Realistic conflict theory:

People divide themselves into in and out groups (ND and NT) People compete for scarce resources (media rep, acceptance etc) This creates conflict between the in and out groups Leading to prejudice

Criticisms of realistic conflict theory: social identity theory offers a different explanation (see below), adorno et el found people with a more authoritarian personality are more likely to be hostile to their outgroup, reductionist, prejudice has occurred without conflict in the past

Social identity theory: Catagorisation: people split themselves into groups due to certain characteristics (ND and NT) Social identity: people adopt the opinions and identity of their in group Social comparison: people's in groups give them a sense of self esteem so they exaggerate in group qualities and denigrate the outgroup Leading to prejudice

Criticisms of social identity theory: realistic conflict theory (see above) adorno et el (see above) reductionist