Intergroup violence in bursts

Frontiers in Physics, vol. 14

Abstract

During intergroup confrontations, agitating stimuli such as opponents’ threats and provocations can trigger collective violence, even without the usual mechanisms of ingroup cooperation, such as norms with sanctions. We examine video recordings of street fights between groups of young men. Their violence sometimes breaks out in a burst, wherein a majority of participants starts fighting almost simultaneously. At other times, only few group members participate and it takes them more time to do so. This difference in commencing collective violence can be understood by perceiving it as a collective action dilemma. We adapt an Ising model to show that the proportion of group members who cannot or do not want to contribute to the public good—victory over opponents—predicts whether violence takes the form of a burst or not.

Authors 3

1. Jeroen Bruggeman corresponding

   University of Amsterdam

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Sociology, University of Amsterdam

2. Don Weenink Aachen Institute of Security and Global Affairs

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Security and Global Affairs, Leiden University

3. Bram Mak

   University of Amsterdam · Amsterdam University College

   Affiliation as printed

   Amsterdam University College, University of Amsterdam