Intergroup Biases in Multiple Group Systems: The Perception of Ethnic Hierarchies

Abstract

Results of social distance research suggest the existence of consensual ethnic hierarchies in social distance in Western societies. The phenomenon comprises an ingroup bias and a pattern of cumulative intergroup biases on which majority and minority groups appear to agree. In this chapter an explanation is sought for this phenomenon. Realistic conflict theory and social identity theory seem to be able to explain certain aspects of it, such as ingroup bias and the ethnic hierarchies of subordinate ethnic groups, but not the ethnic hierarchy of dominant ethnic groups and intergroup consensus. These aspects may be explained by a model about the different functionality of stereotypes for dominant and subordinate ethnic groups. In order to test these explanations, the generality of ingroup bias, the cumulative structure of intergroup bias and the existence of intergroup consensus on the ethnic hierarchy are investigated in different societies.