlation remained intact after controlling for the effects of political conservatism and militarism.

Ethnic Diversity, Ideological Climates, and Intergroup Relations: A Person × Context Approach

Intergroup relations represent one of the most difficult and complex knots which we are confronted with in contemporary society. Given that intergroup dynamics permeate all spheres of our daily social lives, it seems vital to systematically investigate how to best predict and explain when, why, and for whom intergroup relations symbolize conflict rather than harmony. This critical review evaluates how the societal context in which individuals live shapes how their personal social-ideological views, their values, norms and beliefs, are associated with their intergroup and related attitudes. Such an approach not only examines psychological/individual and sociological/contextual levels of analysis simultaneously, it also assesses how both work together (i.e., interact) in influencing intergroup relations across various domains of life. In sum, I found that adopting a person × context interaction approach yields interesting and more profound insights in individuals’ attitudes towards ethnicity-, gender, and age-based outgroups, their specifisc expressions of ethnic prejudice (e.g., outgroup negativity, outgroup threat, intergroup contact, and trust within and between ethnic-cultural groups), and even their political attitudes, political party support, neighborhood attitudes and moving intentions.