The Development and Testing of a Strategic Simulation of Intergroup Conflict

ABSTRACT

This article describes the development of a laboratory simulation designed to study the etiology, escalation, and resolution of intergroup conflict in a systematic and holistic manner. The Intergroup Conflict Simulation involves two groups of equal power and status, averaging four persons each, meeting for a series of five 2 hr sessions. The groups create development plans for five tracts of land from renewable or nonrenewable resource orientations. Negotiation by representatives, supplemented by caucusing, determines how tracts are divided, and this division determines the groups' individual and joint outcomes in terms of points awarded from payoff matrices. Results from 24 runs demonstrated that subjects became part of well-developed groups prior to negotiations, as shown by indices of group cohesion, atmosphere, identity, and loyalty. Measures of perceived threat and feelings of anger and frustration indicated that subjects in one group did feel that they were in competitive conflict with the other group over scarce resources. The simulation has adequate internal and external validity and can serve as a viable methodological alternative for research on intergroup conflict when the interaction of a number of variables over time needs to be modeled.