There is a prolonged discussion about the effects of cooperation on prejudice towards people who work together on the same goal. For this post, I chose the article “Prejudice reduction through intergroup contact in Northern Ireland: A socio-psychological critique” by Jennifer Cornell as the most persuasive. While both articles provided the results of their hypotheses based on observations, I think that Cornell’s study has a more solid foundation and examined the issue with more depth. Cornell analyzed several sources of influence beyond the examination of the immediate social circle of the target groups. I have selected the article due to the extensive amount of factors and implications considered by the author in her work.
In turn, Muzafer Sherif examined the topic of prejudice in the environment in which conflicts did not stem from long-standing cultural differences. The author of this article analyzed the way communities and their cultures are created in a controlled environment. Sherif studied the interactions between these groups before and after the intervention that aimed to promote cooperation through games and other activities. It revealed that members of different communities became less concerned about their differences after close interaction (Sherif, 1954).
Cornell goes beyond explaining the influence of these factors on the cohesiveness of a group. The author reveals that there are two types of influence that might be produced in a study of prejudice and cooperation: informative, which is long-term and based on knowledge, and normative, which is often short-term and stems from external pressure (Cornell, 1994). Unlike Sherif’s article, this paper does not draw conclusions from a single observation and incorporates theories and studies of other researchers. Cornell’s description of influences has a higher significance for studies of human behavior.
References
Cornell, J. C. (1994). Prejudice reduction through intergroup contact in Northern Ireland: A socio-psychological critique. Journal of Conflict Studies.
Sherif, M. (1956). Experiments in group conflict. Scientific American, 195(5), 54-58.