Patterns of Prejudice: Group Interests and Intergroup Attitudes

Despite their potential importance, relatively little research has been done on intergroup attitudes from the perspective of Realistic Conflict theory (RCT). RCT has also typically been limited to a few rather rudimentary propositions concerning the effects of direct competition between groups of relatively equal status and power. In this paper the author elaborates RCT by systematically extending the analysis to other forms of conflicting group interests and intergroup functionality, such as domination and intergroup scapegoating. Different forms of functional interrelation between groups, and the structural location of groups within social systems, seem to generate qualitatively different patterns of prejudice. These can be differentiated in terms of the characteristic image of the outgroup, the affective and behavioural response to the outgroup, the psychological and attributional mechanisms underlying the prejudiced attitudes, and their functionality for the ingroup. These patterns of prejudice may be viewed as mediating between social structure and social action, thus contributing to the historical process. Finally, research is discussed that suggests a broadened version of RCT may be particularly crucial in explaining prejudiced racial attitudes in South Africa.