Attitudes, social representations and points of view

Abstract

Over the years, numerous scholars have pointed to problems that are inherent to the clash of beliefs, ideas, and perspectives in contemporary pluralistic societies. The scholarly efforts directed towards the clash of beliefs have aimed at understanding and identifying ways to reconcile divergences and promote cooperative relations between human beings (see Giddens, 1991; Huntington 1996; Benhabib, 2002; Moghaddam, 2008). In social psychology, the problem of clashing beliefs struggling for recognition has been put firmly on the agenda by Moscovici (1961, 1985a, 1985b, 2000). The problem, as Moscovici (1985a) articulates it, is to understand how a minority can see things as it does and how it can think as it does. In contexts of cultural diversity, intergroup relations are embedded within interpersonal relations. Individuals encounter each other as individuals, but their relations are framed by their relative group relations (Sherif & Hovland, 1961).[excerpt]