ABSTRACT
The Robbers Cave study was the most successful field experiment ever done on intergroup conflict. Sherif demonstrated that real-life group behavior is context-dependent and setting-specific, compared to individual dispositional/personality factors, biological considerations or ingroup dynamics. Intergroup conflict surfaces when there is competition for limited resources, prompting group members to think/behave negatively toward the other group. Conversely, the reduction of group conflict occurred when the contact between equals included interdependence, necessitating the sharing of resources and energies of all members of both groups in pursuit of superordinate goals. While psychoanalysis at the time emphasized the unconscious processes that animated individual and group pathology, which caused intergroup conflict, Sherif showed that intergroup conflict was mainly the consequence of social structure, comprising the very organization of persons into discrete and potentially competing social groups. It was not personality characteristics that mattered most, but rather, the locus of the person in the intergroup social structure. These findings challenge the psychoanalytic explanations rooted in the narcissism of minor differences, the role of the leader in intergroup conflict and Bion’s view of small group behavior. Strongly felt, flexibly and creatively applied, transcendent-pointing moral beliefs and values help maintain one’s autonomy, integration and humanity in group contexts.
