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Essay 2 / 7Working Paper17 min

Us vs. Them: The Construction of Invisible Borders

|Updated February 4, 2026|Introductory
In 1971, an experiment in a basement at the University of Bristol revealed something uncomfortable: all it takes is a coin toss to divide a group into "us" and "them." From there, discrimination arises almost on its own. The man who designed that experiment had survived the Holocaust. He spent the rest of his life trying to understand the mechanism that had nearly killed him.
social-identitytajfelprejudiceidentity-fusioneurope

Abstract

Henri Tajfel survived the Holocaust and devoted his life to understanding how ordinary people come to discriminate. His experiments revealed that an arbitrary categorisation suffices to trigger favouritism. This essay explores Social Identity Theory and its implications for contemporary nationalism.

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