Where do prejudices come from? (II) Intergroup conflicts.
It's been found that people have needs to belong to groups and to be individuals.
They have to find a balance between group-identification and individuality.
That's why sometimes people with a bad self-perception stay in groups wich have a bad reputaion,
instead of moving to other groups.
Continuum from interpersonal- to intergroup-interaction
Individuals interact.
Groups arise and interaction becomes group-related.
In scapegoat-theory it's been assumed that frustration in a majority
would lead to aggressions against a minority with a bad standing [e.g. blacks or jews]
The theory of relative deprivation is an ancestor of scapegoat-theory,
wich could'nt explain prejudice and the emergence of violence between/against particular groups.
It's been assumed that if individuals ar deprived of valuable goods, that this could lead to prejudices,
but prejudices are fare more likely to arise, when the in-group as a whole
is deprived of these goods.
Realistic conflict theory is based on experiments that are known as the "Robbers Cave Experiments".
There, a group of average boys has been invited to a holiday-camp.
Groups were formed and the boys have been given time to identify with their in-group.
A conflict between the groups has been induced by organizing competitive games.
The more valuable the prices were or the less of them there were to get, the more agressive the groups acted towards each other.
Later, the aggressions were reduced by bringing the boys to work together in favor of the whole camp.
