Minimal Group Procedures and Outcomes

Abstract

Research using the Minimal Group Paradigm has demonstrated the power of arbitrary group membership to produce prejudice and discrimination on a variety of measures. Despite the continued prominence of this paradigm in the social and behavioral sciences, the relative efficacy of minimal group induction procedures and methodological variations in producing intergroup biases remains largely unknown. The present research compared the effects of minimal group induction procedures across multiple measures of discrimination and both implicit and explicit measures of evaluation and identification. We tested six induction procedures and other methodological variations, such as manipulations designed to increase the meaning of the groups or to undermine assumed reciprocity in the allocation tasks. Regardless of procedural manipulation, participants demonstrated bias in favor of their minimal ingroup on most outcome measures. However, the magnitude of the minimal group effect varied somewhat according to outcome, induction, and other methodological features.