Abstract
Children’s intergroup bias is one of the consequences of their readiness to categorise people into ingroups and outgroups, even when groups are assigned arbitrarily. The present study examined the influence of intergroup competition on children’s ingroup and outgroup attitudes developed within the minimal-group setting in British classrooms. One hundred and twelve children in two age groups (6-7- and 9-10-year-olds) were assessed on classification skills and self-esteem before being allocated to one of two colour “teams.” In the experimental condition, children were told that the teams would have a competition after two weeks and teachers made regular use of these teams to organise activities. In the control condition, where no competition ensued, teachers did not refer to “teams.” Then children completed trait attributions to their own-team (ingroup) and other-team (outgroup) members and group evaluations. It was found that children developed positive ingroup bias across conditions, but outgroup negative bias was shown only by 6-7-year-olds in the experimental condition, particularly if they lost the competition, where they evaluated their team more critically. Better classification skills were associated with less negativity towards the outgroup in the experimental condition. Findings are discussed in relation to relevant theoretical premises and particulars of the intergroup context.
Highlights
Social groups have a profound impact on the lifestyles that individuals may lead [1], and categorising people into social groups is a skill that children exhibit from a young age
The present study investigated the effect of social categorisation, with an additional element of intergroup competition, on ingroup and outgroup attitudes and group evaluations of 6–10-year-olds in British classrooms
Similar to previous research findings, British children develop ingroup-biased attitudes through novel social categorisation; our sample displayed positive and negative trait bias favouring the ingroup over outgroup
Summary
Social groups have a profound impact on the lifestyles that individuals may lead [1], and categorising people into social groups is a skill that children exhibit from a young age. They can use gender labels by age two [2] and sort persons by race by age three [3]. The present study was conducted to investigate British children’s ingroup and outgroup biases that developed in a competitive context within the classrooms, where the adults in charge arbitrarily assigned them to novel social groups and organised the environment using the groups
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