The Return of Ethnocentrism

Summary

This article revisits the concept of ethnocentrism, tracing its history from Gumplowicz and Sumner through Adorno and colleagues' mid-twentieth-century psychometric work. The authors observe that scholarly use of the term declined for several decades but has resurged amid the growing prominence of ethno-nationalist and populist leaders and policies worldwide. They reconceptualize ethnocentrism as a hierarchical construct emanating from a strong sense of ethnic group self-centeredness and self-importance, spanning both intergroup and intragroup expressions. The paper argues that the construct retains substantial explanatory power for prejudice and intergroup conflict, and it advocates renewed empirical attention within political and social psychology.