Despite the insights afforded by traditional work on prejudice, understanding intergroup relations now appears to demand knowledge of the antecedents, nature, and consequences of much more complex, modulated, and differentiated reactions to both ingroups and outgroups. The theories or programs of research described in the chapters of this book move beyond the traditional evaluation model of prejudice, drawing on a broad range of theoretical ancestry to develop models of why, when, and how differentiated reactions to groups arise, and what their consequences might be. The chapters have in common a refocusing of interest on emotion as a theoretical base for understanding differentiated reactions to, and differentiated behaviors toward, social groups. Emotions are seen as arising as events impinging on groups with which one socially identifies, and they regulate responses both within the group and among groups. The contributions also share a focus on specific interactional and structural relations among groups as a source of these differentiated emotional reactions.
The chapters in the volume thus reflect a theoretical shift from an earlier emphasis on knowledge about ingroups and outgroups to a new perspective on prejudice in which socially-grounded emotional differentiation becomes a basis for social regulation.