When do we support harming another group?

The purpose of this project is to extend my investigation of destructive intergroup behaviour (DIB), defined as collective action taken with the primary intent of harming an outgroup. Specifically, I am interested in identifying the psychological processes through which individual group members come to see DIB as justified, as it is the widespread acceptance and endorsement of DIB that empowers such forms of collective action. Over the last couple years, my collaborators and I have been developing a model that identifies two pathways – one cognitive, the other emotional – that independently predict endorsement of DIB. However, to date all evidence for our model has been correlational. Thus, this project intends to obtain experimental evidence in order to strengthen our current theorizing. Moreover, if the results of this study support our hypothesized model, I expect to publish in a refereed social psychology journal and to present these findings at future scholarly meetings.

Faculty Supervisor:

Stephen C. Wright

Student:

Partner:

University of Lisbon

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Other

University:

Simon Fraser University

Program: