The importance of social identity content in a setting of chronic social conflict: Understanding intergroup relations in Northern Ireland

Does the enumeration of ethnic, racial, and/or religious categories on national household censuses increase the likelihood of conflict? The authors propose a theory of intergroup relations that emphasizes the conflictual effects of institutionalizing boundaries between social identity groups. The article investigates the relationship between counting and various forms of conflict with an original, global data set that classifies the type of enumeration used in more than one thousand census questionnaires in more than 150 countries spanning more than two centuries. Through a series of cross-national statistical analyses, the authors find a robust association between enumeration of ethnic cleavages on the census and various forms of competition and conflict, including violent ethnic civil war. The plausibility of the theory is further demonstrated through case study analysis of religious conflict in India.

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United We Stand

Strategic Instincts ◽

10.23943/princeton/9780691137452.003.0008 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 174-208

Author(s):

Dominic D. P. Johnson

Keyword(s):

Social Psychology ◽

Social Identity ◽

Ethnic Conflict ◽

Intergroup Relations ◽

Minority Groups ◽

Rwandan Genocide ◽

Balkan Wars

This chapter examines the strategic advantages of the in-group/out-group bias. It discusses people that have a powerful tendency to favor their own in-group and its members, while disparaging out-groups and their members. It also clarifies the strength and prevalence of the in-group/out-group bias that forms a bedrock foundation in social psychology and is critical to social identity and intergroup relations. The chapter investigates how group prejudices can have appalling human consequences in the bias's contribution to the oppression of minority groups, ethnic conflict, and genocide. It highlights the implication of the role of the in-group/out-group bias in fanning the flames of the Balkan wars, the Rwandan genocide, and the Israeli Palestinian conflict.

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The Northern Ireland Conflict: New Wine in Old Bottles?

Contemporary European History ◽

10.1017/s0960777300002095 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 307-322

Author(s):

Sabine Wichert

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Twentieth Century ◽

Social Identity ◽

Northern Ireland ◽

Internal Conflict ◽

New Paradigm ◽

Cambridge University ◽

The Troubles ◽

Northern Ireland Conflict ◽

History Of

James Loughlin, The Ulster Question since 1945 (London: Macmillan, 1998), 151 pp., £10.99 (pb), ISBN 0–333–60616–7.David Harkness, Ireland in the Twentieth Century. Divided Island (London: Macmillan, 1996), 190 pp., £9.99 (pb), ISBN 0–333–56796–X.Thomas Hennessey, A History of Northern Ireland, 1920–1996 (London: Macmillan, 1997), 347 pp., £12.99 (pb), £40.00 (hb), ISBN 0–333–73162–X.Brian A. Follis, A State Under Siege. The Establishment of Northern Ireland, 1920–1925 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1995), 250 pp., £35.00 (hb), ISBN 0–198–20305–5.Dermot Keogh and Michael H. Haltzel, eds., Northern Ireland and the Politics of reconciliation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 256 pp., £35.00 (hb), ISBN 0–521–44430–6.William Crotty and David Schmitt, eds., Ireland and the Politics of Change (London/New York: Longman, 1999), 264 pp., £17.99 (pb), ISBN 0–582–32894–2.David Miller, ed., Rethinking Northern Ireland. Culture, Ideology and Colonialism. (London/New York: Longman, 1999), 344 pp., £17.99 (pb), ISBN 0–582–30287–0.Anthony D. Buckley and Mary Catherine Kenney, Negotiating Identity: Rhetoric, Metaphor, and Social Identity in Northern Ireland (Washington: Smithonian Institution Press, 1996), 270 pp., £34.75 (hb), ISBN 1–560–98520–8.John D. Brewer, with Gareth I. Higgins, Anti-Catholicism in Northern Ireland, 1600–1998: the mote and the beam (London: Macmillan, 1998), 248 pp., £16.99 (pb), ISBN 0–333–74635–X.During the last three decades, and accompanying the ‘troubles’, the literature on Northern Ireland has mushroomed. Within the last ten years two surveys have attempted to summarise and categorise the major interpretations. John Whyte's Interpreting Northern Ireland covered the 1970s and 1980s and came to the conclusion that traditional Unionist and nationalist interpretations, with their emphasis on external, that is British and Irish, forces as the cause for the problem, had begun to lose out to ‘internal conflict’ interpretations. He felt, however, that this approach, too, was coming to the end of its usefulness, and he expected the emergence of a new paradigm shortly.

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Going to extremes: Social identity and communication processes associated with gang membership

Group Processes & Intergroup Relations ◽

10.1177/1368430214524289 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 17 (6) ◽

pp. 813-832 ◽

Cited By ~ 45

Author(s):

Liran Goldman ◽

Howard Giles ◽

Michael A. Hogg

Keyword(s):

Social Identity ◽

Intergroup Relations ◽

The United States ◽

Gang Membership ◽

Future Research ◽

Social Psychological ◽

Psychological Study ◽

Communication Processes ◽

The Social ◽

The World

Gang violence, endemic to many communities in the United States and around the world is a very significant social problem. Given that the messages conveyed by, and the rivalries associated with, gang identities readily invoke constructs and processes familiar to the social psychological study of social identity, intergroup relations, and communication (Lauger, 2012), it is surprising that social psychologists have not advanced such an analysis of gangs. In attempt to fill this void and set a research agenda, this theoretical article examines the role social identity and identity-related communication play in promoting affiliation with gangs, particularly among youth who confront uncertainties and strive for family-like protection. The article discusses messaging communicated by gang members and reasons why youth adopt antisocial (e.g., violent) rather than prosocial behaviors. It also explores ways to diminish the allure of gang membership and raises questions for future research.

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Trust, forgiveness, and peace: The influence of adolescent social identity in a setting of intergroup conflict

International Journal of Behavioral Development ◽

10.1177/01650254211066768 ◽

2022 ◽

pp. 016502542110667

Author(s):

Laura K. Taylor ◽

Dean O’Driscoll ◽

Christine E. Merrilees ◽

Marcie Goeke-Morey ◽

Peter Shirlow ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Identity ◽

Northern Ireland ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Peace Process ◽

Equation Model ◽

Intergroup Conflict ◽

Minority Communities ◽

Peace Agreements ◽

Intergroup Forgiveness ◽

Group Trust

Following the signing of peace agreements, post-accord societies often remain deeply divided across group lines. There is a need to identify antecedents of youth’s support for peace and establish more constructive intergroup relations. This article explored the effect of out-group trust, intergroup forgiveness, and social identity on support for the peace process among youth from the historic majority and minority communities in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The sample comprised 667 adolescents (49% male; M = 15.74, SD = 1.99 years old) across two time points. The results from the structural equation model suggested that out-group trust was related to intergroup forgiveness over time, while forgiveness related to later support for the peace process. Strength of in-group social identity differentially moderated how out-group trust and intergroup forgiveness related to later support for peace among youth from the conflict-related groups (i.e., Protestants and Catholics). Implications for consolidating peace in Northern Ireland are discussed, which may be relevant to other settings affected by intergroup conflict.

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