Group morality and intergroup relations: Cross-cultural and experimental evidence
Abstract
An observational, cross-cultural study and an experimental study assessed behaviors indicative of a moral code that condones, and even values, hostility toward outgroups. The cross-cultural study, which used data from the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (Murdock & White, 1969), found that for preindustrial societies, as loyalty to the ingroup increased the tendency to value outgroup violence more than ingroup violence increased, as did the tendencies to engage in more external than internal warfare, and enjoy war. The experimental study found that relative to guilt-prone group members who were instructed to remain objective, guilt-prone group members who were instructed to be empathic with their ingroup were more competitive in an intergroup interaction. The findings from these studies suggest that group morality is associated with intergroup conflict.
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Factors such as religion, inequality, and resource scarcity may predict prejudice and discrimination across cultures.
“Factors such as religion, inequality, and resource scarcity may predict prejudice and discrimination across cultures [23,62–64].”
From Ecological and cultural factors underlying the global distribution of prejudice (2019) · cites this paper as [23]
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- Authors
- Cohen, T. R., Montoya, R. M., & Insko, C. A.
- Affiliations
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- Corresponding author
- Cohen, Taya R.
- Venue
- Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2006-11
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 1559-1572
- ISSN
- 0146-1672 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-7433
- OpenAlex
- W2141330098
- Cited by
- 163
- References
- 67
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 17.41
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Cultural Differences and Values
- Keywords
- intergroup relations, outgroup hostility, ingroup loyalty, intergroup violence, pre-industrial societies, war, guilt, empathy, intergroup competition, intergroup conflict, cross-cultural comparison
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Attitude, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Empathy, Ethnicity, Female, Group Processes, Guilt, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Male, Morals, Surveys and Questionnaires, Violence
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