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Ingroup Bias, Intergroup Contact and the Attribution of Blame for RiotsBarry R. Ruback is with the Pennsylvania State University, USA. His research interests include causes and correlates of victimisation, victims’ coping strategies and victims’ decisions to call the police and to remain involved in the criminal justice system. He is also interested, more generally, in decision making in the criminal justice system and environmental issues. e-mail bruback{at}psu.edu
Purnima Singh is with the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Delhi. Her research interests include justice, intergroup relations, identity and conflict. Hindu and Muslim college students judged the severity of a riot and attributed blame for that riot to the Hindu community, the Muslim community and the individual offenders. Both Hindu and Muslim students showed an ingroup bias, in that when offenders were from participants’ own religious group, they blamed the offenders the most and their own community the least. However, when the offenders were from the other religious group, students (both Hindus and Muslims) blamed the other religious community. Two results were consistent with the research literature on equal status intergroup contact. First, the amount of contact Hindu students had with Muslims was negatively related to their assignment of blame to offenders. Second, Hindu participants who lived in mixed Hindu–Muslim neighbourhoods were less likely to blame the Muslim community.
Psychology & Developing Societies, Vol. 19, No. 2,
249-265 (2007) |
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