International Relations And Social Identity Theory And Group Relations

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Threat is the main factor in understanding the relationships between groups (Schwartz, Dunkel & Waterman, 2009), and many theories from international relations, sociology and political psychology aimed to investigate the explanations and effects of threat perception, although most of these theories relate to group relations (Brewer, 1999).
A number of scholars developed theories about group relations, with most notable theories being the realistic conflict theory of intergroup relations (LeVine & Campbell, 1972; Sherif & Sherif, 1953), the social identity theory (SIT; Tajfel 1978; Tajfel and Turner 1979), and the integrated threat theory (Stephan & Stephan, 2001).

Emergence of threat perception is related to two values: relative power and
Number of theories above can provide a competing explanation for the rise and fall of the perception of threat (Rousseau, & Garcia-Retamero, 2007) while according to Wendt (1999) international relations scholars accept theories about group relations like the Social identity theory logic that the outsiders (in the SIT outgroup) are perceived as more threatening that the insiders (ingroup). Therefore, we can talk about group relations within the state and between groups in different states.
The relationship between certain identities and threat perception is possible with the fact that identity is significantly related to group relations, especially with the fact that characteristics of one group identity and identification may be perceived as a threat from another group (Brewer,
In his research, Verkuyten (2009) argues that a high level of identification is positively related to outgroup threat perception, including the national identity as a main identity. In his research, Verkuyten also shows that threat perception can play a role of mediator between the identity and the attitude toward outgroup, especially regarding the support for multiculturalism. Branscombe & Wann (1994) found that the attitudes of strong identifiers towards the outgroup members are more negative than the attitudes of those who only weakly identify with their in-group.
Religion and religious identity as a political aspect of religion play a crucial role in groups’ relation and in conflict dynamics (Rouhana, & Bar-Tal, 1998). Religion can also have an impact on the development of in-group and out-group attitudes. So, religion can be one of the social identity categories which may affect the attitudes regarding outgroup – including threat perception- (Flunger, & Ziebertz, 2010; Roccas & Brewer,

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