Intergroup Emotions

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511819568.013

11 - Intergroup Emotions

Emotion as an Intergroup Phenomenon

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 April 2011

Diane M. MacKie ,

Lisa A. Silver and

Eliot R. Smith

Edited by

Larissa Z. Tiedens and

Colin Wayne Leach

Show author details

Diane M. MacKie: Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara
Lisa A. Silver: Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara
Eliot R. Smith: Affiliation:
Indiana University
Larissa Z. Tiedens: Affiliation:
Stanford University, California
Colin Wayne Leach: Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Cruz

Book contents

Get access

Summary

That emotions arise in intergroup contexts is of course uncontroversial. We are thrilled when our national team wins the World Cup against stiff competition, angry when protesters in another country burn our flag, excited as the party we voted for wins the election, and disgusted when local college students brawl drunkenly with a neighboring school. Despite the obvious impetus that intergroup behavior is to emotions, the idea that emotions may actually be intergroup phenomena is not so much controversial as it is, at least in social psychology, unconsidered. Emotion is typically assumed to be an individual phenomenon, triggered when an individual interprets events as either favoring or harming his or her personal goals or desires in the context of whether he or she has the personal resources to cope or not. Yet such approaches do not seem to fully capture the kinds of emotions evoked by our examples. Unless we are a member of the national team, caught by mistake in the demonstration, up for election, or one of those actually involved in the brawl, none of these events may impact us directly or personally. Yet because these events touch those we are close to, those we identity with, those we feel part of or one with, we, too, experience emotion.

Our attempts to explain such emotional experiences have led us to consider emotion as an intergroup phenomenon.

Type: Chapter
Information: The Social Life of Emotions , pp. 227 - 245

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511819568.013 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Alexander, M. G., Brewer, M. B., & Hermann, R. K. (1999). Images and affect: A functional analysis of out-group stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 78–93CrossRef Google Scholar

Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Addison Wesley

Batson, C. D. (1987). Self-report ratings of empathic emotion. In N. Eisenberg & J. Strayer (Eds.), Empathy and its development. Cambridge studies in social and emotional development (pp. 356–360). New York: Cambridge University Press

Batson, C. D., Ahmed, N., Yin, J., Bedell, S. J., Johnson, J. W., Templin, C. M., & Whiteside, A. (1999). Two threats to the common good: Self-interested egoism and empathy and empathy-induced altruism. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 3–16CrossRef Google Scholar

Batson, C. D., Klein, T. R., Highberger, L., & Shaw, L. L. (1995). Immorality from empathy-induced altruism: When compassion and justice conflict. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 1042–1054CrossRef Google Scholar

Branscombe, N., Doosje, B., & McGarty, C. (2002). Antecedents and consequences of collective guilt. In Mackie, D. M. & Smith, E. R. (Eds.), From prejudice to intergroup emotions: Differentiated reactions to social groups (pp. 49–66). New York: Psychology Press

Brewer, M. B., & Alexander, M. G. (2002). Intergroup emotions and images. In D. M. Mackie & E. R. Smith (Eds.), From prejudice to intergroup emotions: Differentiated reactions to social groups (pp. 209–226). New York: Psychology Press

Brewer, M. B., & Brown, R. J. (1998). Intergroup relations. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (4th Edition, Vol. 2; pp. 554–594). New York: McGraw-Hill

Brewer, M. B., & Kramer, R. M. (1986). Choice behavior in social dilemmas: Effects of social identity, group size, and decision framing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50 (3), 543–549CrossRef Google Scholar

Brown, R. J., & Gaertner, S. L. (2001). The Blackwell handbook of social psychology: Intergroup processes. Malden, MA: Blackwell Press

Cialdini, R. B., Borden, R. J., Thorne, A., Walker, M. R., Freeman, S., & Sloan, L. R. (1976). Basking in reflected glory: Three football field studies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 366–375CrossRef Google Scholar

Doosje, B., Branscombe, N. R., Spears, R., & Manstead, A. S. R. (1998). Guilty by association: When one's group has a negative history. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 872–886CrossRef Google Scholar

Dovidio, J. F., Brigham, J. C., Johnson, B. T., & Gaertner, S. L. (1996). Stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination: Another look. In N. Macrae, C. Stangor, & M. Hewstone (Eds.), Stereotypes and stereotyping (pp. 276–319). New York: Guilford

Dovidio, J. F., Kawakami, K., & Gaertner, S. L. (2002). Implicit and explicit prejudice and interracial interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 62–68CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Eisenberg, N. (2000). Emotion, regulation, and moral development. Annual Review of Psychology, 51, 665–697CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Eisenberg, N., & Fabes, R. A. (1998). Prosocial development. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & N. Eisenberg (Volume Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. Social, emotional, and personality development (5th Edition; pp. 701–778). New York: Wiley

Fiske, S. T. (1998). Stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (4th Edition, Vol. 2; pp. 357–411). New York: McGraw-Hill

Gordijn, E. H., Wigboldus, D., & Yzerbyt, V. (2001). Emotional consequences of categorizing victims of negative outgroup behavior as ingroup or outgroup. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 4 (4), 317–326CrossRef Google Scholar

Hermann, R. K., & Fischerkeller, M. (1995). Beyond the enemy image and spiral model: Cognitive-strategic research after the cold war. International Organization, 49, 415–450CrossRef Google Scholar

Hogg, M. A., & Abrams, D. (1988). Social identifications: A social psychology of intergroup relations and group processes. London: Routledge

Kemper, T. D. (1990). Social relations and emotions: A structural approach. In T. D. Kemper (Ed.), Research agendas in the sociology of emotions (pp. 207–237). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press

Lazarus, R. S. (1991). Emotion and adaptation. London: Oxford University Press

Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. New York: Springer-Verlag

Mackie, D. M., Devos, T., & Smith, E. R. (2000). Intergroup emotions: Explaining offensive action tendencies in an intergroup context. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 602–616CrossRef Google Scholar

Mackie, D. M., & Smith, E. R. (1998). Intergroup relations: Insights from a theoretically integrative approach. Psychological Review, 105, 499–529CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Miller, P. A., & Eisenberg, N. (1988). The relation of empathy to aggression and externalizing/antisocial behavior. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 324–344CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Pettigrew, T. F. (1997). Generalized intergroup contact effects on prejudice. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 173–185CrossRef Google Scholar

Pratto, F., Sidanius, J., Stallworth, L. M., & Malle, B. F. (1994). Social dominance orientation: A personality variable predicting social and political attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 741–763CrossRef Google Scholar

Sedikides, C., & Brewer, M. B. (Eds.). (2001). Individual self, relational self, collective self. Philadelphia: Psychology Press/Taylor & Francis

Sedikides, C., Schopler, J., & Insko, C. A. (Eds.). (1998). Intergroup cognition and intergroup behavior. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum

Silver, M. D. (2001). The multidimensional nature of ingroup identification: Correlational and experimental evidence. Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University

Silver, M. D. (2002). On the multidimensional nature of ingroup identification. Unpublished data

Smith, E. R. (1993). Social identity and social emotions: Toward new conceptualizations of prejudice. In D. M. Mackie & D. L. Hamilton (Eds.), Affect, cognition, and stereotyping: Interactive processes in group perception (pp. 297–315). San Diego: Academic PressCrossRef

Smith, E. R. (1999). Affective and cognitive implications of group membership becoming part of the self: New models of prejudice and of the self-concept. In D. Abrams & M. Hogg (Eds.), Social identity and social cognition (pp. 183–196). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers

Smith, E. R., & Henry, S. (1996). An in-group becomes part of the self: Response time evidence. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 635–642CrossRef Google Scholar

Smith, E. R., & Ho, C. (2002). Prejudice as intergroup emotion: Integrating relative deprivation and social comparison explanations of prejudice. In I. Walker & H. Smith (Eds.), Relative deprivation: Specification, development, and integration. Boulder: Westview Press

Smith, E. R., Miller, D. A., & Mackie, D. M. (2002). Effects of intergroup contact and political predispositions on prejudice: Role of intergroup emotions. Unpublished manuscript, Purdue University

Smith, H. J., & Kessler, T. (this volume). Group-based emotions and intergroup behavior: The case of relative deprivation

Smith-Lovin, L. (1990). Emotion as the confirmation and disconfirmation of identity: An affect control model. In T. D. Kemper (Ed.), Research agendas in the sociology of emotions (pp. 238–270). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press

Spears, R. & Leach, C. W. (this volume). Intergroup Schadenfreude: Conditions and Consequences

Tajfel, H. (1982). Social identity and intergroup relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Vanneman, R. D., & Pettigrew, T. F. (1972). Race and relative deprivation in the urban United States. Race, 13 (4), 461–486CrossRef Google Scholar

Wright, S. C., Aron, A., McLaughlin-Volpe, T., & Ropp, S. A. (1997). The extended contact effect: Knowledge of cross-group friendships and prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 73–90CrossRef Google Scholar