Superordinate goals
Shared aims that neither group can reach alone, dissolving the rivalry between them.
What it means
Superordinate goals are objectives that are compelling to two or more groups but cannot be achieved by any one group acting alone, requiring cooperation across the group boundary. Their importance was established in field experiments showing that mere contact between hostile groups does not reduce conflict and may even worsen it, whereas confronting groups with a series of shared, urgent tasks that demanded joint effort progressively eroded hostility and built friendships across the divide. The mechanism is that interdependence reframes the out-group from competitor to indispensable partner, encourages cooperative interaction that disconfirms stereotypes, and can recategorize 'us' and 'them' into a single inclusive 'we.' The effect is strongest when the cooperation succeeds, since repeated joint failure can breed mutual blame. The idea is foundational to realistic conflict theory and to interventions for prejudice reduction, from the jigsaw classroom to peace-building. It matters because it identifies a concrete lever — engineered interdependence around common aims — for transforming intergroup conflict into collaboration.
Examples
At the Robbers Cave camp, two warring boys' groups reconciled only after they had to pool effort to restart a broken water supply and free a stuck truck — tasks neither group could manage alone.
Two departments that spent a year briefing against each other stop dead when a regulator's deadline threatens the whole firm and neither can meet it without the other's data.
A jigsaw classroom hands each child one piece of the material the others need to pass. Nobody can succeed alone, and the playground pecking order quietly loses its grip.
First described in Muzafer Sherif, Robbers Cave experiment (1954/1961).