ABSTRACT
Racism and ethnocentrism are sources of intransigent political conflict worldwide. Racial prejudice and discrimination have been considered the “great American dilemma” (Myrdal, 1944) for decades. Racism was responsible for one of the most repressive regimes in modern history-the apartheid government of South Africa. Ethnic hatred has been held responsible for countless violent incidents globally, some involving genocide. Looking at these conflicts from a political psychological perspective can provide insights that other approaches cannot provide. First, explaining racial and ethnic conflicts as a consequence of competition for resources and power fails to explain why people would engage in these conflicts, when they result in the destruction of wealth and resources, indeed, of the very countries where power is distributed. Second, if there were no underlying psychological processes influencing ethnic and racial conflict, they could be settled once and for all, but, from the political psychological perspective, we can understand the intransigence of group conflict as the result of the continual human drive to form in-groups and out-groups and to compare their groups with others. Political psychology also enables us to understand how racial and ethnic groups can live together harmoniously for years, then erupt in horrific internecine violence. Identities can be manipulated by leaders, and emotions can rise to extremes of hatred and fear, when people are convinced by leaders and by rumors that their group is threatened by others. Political psychology also turns our attention to the ways in which issues can be framed to produce particular anxieties in the minds of citizens. Stereotypes can be subtly or openly manipulated to produce stereotype-driven behaviors and attitudes.
