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Quantitative Social Psychology

Intergroup Relations: Diverse and Divided Societies

* Image generated using AI

Diverse societies pose significant challenges in today’s society, like racism, sexism, nationalism, and other forms of prejudice, but also confer societal advantages. At Durham, we investigate these two sides to diversity. We investigate intergroup relations as the thoughts, feelings, and behaviours of distinct social groups, often defined in terms of ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age, religion or social class. We do so because intergroup relations influence social cohesion, inclusion, and conflict; they shape stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination, as well as helping, solidarity and allyship.

A key aspect of our work is addressing social injustice and inequality. For example, we investigate how social identities predict intergroup attitudes and behaviours; how contact with different social groups affects our perceptions of others and the world, and the impact of status differences and moral disagreements on willingness to act collectively to address injustice. Some of our work has an applied dimension: for example, looking at the role of groups and identities in tourism, engineering, learning, machine learning, and communication. Our work adopts cutting-edge methodologies including longitudinal designs, structural equation modelling and meta-analysis.

Theme Leads

For all queries regarding our work on intergroup relations, please contact our theme leads below.

Name Research Keywords
Patrick Kotzur Intergroup contact, stereotyping, prejudice, diversity and inclusion, intergroup conflict
Mark Rubin Mental health; metascience; replication crisis; social class; social identity; system justification

Staff

Here are some of our members who work on intergroup relations

Name Research Keywords

Carla Chivers

Stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination in legal decision-making

Richard Crisp

Imagined contact; social categorization and intergroup relations

James Good

Cross-disciplinary histories of intergroup relations
Trevor James Intergroup helping

Maja Kutlaca

Collective action, social change, allyship, prejudice and discrimination
Chuma Owuamalam Stereotyping, discrimination. diversity and inclusion, system justification
Stefania Paolini Intergroup contact, stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination. ethnicity
Vladimir Ponizovskiy Political polarization; trust and cooperation
Mario Weick Class-based and socio-economic inequalities; social dominance; cultural differences

Junior Researchers

Name Research Keywords

Fran Cavanagh

Populism; prejudice; ostracism
Ling Ding

Intergroup contact; social stereotypes; prejudice elimination
Jie Huang Intergroup contact; migration; urban segregation; conflict
Bhakti Khati Moral Disagreements; Constructive and Destructive Behaviours; Polarisation
Sarah Nila Intergroup relations; social identity; collective action; cultural differences
Faruk Saglamoz

Solidarity-based actions, allyship, collective action, social change, collective self-determination, basic psychological needs
Georgia Tuohy

Cross cultural research, prosocial development, empathy
Liang Wu Intergroup interactions; cultural attitudes; expatriate adjustment
Yuewen Wu Intergroup relations; do-gooder derogation; social identity; discrimination

Other Research Areas

Find out more about our other research areas.

Health and Well-being

Promoting and maintaining health and well-being has become increasingly important, especially in the wake of the recent global pandemic.

Workplace and Organisations

Creating inclusive work environments, supporting occupational health and well-being, and developing effective leadership are major challenges in today's workplaces.

Basic Mechanisms

Emotions, desires, and motivation are fundamental components of everyday human experience and behaviour.

Behavioural Change

We investigate factors that drive behaviour, with a particular focus on risk perception, social influence, and decision-making in a variety of applied settings

Environmental Psychology

Some of our research focuses on topics such as; pro-environmental behaviour, collective action, and policy support.

* The illustrations above have been generated using AI