Article contents
Advantaged- and disadvantaged-group members have motivations similar to those of defenders and attackers, but their psychological characteristics are fundamentally different
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 August 2019
Abstract
Modern societies are characterized by group-based hierarchies. Similar to attackers, disadvantaged-group members wish to change the status quo; like defenders, advantaged-group members wish to protect it. However, the psychological arrays that are typical of disadvantaged- and advantaged-group members are opposite to those of attackers and defenders – suggesting that the Attacker-Defender Game does not capture the dynamics between advantaged and disadvantaged groups.
- Type
- Open Peer Commentary
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019
References
Becker, J. C., Kraus, M. W. & Rheinschmidt-Same, M. (2017) Cultural expressions of social class and their implications for group-related beliefs and behaviors. Journal of Social Issues 73:158–74.Google Scholar
Hässler, T., Shnabel, N., Ullrich, J., Arditti-Vogel, A. & SimanTov-Nachlieli, I. (2018) Individual differences in system justification predict power and morality-related needs in advantaged and disadvantaged groups in response to group disparity. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations. doi:10.1177/1368430218773403.Google Scholar
Helms, J. E. (1990) Black and white racial identity: Theory, research, and practice. Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Herek, G. M. & McLemore, K. A. (2013) Sexual prejudice. Annual Review of Psychology 64:309–33.Google Scholar
Jost, J. T. & Banaji, M. R. (1994) The role of stereotyping in system-justification and the production of false consciousness. British Journal of Social Psychology 33:1–27.Google Scholar
Keltner, D., Gruenfeld, D. H. & Anderson, C. (2003) Power, approach, and inhibition. Psychological Review 110:265–84.Google Scholar
Kraus, M. W., Piff, P. K., Mendoza-Denton, R., Rheinschmidt, M. L. & Keltner, D. (2012) Social class, solipsism, and contextualism: How the rich are different from the poor. Psychological Review 119:546–72.Google Scholar
Mummendey, A., Kessler, T., Klink, A. & Mielke, R. (1999) Strategies to cope with negative social identity: Predictions by social identity theory and relative deprivation theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 76:229–45.Google Scholar
Nadler, A. & Shnabel, N. (2015) Intergroup reconciliation: Instrumental and socio-emotional processes and the need based model. European Review of Social Psychology 26:93–125.Google Scholar
Rucker, D. D., Galinsky, A. D. & Magee, J. C. (2018) The agentic-communal model of advantage and disadvantage: How inequality produces similarities in the psychology of power, social class, gender, and race. In: Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (vol. 58), ed. Olson, J. M. & Zanna, M. P., pp. 71–125. Academic Press.Google Scholar
Saguy, T., Dovidio, J. F. & Pratto, F. (2008) Beyond contact: Intergroup contact in the context of power relations. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 34:432–45.Google Scholar
Sidanius, J. & Pratto, F. (1999) Social dominance: An intergroup theory of social hierarchy and oppression. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Simon, B. & Brown, R. (1987) Perceived intragroup homogeneity in minority–majority contexts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 53:703–11.Google Scholar
- 1
- Cited by
Target article
Revisiting the form and function of conflict: Neurobiological, psychological, and cultural mechanisms for attack and defense within and between groups
Related commentaries (28)
A note on the endogeneity of attacker and defender roles in asymmetric conflicts
Advantaged- and disadvantaged-group members have motivations similar to those of defenders and attackers, but their psychological characteristics are fundamentally different
Attack versus defense: A strategic rationale for role differentiation in conflict
Behavioural inhibition and valuation of gain/loss are neurally distinct from approach/withdrawal
Between-group attack and defence in an ecological setting: Insights from nonhuman animals
But how does it develop? Adopting a sociocultural lens to the development of intergroup bias among children
Collective action problems in offensive and defensive warfare
Do people always invest less in attack than defense? Possible qualifying factors
Emotions in attacker-defender conflicts
Functional sex differences and signal forms have coevolved with conflict
Identity leadership: Managing perceptions of conflict for collective action
Levels of analysis and problems of evidential support in the study of asymmetric conflict
Matching pennies games as asymmetric models of conflict
Moral rigidity as a proximate facilitator of group cohesion and combativeness
Reasons to strike first
Resolving attacker-defender conflicts through intergroup negotiation
Symmetric conflicts also allow for the investigation of attack and defense
The attack and defense games
The attack and defense mechanisms: Perspectives from behavioral economics and game theory
The evolutionarily mismatched nature of modern group makeup and the proposed application of such knowledge on promoting unity among members during times of intergroup conflict
The importance of raiding ecology and sex differences in offensive and defensive warfare
The multiple facets of psychopathy in attack and defense conflicts
The political complexity of attack and defense
Toward the need to discriminate types of attackers and defenders in intergroup conflicts
Towards the elucidation of evolution of out-group aggression
Unraveling the role of oxytocin in the motivational structure of conflict
Using political sanctions to discourage intergroup attacks: Social identity and authority legitimacy
Using the research on intergroup conflict in nonhuman animals to help inform patterns of human intergroup conflict
Author response
Asymmetric conflict: Structures, strategies, and settlement