On the Connection Between Intergroup Aggression and Socionic Parameters

In socionics, intergroup aggression is based not on a single trait (as some previously thought) but on five at once. This is not a flaw of the socionic model but rather an advantage. This is because intergroup aggression, in its behavioral mechanism, has several distinct independent components, and each of these components corresponds to a specific trait.

The components are as follows:

1. First of all, one must be able to distinguish "us vs. them", and here, both in the mechanisms of perception and in the evaluation of "us or them", a significant role is played by the subject's orientation either to an individual approach to people with developed cognitive empathy (Fi) and the principle of "you scratch my back, I scratch yours" (Te), or to coarse intergroup differences - that is, a generalizing, classifying approach to people.
   This is determined by the ascending-descending dichotomy. It is crucial for the need to divide people into groups (national, socionic, ideological - any kind) and makes the largest percentage contribution to intergroup aggression (it is significantly higher in ascending types). Moreover, both Ti and Fe contribute to intergroup aggression. Ti as a static classifying principle, Fe as a sentinel, warning the group of danger with cries and mobilizing it as a result. Additionally, Fe, through the mechanism of emotional resonance and affective empathy, works as an indicator of group membership (e.g., at the funeral of Kim Jong-il in North Korea, state security officials stood behind the attendees and noted those who were not crying loudly or sincerely enough). Most questionnaire questions aimed at identifying group affiliation and moderate xenophobia (without an explicit aggressive component - decisiveness is responsible for it) show the strongest correlations with this trait.

2. The second independent component is the choice of a personal strategy of behavior. Either individualistic and aimed at personal survival, with a correspondingly increased complex of all reactions of self-preservation (this is the case with the Questim), or - oriented to the good of the group, with voluntary self-sacrifice and submission to any group interests (and this is already the case with the Declatim).

3. The third component is the level of defensive aggression. It is not enough to be able to distinguish group membership and to be group-oriented in one's interests and values. There must also be an inner instinctive urge that makes one "bristle" when personal boundaries are violated. The presence of such a strong, defensive, bristling instinctive drive is, in fact, aristocratism. It has little to do with individualism-collectivism, it has nothing to do with the ability and attitude to distinguish group differences, but it is responsible for the very urge to bristle - in general, at any violator of boundaries, whether intergroup or interpersonal. This is where the apt term "aristocrats" originated, becoming the name of this pole. On the other hand, democrats don’t care about boundaries. They do not value them much in themselves and do not notice them much in others.

4. The fourth component is proactive aggression. This is no longer the defensive aggression of aristocrats but an active-offensive behavioral line. It is this component that is responsible for the genocide of outsiders. And this component corresponds to decisiveness (mainly its Se component).

5. There is also a fifth component. It determines the criteria by which we consider the main differences between "us" and "them", what we rely on in making judgments. For intuitives, oriented toward the spiritual world, these are ideological differences (symbols of faith); for sensors, these are external differences among people.

All 5 poles that contribute to active xenophobia are combined in beta sensorics.