Abstract
This chapter examines the psychological and neurobiological correlates of ingroup and outgroup formation and intergroup conflict. We look at the social psychological and sociological theories as well as more recent empirical evidence around strong group formation and prejudice. The chapter also uncovers several important mitigating factors and some experimental approaches to reducing bias and conflict. We conclude with a look at how these findings and their application to the problem of Islamophobia might carry clinical implications for psychiatrists treating patients from marginalized Islamic populations.
The true hero is one who conquers his own anger and hatred. – the 14th Dalai Lama
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
For a good summary of the academic discussion, see Sayyid S. Racism and Islamophobia. International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding Commentary 2011;4:1–4.
Yudell M, Roberts D, DeSalle R, Tishkoff S. Taking race out of human genetics. Science. 2016;351(6273):564–5.
University of Minnesota Libraries. Sociology: understanding and changing the social world. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing Edition; 2016. p. 173.
DeMarree K, Clark C, Weeler SC, Brinol P, Petty R. On the pursuit of desired attitudes: wanting a different attitude affects information processing and behavior. J Exp Soc Psychol. 2017;70:129–42.
Krueger JI, DiDonato TE. Social categorization and the perception of groups and group differences. Soc Personal Psychol Compass. 2008;2(2):733–50.
University of Minnesota Libraries. Principles of social psychology. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing Edition; 2015. p. 550.
Duval TS, Silvia PJ. Self-awareness, probability of improvement, and the self-serving bias. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2002;82(1):49–61.
Brewer MB, Pierce RP. Social identity complexity and outgroup tolerance. Personal Soc Psychol Bull. 2005;31:428.
Wolf ST, Cohen TR, Kirchner JL, Rea A, Montoya RM. Reducing intergroup conflict through consideration of future conflict. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business; 2009.
Robbins JM, Krueger JI. Social projection to ingroups and outgroups: a review and meta-analysis. Personal Soc Psychol Rev. 2005;9(1):32–47.
Crisp RJ, Beck SR. Reducing intergroup bias: the moderating role of ingroup identification. Group Process Intergroup Relat. 2005;8(2):173–85.
Cox D, Lienesch R, Jones RP. Beyond economics: fears of cultural displacement pushed the white working class to trump. PRRI/The Atlantic Report 2017. Published online May 9, 2017.
Halperin E, Russell AG, Trzesniewski KH, Gross JJ, Dweck CS. Promoting the Middle East peace process by changing beliefs about group malleability. Science. 2011;333:1767–9.
Insel TR, Shapiro LE. Oxytocin receptor distribution reflects social organization in monogamous and polygamous voles. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1992;89:5981–5.
Kirsch P, Essinger C, Chen Q, et al. Oxytocin modulates neural circuitry for social cognition and fear in humans. J Neurosci. 2005;25:11489–93.
Rilling JK, Young LJ. The biology of mammalian parenting and its effect on offspring social development. Science. 2014;345:771–6.
Insel TR. The challenge of translation in social neuroscience: a review of oxytocin, vasopressin, and affiliative behavior. Neuron. 2010;65:768–79.
Miller G. The promise and perils of oxytocin. Science. 2013;339:267–9.
American Physiological Society. Oxytocin raises aggression, cuts anxiety during lactation; similar effects on virgin rats. ScienceDaily. 2005.
Samuni L, Preis A, Mundry R, Deschner T, Crockford C, Wittig RM. Oxytocin reactivity during intergroup conflict in wild chimpanzees. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016;114:268–73.
Shalvi S, De Dreu CKW. Oxytocin promotes group-serving dishonesty. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014;111:5503–7.
De Dreu CK, Gree LL, Van Kleef GA, Shalvi S, Handgraaf MJ. Oxytocin promotes human ethnocentrism. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011;108:1262–6.
De Dreu CK, Greer LL, Handgraaf JM, et al. The neuropeptide oxytocin regulates parochial altruism in intergroup conflict among humans. Science. 2010;328:1408–11.
Ten Velden FS, Daughters K, De Dreu CKW. Oxytocin promotes intuitive rather than deliberated cooperation with the in-group. Horm Behav. 2017;92:164–71.
Daughers K, Manstead AS, Ten Velden FS, De Dreu CK. Oxytocin modulates third-party sanctioning of selfish and generous behavior within and between groups. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2017;77:18–24.
Zhu L, Jenkins AC, Set E, et al. Damage to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex affects tradeoffs between honesty and self-interest. Nat Neurosci. 2014;17:1319–21.
Phelps EA, O’Connor KJ, Cunningham WA, et al. Performance on indirect measures of race evaluation predicts amygdala activation. J Cogn Neurosci. 2000;12:729–38.
Hart AJ, Whalen PJ, Shin LM, McInerney SC, Fischer H, Rauch SL. Differential response in the human amygdala to racial outgroup vs ingroup face stimuli. Neuroreport. 2000;11:23510–2355.
Cunningham WA, Johnson MK, Raye CL, Gatenby C, Gore JC, Banali MR. Separable neural components in the processing of black and white faces. Psychol Sci. 2004;15:806–13.
Lieberman MD, Hariri A, Jarcho JM, Eisenberger NI, Bookheimer SY. An fMRI investigation of race-related amygdala activity in African-American and Caucasian-American individuals. Nat Neurosci. 2005;8:720–2.
Campbell-Meiklejohn D, Simonsen A, Frith CD, Daw ND. Independent neural computation of value from other people’s confidence. J Neurosci. 2017;37:673–84.
Schmalzle R, Hacker FEK, Honey CJ, Hasson U. Engaged listeners: shared neural processing of powerful political speeches. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2015;10:11370–143.
Garrett N, Lazzaro SC, Ariely D, Sharot T. The brain adapts to dishonesty. Nat Neurosci. 2016;19:1727–32.
Yu R, Mobbs D, Seymour B, Calder AJ. Insula and striatum mediate the default bias. J Neurosci. 2010;30:14702–7.
Hu X, Antony JW, Creery JD, Vargas IM, Bondenhausen GV, Paller KA. Unlearning implicit social biases during sleep. Science. 2015;348:1013–5.
Feld GB, Born J. Exploiting sleep to modify bad attitudes. Science. 2015;348:971–3.
Gorman SE, Gorman JM. Denying to the grave: why we ignore the facts that will save us. New York: Oxford University Press; 2016.
Edelson MG, Dudai Y, Dolan RJ, Sharot T. Brain substrates of recovery from misleading influence. J Neurosci. 2014;34:7744–53.
McLoughlin N, Over H. Young children are more likely to spontaneously attribute mental states to members of their own group. Psychol Sci. 2017;28(10):1503–9.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gorman, S.E., Gorman, J.M. (2019). The Social Psychology and Neurobiology of Intergroup Conflict. In: Moffic, H., Peteet, J., Hankir, A., Awaad, R. (eds) Islamophobia and Psychiatry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00512-2_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00512-2_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-00511-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-00512-2
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)