Abstract: As a major social issue, ethnic conflict may endanger social harmony and stability. As one of critical scientific issues, the underlying psychosocial processes of ethnic conflict are still underexplored. Our research project aims to explore psychosocial underlying factors of ethnic conflict in China focusing on Tibetan-Han relations in China. The basic theoretical proposition of the project is that ethnic conflict is derived from the interaction of multi-variables including individual, intergroup, and social factors. By three empirical studies, the project will examine the effect of psychological essentialism of Tibetan on ethnic conflict, and the moderating roles of identity extending between the two, and the effect of social threat context between the two, so as to revealing the psychosocial underpinnings of ethnic conflicts. It is expected that the outcomes of the project will provide the solid evidences for building an early warning system of ethnic conflict, and for moving beyond ethnic boundaries, and for achieving a harmonious multi-ethnic coexistence in China.

Key words: ethnic conflict, psychosocial underpinnings, psychological essentialism, common ingroup identity, social threat context