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The Emotional Logic Of Participation In Intergroup Violence, Christopher Bruce Phillips Claassen

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Existing theories of intergroup violence focus on the motives of group or leaders. But why do thousands of people choose to take part given the dangers and risks? This dissertation develops a model, the entitlement-blame-anger model, to explain participation in intergroup violence. According to this model, participation is motivated by emotional reactions of intergroup anger. Anger is useful in this respect because it shapes both the preference for confrontation and beliefs about the risks of taking part. Intergroup anger, in turn, is triggered by appraisals that the outgroup are to blame for some harm suffered by the ingroup. Blame and …