Intergroup violence in bursts

TL;DR

This paper models intergroup violence as a collective action dilemma, showing that the proportion of unwilling participants predicts whether violence occurs in a burst or gradually.

Contribution

It introduces an adapted Ising model to explain the conditions leading to burst or gradual intergroup violence based on participant willingness.

Findings

The model predicts violence bursts based on unwilling participant proportion.

Video analysis shows violence sometimes occurs in synchronized bursts.

Perception of collective action dilemma influences violence dynamics.

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.