ABSTRACT
Research in intergroup relations and conflict has relied heavily on the role of social cognitive processes to understand the causes and consequences of intergroup bias (Brewer, 1979; Brown & Turner, 1981; Tajfel & Turner, 1979). Social cognition concerns how people process, store, and retrieve information, and the effects of these processes on how people perceive and interact with others (Hogg & Abrams, 1999). In addition, social cognitive processes, such as social categorization, have also been emphasized in developing strategies to reduce bias (e.g., Gaertner & Dovidio, 2000). Nevertheless, emotions also play an important, although much less researched, role (Mackie & Smith, 2002). The present chapter examines cognitive and affective processes relating to both the creation and the elimination of bias from the perspective of the common ingroup identity model (Gaertner & Dovidio, 2000; Gaertner, Dovidio, Anastasio, Bachman, & Rust, 1993).
