ABSTRACT
Intergroup relations is a very significant focus of research in contemporary social psychology (e.g., Brewer, 2007; Dovidio & Gaertner, 2010; Yzerbyt & Demoulin, 2010) and has had a high profile since the early emergence of the discipline—for example, LeBon’s (1896/1908) influential analysis of crowd behavior. Intergroup relations has a high profile in social psychology because society is organized into groups that need to be able to get on with one another; and yet intergroup perceptions and behavior are generally ethnocentric and competitive, and have a notable tendency to degenerate into stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination, and destructive conflict. conflictual intergroup relations are a significant problem for society (see Chapter 12, this volume). The challenge for society is to be able to manage intergroup relations such that the enormous social promise of intergroup cooperation can be fulfilled.
