Information Processing: The Power of the Human Mind in Influencing Collective Conflicts

Relations between social groups and their members are influenced by and influence how people perceive and judge each other. The way how people process information about others in fact represents an antecedent and consequence of intergroup relations. The present chapter illustrates how general cognit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Handbuch Friedenspsychologie (Band 35)
Main Authors: Roth, Jenny, Loughnane, Jack
Contributor: Forum Friedenspsychologie e.V. (Issuing body)
Contributors: Cohrs, Christopher (Editor), Knab, Nadine (Editor), Sommer, Gert (Editor)
Format: Book Chapter
Language:English
Published: Philipps-Universität Marburg 2023
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Summary:Relations between social groups and their members are influenced by and influence how people perceive and judge each other. The way how people process information about others in fact represents an antecedent and consequence of intergroup relations. The present chapter illustrates how general cognitive mechanisms in processing information can lead to biases in perceiving and judging social groups and their members that in turn can influence intergroup relations. We will illustrate this by first, explaining how people process information in general and social information in specific. In specific, we will draw on social categorization and self-categorization and schema activation and application. Then, we will explain biases relevant for intergroup relations that arise at least in part from how people process social information along with attention and general learning mechanisms. We highlight category accentuation, outgroup homogeneity, ingroup favouritism complemented by outgroup derogation, and stereotyping. The underlying processes of the biases in perceiving and judging others can occur in an automatic fashion. Despite the potential automaticity involved, we highlight the crucial influence of people’s goals and motivation in influencing these biases. We end the chapter with a discussion how these intergroup biases complemented by confirmation biases that maintain and fortify the intergroup biases can contribute to collective conflicts.
Physical Description:34 Pages
ISBN:978-3-8185-0565-3
DOI:10.17192/es2022.0056