The Cycle of Intergroup Conflict: Terror Management in the Face of Terrorism and War

The current social and political situation in virtually the entire Western world is tense: News of terrorism, conflict, and wars increases the salience of mortality reminders in everyday life. Terror management theory proposes that individuals defend themselves from the existential terror by defending their in-group and its values. We propose a cycle model of intergroup conflict, consisting of perception of threats, a motivational-affective state, motivated cognition, and motivated behavior, that explains the emergence, perpetuation, and potential escalation of intergroup conflicts between the mainstream in-group and marginalized out-group members. However, there are ways to decelerate the cycle of intergroup conflict: We argue that antisocial outcomes of intergroup conflicts can be prevented by providing alternative anxiety buffers or decreasing the presence of mortality reminders if possible, as well as redirecting the defensive reaction by changing social categories and making prosocial norms salient. Finally, we also discuss the role of media in influencing intergroup conflicts.