Intergroup Bias Research Articles

Inductive Reasoning Model

We introduce the Inductive Reasoning Model (IRM) as a comprehensive platform for the study of several phenomena central to self- and social perception. Going beyond the traditional phenomenon-focused research strategy, the model shows how to generate point-specific hypotheses about the size of individual effects and how to predict the interrelations among phenomena of interest. The model points to additional psychological processes at play when outputs cannot be accounted for within the confines of the IRM alone. The IRM is parsimonious in its assumptions and generative in its predictions. Using two empirically-based inputs, namely, the positivity of a person’s self-image and the strength of social projection, the model predicts the direction and extent of four higher-order phenomena: intergroup accentuation, self-enhancement, ingroup favoritism, and differential accuracy. The model affords precise predictions pertaining to the relationships among these phenomena. Critically, alternative conceptions of social perceptions are not rendered irrelevant. Researchers can ask if the IRM over- or underpredicts social-perceptual phenomena in contexts of interest, and if alternative models can explain the differences.

Responding to feedback about implicit bias

AbstractProviding people with feedback about their intergroup biases is a central part of many diversity training and other bias‐education efforts. Although this practice may increase self‐awareness, people sometimes respond negatively to learning about their own biases. In the present review, we provide a framework for understanding when feedback about intergroup bias should lead to behavior change intentions, and when it can work against that goal. Specifically, we suggest that feedback about performance on measures of bias (e.g., the Implicit Association Test) will cause psychological discomfort to the extent that feedback about intergroup bias is: (1) discrepant from self‐reported attitudes, and (2) more personally or socially unacceptable than self‐reported attitudes. We then suggest two possible routes stemming from that psychological discomfort: If people accept personal responsibility for feedback, they will respond to psychological discomfort with compunction and direct efforts toward behavior and attitude change. By contrast, if people reject personal responsibility for feedback, they will respond defensively, derogating the feedback and trying to prove that the results are inaccurate. We use responses to feedback about implicit bias as a test case to demonstrate our model and discuss the current state of the literature on responding to IAT feedback. We also discuss interventions that can move people from defensiveness to compunction and open our metaphorical “file drawer” to discuss lessons learned.

The role of social norms, intergroup contact, and ingroup favoritism in weight stigma.

Although average body size in the U.S. has increased in recent decades, stigma directed at individuals with higher weight has not diminished. In this study, we explored this phenomenon by investigating the relationship between people's perceived social norms regarding higher weight and their reported levels of weight bias (i.e., anti-fat attitudes). Our predictions for perceived social norms drew on the concepts of intergroup contact and ingroup favoritism, which were also probed in this study. We hypothesized that both greater descriptive norms and more favorable injunctive norms regarding higher weight would be associated with lower reported weight bias. Individuals' quantity and quality of social contact with people with higher weight were also predicted to be associated with lower weight bias. Finally, we predicted that individuals who perceived themselves as heavier would display ingroup favoritism (i.e., report less weight bias). Participants (N = 272) from the United States completed a set of online questionnaires about their perceived social norms, social contact with people with higher weight, and explicit weight bias. We found support for each of these pre-registered predictions (ps < 0.03), and post hoc analyses revealed that quality, but not quantity, of social contact with individuals with higher weight was an important predictor of lower weight bias. Together, these findings provide insight into the social psychology of weight bias and help to lay a theoretical foundation for future efforts to reduce weight stigma.

Can I Still Trust You? Late Trust Violations Hinder Subsequent Cooperation

Can I Still Trust You? Late Trust Violations Hinder Subsequent Cooperation

Exposure to Diversity, Social Proximity and Ingroup Bias

Exposure to Diversity, Social Proximity and Ingroup Bias

In-Group Bias in Natural Groups of Soldiers

In-Group Bias in Natural Groups of Soldiers

A novel electroencephalography-based paradigm to measure intergroup prosociality: An intergenerational study in the aftermath of the genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda.

Studying how intergroup prosociality evolves in war-torn societies is critical for gaining a better understanding of conflict perpetuation. Rwanda provides a unique example of how two groups must reconcile and manage their intergroup biases following a genocidal process. In this study, we employed a novel intended behavior task to measure intergroup prosociality among former genocide perpetrators, genocide survivors, and their children in Rwanda. Participants were required to choose between various individuals representing their own in-group or their out-group as recipients of their prosocial intentions. We measured how frequently they selected in-group or out-group individuals and to what extent choosing each individual induced cognitive conflict, as measured by reaction times (RTs) and midfrontal theta (FMθ) activity. The results indicated that survivors and their children selected former perpetrators and their offspring less frequently. Furthermore, selecting them involved a higher cognitive conflict, as evidenced by longer RT and a higher FMθ, compared to choosing their own in-group. For the group composed of former perpetrators and their children, we observed a dissociation. They selected out-group individuals more frequently, perhaps as a compensatory behavior for their past wrongdoings. Nonetheless, selecting the out-group individuals involved a higher cognitive conflict than selecting their own in-group. Importantly, we observed a similar intergroup prosociality bias in the children of both survivors and former perpetrators, mirroring that of their parents. These results are important for understanding how past conflicts influence intergroup prosociality bias and the extent to which this bias is transmitted to the next generation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Psychological effects of anti-Arab politics on American and Arab peoples' views of each other.

Disparaging rhetoric about Arab people was prevalent during Donald Trump's political rise in the United States. Although this rhetoric was intended to energize conservative Americans, it also echoed throughout many liberal parts of the United States and around the world. In this research, we experimentally examined the effects of such rhetoric on American and Arab people's attitudes and visual representations of each other before and after Trump was elected. Although people overwhelmingly reported not liking the negative rhetoric, the rhetoric alone did not influence explicit and implicit intergroup biases in either location, as measured by feeling thermometers and Implicit Association Tests. However, the election outcome moderated the way rhetoric influenced how American and Arab people visually represented each other. Our research sheds light on nuanced effects of global politics on various information processing stages within intergroup perception.

Unutargrupna pristranost / In-Group Bias

Religion represents a system of beliefs, understandings, and actions from which religious individuals draw an array of values for their judgments of the world. Religiousness is a multidimensional construct comprising a multitude of religious orientations of which extrinsic and intrinsic religiousness are the most prominent in scientific literature. Also, in the social psychological domain, religion represents a social group whose members show a tendency toward in-group bias, a phenomenon basically immanent in every social group. The construct of in-group favoritism refers to a tendency of favoring one’s in-group members over out-group members. The focus of this paper is oriented on the basic dimensions of religiousness and their behavioral manifestations such as in-group favoritism, prejudice, biases in prosocial behavior, etc. Based on scientific literature, the aim of this paper is to determine the relations between religiousness and in-group bias, i.e., favoring the in-group and derogation of the out-group. An additional aim is to demonstrate the importance of the influence of religious priming on the social behavior of an individual in terms of making or breaking in-group biases and out-group prejudices.

Comparative Analysis of Sentiments in Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders

In-group favoritism is the tendency of people where, individuals tend to punish transgressors with varying intensity based on whether they belong to their own group or not. In this cross-sectional analytical study, we examine matched samples of children with developmental disorders, observing their perspectives on punishment after watching two videos in which rules are broken. Data (video 1) shows a football player from the viewer’s country scoring a handball goal, while in data (video 2), a foreign player replicates the same action against the host nation. Every contestant viewed both videos, and their responses were then compared. Our proposed methods compare and analyze the data to determine player’s opinions using artificial intelligence-based machine learning such as text analysis and opinion, extract on- favorable, unfavorable, neutral feelings, or emotions. In both sets of data, the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) group displayed negative emotions for both video 1 (M = −.1; CI 90% −.41 to .21) and video 2 (t (7) = 1.54, p =.12; M = -.42; CI 90% 76 to -.08). On the contrary, the groups with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), learning disabilities (LD), and intellectual disability (ID) had a favorable reaction to video1 but an unfavorable reaction to video 2. Children diagnosed with ASD typically display a consistent adherence to rules, even when those breaking the rules are not part of their group. This behavior may be linked to lower levels of empathy.

Local Legislation is Associated With Regional Transgender Attitudes.

Using a newly developed measure of implicit transgender attitudes, we investigate the association between state-level antitransgender policies and individual-level attitudes about transgender people among residents. In a large sample of U.S. participants (N = 211,133), we find that individuals living in states with more discriminatory policies against transgender people (e.g., not allowing changes to one's gender identity on official identity papers) exhibited more negative implicit and explicit transgender attitudes. This pattern held after controlling for participant race and gender, as well as when looking only at cisgender participants. These findings extend prior work concerning how intergroup biases relate to regional characteristics such as legislation and do so in a novel and consequential context. This research also informs ongoing work concerning the role of policy-making and social norms on the development and expression of intergroup prejudice.

How does pro-attitudinal information improve intergroup relations? Unraveling the underlying mechanism of American and Chinese people’s mutual attitudes

ABSTRACT Though media exposure research typically links pro-attitudinal information with ingroup favoritism and outgroup derogation, the empirical evidence to date is inconclusive. Can attitude-consistent media diminish prepositions and ease intergroup tensions? If so, what type of like-minded media content should ingroups be exposed to? Rather than approaching from the perspective of the morality dimension, which has been well-researched, this study took the US and China’s public attitudes toward each other as a case study, to examine the link between pro-attitudinal media exposure of outgroups’ “competency” dimension and attitudes toward outgroups. Results indicate that Americans and Chinese who were exposed to pro-attitudinal media stimulus depicting an outgroup’s lack of competency show more outgroup favoritism, and outgroup empathy mediates the media effects on outgroup attitudes. Theoretical underpinnings using social comparison, the underdog effect, and the pratfall effect are discussed, along with practical implications to improve intergroup relations, especially international relations, in the aftermath of COVID-19 when intergroup tensions may have been exacerbated.

Minarchism as a Philosophical Basis for the Convergence of the Right and Liberal Segments of the Non-Systemic Opposition in Russia

The article examines the question of the convergence factors for the right and liberal segments of the non-systemic opposition in Russia on the basis of minarchism as the philosophical fundament. The methodology of the work is built on a combination of structural and comparative analysis. The authors reveal the relation between the classical variant of the minarchism philosophy and its form transformed by the public opinion leaders within the non-systemic opposition. The authors come to conclusion that minarchism plays the role of the basis for the ideological unification of the right and liberal segments of the non-systemic opposition now. At the same time the oppositionists mainly adopted not the orthodox form of minarchism, but its vulgarized version, within which the original concept was reworked in the key of elitism and social Darwinism. This variation of minarchism is actually a political myth, the functions of which is to stigmatize the loyalists and strengthen in-group favoritism of the current government’s opponents. The features of this myth make it possible to dehumanize supporters of the existing system and at the same time construct a positive image of the future which is based on consumer values and achieving false justice according to the principles of market agonism.

A stranger in a strange land: Promises and identity

One's social identity tends to favor those belonging to one's group. At the same time, communication has had beneficial social consequences in controlled laboratory experiments. Can communication improve trust and outcomes between out-group members by making them more familiar? We construct a simple weak mechanism of group favoritism (different assigned colors) that induces in-group favoritism. Communication increases cooperation but does not affect per se the social identity gap, i.e., people make more favorable choices for in-group members. However, mutual promises are more effective for out-groups than in-groups, reducing or eliminating the social-identity gap. So perhaps, in some sense, out-group members are seen as more like in-group members when they have experienced mutual promises. We also find evidence that the two groups’ decisions are driven by different motivations, one based on expectations in-groups and one based on moral commitment in the case of out-groups.

Gender attitudes and gender discrimination among ethnically and geographically diverse young children

AbstractDespite increasing advocacy for gender equality, gender prejudice and discrimination persist. The origins of these biases develop in early childhood, but it is less clear whether (1) children's gender attitudes predict discrimination and (2) gender attitudes and discrimination vary by ethnicity and US region. We examine these questions with an ethnically (Asian, Black, Latinx and White) and geographically (Northeast, Pacific Northwest, West, Southeast and Hawaii) diverse sample of 4‐ to 6‐year‐old children (N = 605) who completed measures of gender attitudes and discrimination in a preregistered study. Children, across groups, demonstrated more positive attitudes towards their gender ingroup. Children who showed more pro‐ingroup attitudes also showed more pro‐ingroup behavioural discrimination. Girls showed stronger ingroup favouritism than boys, but ethnic and regional groups generally did not vary in levels of bias. These findings contribute to our understanding of how gender intergroup biases develop and highlight the generalizability of these processes.

Exploring Attitudes Toward “Sugar Relationships” Across 87 Countries: A Global Perspective on Exchanges of Resources for Sex and Companionship

The current study investigates attitudes toward one form of sex for resources: the so-called sugar relationships, which often involve exchanges of resources for sex and/or companionship. The present study examined associations among attitudes toward sugar relationships and relevant variables (e.g., sex, sociosexuality, gender inequality, parasitic exposure) in 69,924 participants across 87 countries. Two self-report measures of Acceptance of Sugar Relationships (ASR) developed for younger companion providers (ASR-YWMS) and older resource providers (ASR-OMWS) were translated into 37 languages. We tested cross-sex and cross-linguistic construct equivalence, cross-cultural invariance in sex differences, and the importance of the hypothetical predictors of ASR. Both measures showed adequate psychometric properties in all languages (except the Persian version of ASR-YWMS). Results partially supported our hypotheses and were consistent with previous theoretical considerations and empirical evidence on human mating. For example, at the individual level, sociosexual orientation, traditional gender roles, and pathogen prevalence were significant predictors of both ASR-YWMS and ASR-OMWS. At the country level, gender inequality and parasite stress positively predicted the ASR-YWMS. However, being a woman negatively predicted the ASR-OMWS, but positively predicted the ASR-YWMS. At country-level, ingroup favoritism and parasite stress positively predicted the ASR-OMWS. Furthermore, significant cross-subregional differences were found in the openness to sugar relationships (both ASR-YWMS and ASR-OMWS scores) across subregions. Finally, significant differences were found between ASR-YWMS and ASR-OMWS when compared in each subregion. The ASR-YWMS was significantly higher than the ASR-OMWS in all subregions, except for Northern Africa and Western Asia.

Minimal Group Procedures and Outcomes

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.

How partisan social identity shapes evaluations of candidate brand elements on campaign websites

ABSTRACT Political parties operate as partisan social groups and partisanship biases the way individuals process political information, form political opinions, and evaluate candidates. Partisans demonstrate favoritism when evaluating fellow party members but discriminate against those in the opposing party. However, the bounds of this partisan intergroup bias are undetermined. Using a constructed political website, an experiment tested the extent of the reach of partisan social identity in biasing evaluations on candidate brand attributes. That limit was not ascertained as partisans evaluated an out-party candidate lower than an in-party candidate on every brand element measured, including personal and nonpolitical attributes. Through a tragic frame, partisans expressed great negative affect toward a candidate from the opposing party and transfer it to his political stances, experience, wife, grandson, and even dog. The results reveal that partisan social identities create divides among social and personal issues and exacerbate affective polarization.

Situational assessment of empathy and compassion: Predicting prosociality using a video-based task.

Classical psychometric approaches in social science measure individuals' tendency to experience empathy and compassion. Using abstract questionnaire items, they place high demand on subjects' capacity to introspect, memorize, and generalize the corresponding emotions. We employed a Socio-affective Video Task (SoVT)-an alternative approach that measures situationally elicited emotions-and assessed its predictive power over prosocial behavior against classical questionnaires in a sample of Israeli university students. We characterized the conceptual embedding of the SoVT concerning other measures of prosocial affect and cognition, and tested group identification as an alternative precursor to prosocial behavior. Eighty participants rated their reactions to videos that presented the suffering of others or everyday scenes on scales of negative affect (providing a proxy for elicited empathy) and compassion. We then administered classical questionnaires that target empathy (the Interpersonal Reactivity Index) and compassion (the Compassionate Love Scale), as well as measures of hypothetical and real-life helping and prosocial attitudes-including conflict attitudes and intergroup bias. While compassion ratings in the SoVT failed to predict prosociality more accurately than classical questionnaires, the SoVT empathy index succeeded and correlated strongly with other precursors of prosociality. These results support video-based situational assessment as an implicit and robust alternative in the measurement of empathy-related processes.

Information, identity, and action: The messages of the Dutch anti-vaccination community on Telegram

The anti-vaccination movement has successfully spread its views on social media. This study examined how community building emerges in the messages of Dutch anti-vaccination Telegram groups. Particularly, we investigated the extent to which these groups provide a platform for sharing information, perpetuating a shared identity, and promoting action. As negative emotions are considered a prime driver of collective action, we examined to what extent the messages had a negative valence. We used a mixed-method approach through a quantitative content analysis of 4654 text messages from five Telegram groups, while also examining the nature of the content through a qualitative analysis. The results suggest that most messages contained a form of shared identity (ingroup favoritism and outgroup hostility) or (mis)information, and, to a lesser extent, encouragements for (online) action. Moreover, most content had a negative valence. These findings illustrate how online groups might be sources of (mis)information, polarization, and intergroup hostility.