International Journal of Conflict and Violence (Jul 2011)
Cultural Value Differences, Value Stereotypes, and Diverging Identities in Intergroup Conflicts: The Estonian Example
Abstract
<div>An examination of the relationship between cultural values, value stereotypes and social identities in Estonia, where intergroup conflicts triggered riots in the capital</div><div>Tallinn in April 2007, using data from the European Social Survey on cultural differences and value trends as the background to a survey exploring perceived</div><div>group values and assessed social identities among ethnic Estonians and members of the Russian-speaking minority. The study, conducted in summer 2008, found</div><div>agreement across both ethnic groups about the values of a typical group member, but no accuracy in their attribution. The Estonian students (n = 152) avoided</div><div>Eastern-European identification, while the Russian-speaking students (n = 54) did not want to give up Estonia’s Soviet past. We found that attributed rather than</div><div>self-rated value differences between groups caused the conflicts, whilst diverging identities were found to make value stereotypes more extreme.</div>
