Intergroup Processes Research Articles

Different selection pressures give rise to distinct ethnic phenomena : a functionalist framework with illustrations from the Peruvian Altiplano.

Many accounts of ethnic phenomena imply that processes such as stereotyping, essentialism, ethnocentrism, and intergroup hostility stem from a unitary adaptation for reasoning about groups. This is partly justified by the phenomena's co-occurrence in correlational studies. Here we argue that these behaviors are better modeled as functionally independent adaptations that arose in response to different selection pressures throughout human evolution. As such, different mechanisms may be triggered by different group boundaries within a single society. We illustrate this functionalist framework using ethnographic work from the Quechua-Aymara language boundary in the Peruvian Altiplano. We show that different group boundaries motivate different ethnic phenomena. For example, people have strong stereotypes about socioeconomic categories, which are not cooperative units, whereas they hold fewer stereotypes about communities, which are the primary focus of cooperative activity. We also show that, despite the cross-cultural importance of ethnolinguistic boundaries, the Quechua-Aymara linguistic distinction does not strongly motivate any of these intergroup processes.

Sensitivity to Perceived Facial Trustworthiness Is Increased by Activating Self-Protection Motives

Self-protection motives have been documented to influence a range of intergroup processes, including biased categorization of racially ambiguous targets as out-group members and a heightened ability to discriminate in-group from out-group members. In this work, the influence of self-protective states is extended to interpersonal processes. Specifically, in two experiments we demonstrate that activating self-protection motives (relative to a control experience) leads to more accurate detection of facial cues associated with trustworthiness. In Experiment 1, participants with salient self-protection concerns were better able to distinguish between faces pre-rated as appearing high and low in trustworthiness. In Experiment 2, we used dynamic cues associated with trustworthiness and found that participants with active self-protection goals more accurately distinguished genuine from false smiles. These results are among the first to document the influence of self-protection motives on interpersonal judgments, thereby expanding the scope and focus of fundamental motives research.

Psychologization in talk and the perpetuation of racism in the context of the Greek school

It is often argued that the rise of psychological sciences has offered a new way of constructing subjectivity. Although this framework was used by institutions for regulatory and administrative purposes, soon it became part of common sense and psychological language and notions began to constitute an interpretative resource for social actors. Researchers argue that often discourses of psychologization have been used both by theorists and lay people to account for intergroup conflict, relegating intergroup processes to interpersonal or intrapersonal issues. In this paper, we examine how parents mobilize psychological notions to account for the behavior of children of immigrants within Greek schools. It is argued that psychological discourse was often used to frame “problematic” behavior as the result of interpersonal or intrapersonal processes. These constructions allowed participants to account for the children of immigrants’ behaviour avoiding accusations of prejudice, while at the same time the role of the Greek dominant group (both as a school institution and as the majority of the school population) in shaping intergroup relations within schools was omitted.

Exposure to Immigration in the News: The Impact of Group-Level Emotions on Intergroup Behavior

Numerous empirical investigations demonstrate that exposure to the stereotypic and oftentimes threatening portrayals of race/ethnicity in the media predict a wide range of unfavorable intergroup outcomes. The current study extends this work by experimentally examining the role of emotions in this process. Specifically, a 2 (Immigration Threat: Present/Absent) × 2 (Ingroup Emotion Endorsement: Present/Absent) + 1 (Control Group) experimental design tests the influence of exposure to immigration news stories on group-level emotions and intergroup behaviors. Findings indicate that exposure to threatening immigration news coverage indirectly influences intergroup outcomes through group-level emotions. Exposure to immigration news indirectly produces active and passive harming behaviors through feelings of contempt. These results provide an important first step in understanding a broader array of media-related intergroup processes and effects.

Identity Fusion

Identity fusion is a visceral sense of “oneness” with a group and its individual members that motivates personally costly, pro-group behaviors. Past approaches, most notably social identity theory, have assumed that when people align with groups, the group category eclipses both the personal self and the relationships among individual group members. Also, social identity researchers have focused on intergroup processes. In contrast, fusion theory emphasizes the role of the personal self and intragroup relationships in extreme pro-group action. Strongly fused persons are especially inclined to endorse pro-group action when either the personal or the social self is salient, when physiological arousal is high, or when they perceive that group members share essential qualities (e.g., genes, core values) with one another. Moreover, feelings of personal agency, perceptions of family-like ties to other group members, and a sense of group-related invulnerability mediate the link between identity fusion and pro-group behaviors. All of these effects emerged while controlling for identification, which predicted the effects weakly if at all. By specifying some of the key antecedents of extreme pro-group behavior as well as the role of the personal self and familial ties in such behavior, the identity-fusion approach fills an important explanatory gap left largely unaddressed by earlier perspectives.

The Effect of Media Exposure on Perceptions of Group Entitativity: A Preliminary Investigation

Group entitativity (i.e., the perception that a group is a coherent unit) has been found to play an important role in governing intergroup judgments and behaviors. Accordingly, considerable attention has been devoted to documenting both the factors that influence perceptions of entitativity and the effects of entitativity on group-based outcomes. Conspicuously absent from this research, however, is an assessment of the media's influence on these relationships. This is surprising, given the well-documented role of media exposure on an array of intergroup processes and effects. The current study tackles this issue by experimentally examining the impact of media exposure on perceptions of in-group entitativity and self-esteem among Latino news viewers. Although preliminary, the results found here suggest that media exposure can influence entitativity judgments.

Creating Legitimacy: The Interrelated Roles of Justice and Trust.

Despite nuanced conceptual differences in approaches to legitimacy, most scholars agree that whatever is legitimated (an authority, a rule, a distribution) carries with it an obligation to obey (without the threat of negative sanctions or enticement of positive ones). Unsurprisingly, then, it is in the interest of people, authorities in particular, to secure legitimacy of their own position, rules, or practices. With legitimacy as an important component of the development of institutional trust, it is important to understand its emergence. Drawing from the social psychological literature, this chapter focuses on social identity- and resource-based models of how justice processes facilitate the creation of legitimacy. Those models, however, only scratch the surface in examining the multifaceted role of interpersonal trust in solidifying collective sources of legitimacy. To explicate the interrelated roles of justice and trust, the chapter examines dynamics of power and leadership, intergroup processes, and perceptions of others in the situation. The conclusion calls for more explicit research on the conditions affecting the nature of the relationship between justice and trust and highlights the absence of consideration of the role of affect in the emergence of legitimacy.

A Developmental Science Approach to Reducing Prejudice and Social Exclusion: Intergroup Processes, Social‐Cognitive Development, and Moral Reasoning

This article presents a developmental science approach to changing attitudes and rectifying prejudice and discrimination. This is crucial because stereotypes and prejudicial attitudes are deeply entrenched by adulthood; the time for intervention is before biases are fully formed in adulthood. Adults as well as children are both the recipients and the perpetrators of prejudice as reflected by social exclusion based on group membership. Determining the factors that inhibit or reduce the negative outcomes of prejudice and exclusion is of paramount importance. Research reveals that young children are aware of in‐group and out‐group differences very early but what becomes full‐fledged prejudice, in fact, emerges slowly during childhood and adolescence. At the same time, morality, an understanding of fairness and equality, emerges during this same time period. On the positive side, evidence reveals that in certain contexts, children understand the unfairness of prejudicial attitudes and social exclusion designed to inflict harm on others. On the negative side, prejudicial attitudes, even when not intentional, have detrimental consequences for children as targets of biased attitudes. This article describes research on social reasoning, moral judgments, group identity, group norms, and intergroup contact in childhood to shed light on the catalysts and obstacles that exist for the goal of promoting the development of positive intergroup attitudes from early childhood to adulthood. Implications for policy and intervention are provided.

Predictors of Beliefs in Intergroup Forgiveness in a Chilean General Population Sample.

Original survey data from a Chilean sample (N = 1267) are used to study the socio-demographic and psychosocial determinants of belief in forgiveness attitudes in the context of measuring the impact of truth and reconciliation reports (NTRC, 1991) and Political Imprisonment and Torture (NPIC, 2004) commissions. A linear multiple regression analysis (R 2 = .15; F(8, 1269) = 14.65; p < .001; effect size f 2 = .18) revealed the positive effect of perceived apology sincerity (β = 0.22; p < .001), emotions of anger (β = -0.08; p < .05), and positive social climate (β = 0.08; p < .05). People who believe in the victims' forgiveness feel less anger, have more positive perceptions of the sincerity and efficacy of the apologies, agree to a greater extent that the commission helped to find out the truth about what happened to the victims, and have a greater perception of the social climate as positive. The results show the importance of psychosocial and institutional variables in beliefs about forgiveness, and they suggest differences between interpersonal and intergroup forgiveness processes.

The person-based nature of prejudice: Individual difference predictors of intergroup negativity

Person-based factors influence a range of meaningful life outcomes, including intergroup processes, and have long been implicated in explaining prejudice. In addition to demonstrating significant heritability, person-based factors are evident in expressions of generalised prejudice, a robust finding that some people (relative to others) consistently score higher in prejudice towards multiple outgroups. Our contemporary review includes personality factors, ideological orientations (e.g., authoritarianism), religiosity, anxiety, threat, disgust sensitivity, and cognitive abilities and styles. Meta-analytic syntheses demonstrate that such constructs consistently predict prejudice, often at the upper bounds of effect sizes observed in psychological research. We conclude that prejudice theories need to better integrate person- and situation-based factors, including their interaction, to capture the complexity of prejudice and inform intervention development.

How group-based emotions are shaped by collective emotions: evidence for emotional transfer and emotional burden.

Extensive research has established the pivotal role that group-based emotions play in shaping intergroup processes. The underlying implicit assumption in previous work has been that these emotions reflect what the rest of the group feels (i.e., collective emotions). However, one can experience an emotion in the name of her or his group, which is inconsistent with what the collective feels. The current research investigated this phenomenon of emotional nonconformity. Particularly, we proposed that when a certain emotional reaction is perceived as appropriate, but the collective is perceived as not experiencing this emotion, people would experience stronger levels of group-based emotion, placing their emotional experience farther away from that of the collective. We provided evidence for this process across 2 different emotions: group-based guilt and group-based anger (Studies 1 and 2) and across different intergroup contexts (Israeli-Palestinian relations in Israel, and Black-White relations in the United States). In Studies 3 and 4, we demonstrate that this process is moderated by the perceived appropriateness of the collective emotional response. Studies 4 and 5 further provided evidence for the mechanisms underlying this effect, pointing to a process of emotional burden (i.e., feeling responsible for carrying the emotion in the name of the group) and of emotional transfer (i.e., transferring negative feelings one has toward the ingroup, toward the event itself). This work brings to light processes that were yet to be studied regarding the relationship between group members, their perception of their group, and the emotional processes that connect them.

The White ceiling heuristic and the underestimation of Asian-American income.

The belief that ethnic majorities dominate ethnic minorities informs research on intergroup processes. This belief can lead to the social heuristic that the ethnic majority sets an upper limit that minority groups cannot surpass, but this possibility has not received much attention. In three studies of perceived income, we examined how this heuristic, which we term the White ceiling heuristic leads people to inaccurately estimate the income of a minority group that surpasses the majority. We found that Asian Americans, whose median income has surpassed White median income for nearly three decades, are still perceived as making less than Whites, with the least accurate estimations being made by people who strongly believe that Whites are privileged. In contrast, income estimates for other minorities were fairly accurate. Thus, perceptions of minorities are shaped both by stereotype content and a heuristic.

On social neuroscience methodologies and their applicability to group processes and intergroup relations

Group processes and intergroup relations are one of the most important topics examined by social psychologists. Recent advancements in social neuroscience methodologies provide valuable insight into these processes by allowing researchers to examine different psychological phenomena via neural processes that instantiate them while individuals interact with ingroup and outgroup members. This includes responses that occur outside conscious awareness or are deemed undesirable to overtly express. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the different social neuroscience methodologies that afford these possibilities. Specifically, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG), functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and genetic approaches will be discussed. Each section includes a discussion of what the methodology is and how it is used to assess neural function. A secondary goal of the review is to highlight recent studies that have utilized the aforementioned tools to better understand intergroup processes and interactions. Throughout, advantages and limitations of each approach are discussed, particularly with respect to the study of group processes and intergroup relations.

Trusting Communities and Bigger In‐Groups: Social Capital, Interracial Contact Climate, and Common In‐Group Categorization

Contact with members of different groups can reduce prejudice and encourage people to recategorize members of other social categories. This research examines individual‐level social capital—one's experience with trust, reciprocity norms, and engagement within a given community—as a construct that predicts contact climate and recategorization. People who have high levels of social capital within a community are more likely to perceive a positive interracial contact climate. High social capital and a favorable contact climate can encourage people to focus on their shared identity as members of that community. Two studies support the claim that social capital predicts intergroup processes. Study 1 tests a cross‐sectional mediation model linking individual‐level social capital to perceptions of the contact climate, common in‐group categorization, and racial out‐group attitudes. Study 2 presents longitudinal data demonstrating that social capital's cross‐lagged effects on contact climate, categorization, and racial out‐group attitudes are stronger than their reverse effects. Implications for diversity research and community applications are discussed.

Racial healthcare disparities: A social psychological analysis

Around the world, members of racial/ethnic minority groups typically experience poorer health than members of racial/ethnic majority groups. The core premise of this chapter is that thoughts, feelings, and behaviours related to race and ethnicity play a critical role in healthcare disparities. Social psychological theories of the origins and consequences of these thoughts, feelings, and behaviours offer critical insights into the processes responsible for these disparities and suggest interventions to address them. We present a multilevel model that explains how societal, intrapersonal, and interpersonal factors can influence ethnic/racial health disparities. We focus our literature review, including our own research, and conceptual analysis at the intrapersonal (the race-related thoughts and feelings of minority patients and non-minority physicians) and interpersonal levels (intergroup processes that affect medical interactions between minority patients and non-minority physicians). At both levels of analysis, we use theories of social categorisation, social identity, contemporary forms of racial bias, stereotype activation, stigma, and other social psychological processes to identify and understand potential causes and processes of health and healthcare disparities. In the final section, we identify theory-based interventions that might reduce ethnic/racial disparities in health and healthcare.

Influence of Intragroup Dynamics and Intergroup Relations on Authenticity in Organizational and Social Contexts: A Review of Conceptual Framework and Research Evidence

Despite their shared focus on influence of groups on individual, research bridging intragroup dynamics and intergroup relations as predictors of authentic and inauthentic (self-alienated) experience, behavior and interaction of individuals in organizational and social contexts is surprisingly rare. The goal of the present article is to highlight how understanding the reciprocal dynamic relationship between intragroup processes and intergroup relations offers valuable new insights into both topics and suggests new, productive avenues for psychological theory, research and practice development – particularly for understanding and improving the intragroup and intergroup relations in groups, organizations and society affecting authentic psychosocial functioning. The article discusses the complementary role of intergroup and intragroup dynamics, reviewing how intergroup relations can affect intragroup dynamics which, in turn, affects the authenticity of individual experiences, behaviors and relations with others. The paper considers the implications, theoretical and practical, of the proposed reciprocal relationships between intragroup and intergroup processes as factors influencing authentic psychosocial functioning of individuals in organizational and social settings.

Interrogating the Process and Meaning of Intergroup Contact: Contrasting Theoretical Approaches

ABSTRACTTo address the dearth of research on the process and meaning participants make of intergroup contact in settings of intractable conflict, Israeli, Palestinian and US youth were randomly assigned to conditions of dialogue‐based contact rooted in distinct social psychological theories. Over a 2‐week period, participants completed diaries containing surveys of psychological experience and space for free reflection. US youth reported lower levels of engagement, social identity salience and positive mood relative to Israelis and Palestinians. Qualitative data revealed a pattern of detachment and dissatisfaction among US youth. Compared with participants in a recategorization condition, participants in a mutual differentiation condition of dialogue reported lower levels of self‐consistency and higher levels of intergroup differentiation over time, suggesting the effectiveness of this approach to initiate a process of self‐reflection and intergroup distinctiveness. Palestinian participants in the mutual differentiation condition reported higher levels of empowerment and positive mood throughout contact relative to all other participants, suggesting the effectiveness of this approach to challenge power asymmetries and its positivity for the low‐status group. Results are discussed in terms of innovative methodological approaches to study intergroup processes in contact settings. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Nonverbal Expressions of Status and System Legitimacy

A voluminous literature has examined how primates respond to nonverbal expressions of status, such as taking the high ground, expanding one’s posture, and tilting one’s head. We extend this research to human intergroup processes in general and interracial processes in particular. Perceivers may be sensitive to whether racial group status is reflected in group members’ nonverbal expressions of status. We hypothesized that people who support the current status hierarchy would prefer racial groups whose members exhibit status-appropriate nonverbal behavior over racial groups whose members do not exhibit such behavior. People who reject the status quo should exhibit the opposite pattern. These hypotheses were supported in three studies using self-report (Study 1) and reaction time (Studies 2 and 3) measures of racial bias and two different status cues (vertical position and head tilt). For perceivers who supported the status quo, high-status cues (in comparison with low-status cues) increased preferences for White people over Black people. For perceivers who rejected the status quo, the opposite pattern was observed.

Being Penn State: The Role of Joe Paterno's Prototypicality in the Sandusky Sex-Abuse Scandal

More than any other man, Mr. Paterno is Penn State – the man who brought the institution national recognition, the man who built a football program based on honor for 46 years, the winningest football coach in Division I history…Paterno is at the core of the university's sense of identity. (Guarino, 2011, November 10)We believe that Alderfer's (2013) intergroup analysis of the Penn State scandal can be enriched by focusing on the special role that Joe Paterno played in the events leading up to the 2010 grand jury that brought the scandal to light outside the university community. On the basis of the social identity theory of leadership (Hogg, 2001), we argue that the community afforded Paterno the trust that he appears to have abused to suppress the scandal because he embodied the norms, values, and goals of Penn State in a way that made him prototypical of the university. By making the broader group category salient, Paterno was able to shape the behavior of representatives of many sub-groups described by Alderfer within the administration, athletics, and community. Coupled with a high degree of institutional ambiguity, Paterno's prototypicality likely enabled him to suppress the “constructive diversity” (p. 123) of checks and balances that should have operated at Penn State. This disruption to effective intergroup processes prohibited necessary oversight over the PSU athletic program and the Second Mile that otherwise might have uncovered Jerry Sandusky's crimes much earlier.

Majority Children's Evaluation of Acculturation Preferences of Immigrant and Emigrant Peers

Using an experimental design, native majority group children (8-13years, N=842) evaluated acculturation strategies (assimilation, integration, and separation) adopted by immigrant and emigrant peers. There were medium to large effects of the perceived acculturation strategies on children's peer evaluations. Overall, assimilation was valued most, followed by integration and separation. These effects were in part mediated by perceived national belonging. In addition, the effects were stronger for lower status compared to higher status immigrant groups, and for children with higher compared to lower national identification. For emigrants, separation was valued most, followed by integration and assimilation. This indicates that the intergroup processes rather than migration per se are important for children's acculturation perceptions and evaluations.