Ethnic consciousness expresses deeply rooted human sentiments. Conflict is thus inevitable when a country is inhabited by more than one ethnic group. This explanation identifies a major strand in human behaviour, nepotism, that can be activated when groups are already conscious of their identity and feel a need to protect it. An alternative explanation of why people attach importance to ethnic identities, and one that informs much current analysis of ethnicity, stresses the constructed nature of identities. The fact that people share a common language, religion, culture, race or territory does not mean that they live their lives on the basis of such affinities or even that they are conscious of them.
Ethnic consciousness needs to be created for it to have an impact on collective consciousness.
Concrete social experiences are often important in the construction of such consciousness. Attitudes and behaviour may be affected by the unequal ways groups are structured in society. The inferior-superior syndrome that may emerge from such relations may affect group consciousness and form the basis for political action. But groups may also feel disadvantaged or vulnerable in societies where social hierarchies do not follow clear ethnic or racial lines. In both sets of cases, individuals may compete over land, business assets, jobs, incomes, political offices, access to education, and language and religious rights.