intergroup relations
Definition
Intergroup relations refers to the psychological and social dynamics that arise when members of distinct social groups interact, compete, or form alliances with one another. These dynamics include conflict over territory and national narrative, as when ethnic majority Finns and second-generation immigrants stake competing claims of collective psychological ownership over both physical land and the symbolic content of national identity. They also encompass solidarity and its breakdown: members of marginalized groups may expect cross-group loyalty from other marginalized groups, and when those expectations are violated, the result is betrayal that erodes trust and weakens political coalitions. Beyond dyadic group conflict, intergroup dynamics extend to public audiences who observe clashes between opposing movements, with perceived suppression of free speech by counter-protesters generating sympathy for the targeted group across diverse socio-political contexts including Hong Kong solidarity protests, Thai anti-monarchy demonstrations, and U.S. immigrant rights marches.
Sources: Szebeni et al. (2025), Shackleford et al. (2026), Selvanathan et al. (2026)
Related Terms
- collective psychological ownership (1 shared article)
- collective epistemic ownership (1 shared article)
- territorial ownership (1 shared article)
- second-generation immigrants (1 shared article)
- stigma-based solidarity (1 shared article)
- intergroup betrayal (1 shared article)
- political alliances (1 shared article)
- collective resistance (1 shared article)
- collective action (1 shared article)
- counter-movements (1 shared article)
- free speech (1 shared article)
- social change (1 shared article)
Applications
Intergroup Relations and Collective Psychological Ownership
Collective psychological ownership shapes intergroup relations by determining which groups are seen as rightful claimants to national territory and narrative. Among ethnic majority Finns, territorial ownership was associated with perceived exclusive determination rights, whereas second-generation immigrants used both territorial and epistemic ownership claims primarily to assert civic participation rather than to assign collective responsibility. These asymmetries in ownership perception formalize the boundary between who belongs and who must earn belonging, directly structuring the quality of relations between majority and minority groups.
Sources: Szebeni et al. (2025)
Intergroup Relations and Stigma-based Solidarity
Stigma-based solidarity represents a specific form of coalition across intergroup lines, grounded in the shared experience of societal marginalization. When members of one marginalized group perceive another marginalized group as defecting from expected cross-group loyalty, the resulting betrayal reduces trust and willingness to engage in future solidarity, fragmenting the coalitions that challenge ethno-nationalist political movements. Black women in Study 2 showed greater betrayal in response to Latino men's pro-Trump voting than to White men's, a pattern explained by violated expectations for stigma-based solidarity rather than by relational closeness alone.
Sources: Shackleford et al. (2026)
Intergroup Relations and Public Sympathy for Social Movements
The encounter between opposing protest groups is not confined to the activists themselves but actively reshapes how third-party observers align with competing sides. When a counter-protest employed violent tactics against immigrant-rights protesters in Study 3, perceived suppression of free speech mediated a significant increase in public sympathy for the targeted movement (indirect b = 0.73, 95% CI [0.45, 1.10]). This pattern replicated across contexts as different as pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong and anti-monarchy demonstrations in Thailand, indicating that counter-protest violence reconfigures public intergroup attitudes in ways that favor the group cast as aggrieved.
Sources: Selvanathan et al. (2026)
