title: The cultural contagion of conflict.
abstract: Anecdotal evidence abounds that conflicts between two individuals can spread across networks to involve a multitude of others. We advance a cultural transmission model of intergroup conflict where conflict contagion is seen as a consequence of universal human traits (ingroup preference, outgroup hostility; i.e. parochial altruism) which give their strongest expression in particular cultural contexts. Qualitative interviews conducted in the Middle East, USA and Canada suggest that parochial altruism processes vary across cultural groups and are most likely to occur in collectivistic cultural contexts that have high ingroup loyalty. Implications for future neuroscience and computational research needed to understand the emergence of intergroup conflict are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA. mgelfand@umd.edu
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gelfand
authors.forename: Garriy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Shteynberg
authors.forename: Tiane
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Janetta
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lun
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lyons
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bell
authors.forename: Joan Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Chiao
authors.forename: C Bayan
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Bruss
authors.forename: May
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Al Dabbagh
authors.forename: Zeynep
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Aycan
authors.forename: Abdel-Hamid
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Abdel-Latif
authors.forename: Munqith
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dagher
authors.forename: Hilal
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Khashan
authors.forename: Nazar
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Soomro
mesh_terms: D000533:Altruism; D002170:Canada / Q000208:ethnology; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003469:Culture; D006126:Group Processes; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008877:Middle East / Q000208:ethnology; D012649:Self Concept; D014481:United States / Q000208:ethnology