Outgroup Members Research Articles

Subjective well-being and attitudes toward outgroup members

There is a large body of literature on the effect of negative attitudes toward outgroup members on target individuals and groups. However, less attention was devoted to their effects on those who hold these attitudes. The current study hypothesized that there would be a bidirectional relationship between subjective well-being and attitudes toward outgroup members. In Study 1, data from the Integrated Values Surveys, the Ecology-Culture Dataset, and the World Happiness Report 2022 were used. In Study 2, a random intercept cross-lagged panel model was implemented using longitudinal data over a six-year period from the GESIS Panel (n = 6783 people living in Germany). Results of Study 1 demonstrated a significant negative relationship between subjective well-being and negative attitudes toward outgroup members both at the country level (118 countries) and at the individual level (663,965 participants in 120 countries around the world). In Study 2, a random intercept cross-lagged panel model revealed significant within-person reciprocal relations between life satisfaction and negative attitudes toward refugees. This study provides evidence for a bidirectional relationship between subjective well-being and negative attitudes toward outgroup members.

The Effect of Temporary Group Identity on Adolescent Social Mindfulness Decisions: An Empirical Study Using Team Sports Contexts

Social mindfulness entails the consideration of the interests of others while respecting their autonomy. Although long-term group identity generates in-group favoritism in social mindfulness decisions, the effect of temporary group identity on social mindfulness remains to be validated. This study examined this effect by recruiting a convenience sample of 74 adolescents from a youth basketball club, who were randomly assigned to either an in-group or out-group decision-making condition. A basketball game scenario was used to establish temporary group identities, referencing the Minimal Group paradigm for grouping while applying the SoMi paradigm in a real-world context. The results showed that adolescents exhibited higher social mindfulness (χ2 = 22.774, df = 1, p < 0.001) and preference-adjusted social mindfulness (χ2 = 6.861, df = 1, p < 0.01) toward in-group compared to out-group members. Conversely, they displayed higher levels of preference-adjusted social hostility toward out-group members (χ2 = 11.291, df = 1, p < 0.01). These findings suggest that even temporary group identities, formed in a sports setting, can lead to intergroup bias in adolescents’ social decision-making, promoting goodwill toward the in-group while restricting the autonomy of out-group members.

Social conformity updates the neural representation of facial attractiveness

People readily change their behavior to comply with others. However, to which extent they will internalize the social influence remains elusive. In this preregistered electroencephalogram (EEG) study, we investigated how learning from one’s in-group or out-group members about facial attractiveness would change explicit attractiveness ratings and spontaneous neural representations of facial attractiveness. Specifically, we quantified the neural representational similarities of learned faces with prototypical attractive faces during a face perception task without overt social influence and intentional evaluation. We found that participants changed their explicit attractiveness ratings to both in-group and out-group influences. Moreover, social conformity updated spontaneous neural representation of facial attractiveness, an effect particularly evident when participants learned from their in-group members and among those who perceived tighter social norms. These findings offer insights into how group affiliations and individual differences in perceived social norms modulate the internalization of social influence.

Fostering Social Cohesion in Post‐Conflict Societies: The Power of Normative Apologies in Reducing Competitive Victimhood and Enhancing Reconciliation and Intergroup Negotiation

ABSTRACTThe present research investigated whether a normative outgroup apology enhances conciliatory attitudes (i.e., willingness for intergroup contact and feelings of peace) and intergroup negotiations while reducing competitive victimhood. In three experiments (N = 855) conducted in the post‐conflict context of Kosovo, we manipulated the normative apology by informing participants that the majority of outgroup members (i.e., Serbs) apologized for the Kosovo war. We compared this normative apology condition with an institutional apology, in which a Serbian representative apologized for the Kosovo war on behalf of the Serbian government (in all experiments), and a control (i.e., baseline) condition in which no apology‐related information was presented (Experiments 1 and 2). Overall, the results showed that participants in the normative apology condition reported greater willingness for contact with outgroup members, increased feelings of peace, greater support for intergroup negotiations, and reduced competitive victimhood compared to participants in other conditions. In addition, Experiment 3 revealed that outgroup humanization mediated the effect of normative apology on conciliatory attitudes, intergroup negotiations and competitive victimhood. In sum, these findings showed that normative apologies play a critical role in improving intergroup relations and reducing conflict‐related tensions.

The interplay between teaching for social justice beliefs and intergroup contact experiences in teachers’ responses to new curricular autonomy

ABSTRACT This study explores how South Korean teachers’ beliefs about social justice teaching intersect with their intergroup contact experiences when teaching migrant students under expanded curriculum autonomy. A comparative qualitative case study approach was used, drawing on interviews, classroom observations, and stimulated recalls. The findings reveal three models of social justice teaching – functional, critical, and liberal – as manifest in each teacher’s practice. The discussion highlights two key aspects: First, regarding contact experiences, teachers’ experience of being minoritized in intergroup contact has a more pronounced effect on their prejudice reduction than the density or frequency of contact per se; and indirect contact with outgroup members can be as effective as direct contact in reducing stereotypes. Second, concerning teacher beliefs and policy implementation, teachers’ beliefs significantly shape their interactions with minoritized students; and increased curriculum autonomy does not necessarily lead to critical social justice teaching. Implications for teacher education are discussed.

From the lab to the field and back: the effects of need satisfaction on reconciliation among Germans and Israelis

IntroductionPrevious lab experiments supported the needs-based model of reconciliation, which posits that discussing historical transgressions enhances the need for acceptance in groups perceived as perpetrators and empowerment in groups perceived as victims. Addressing these needs (e.g., through accepting or empowering messages from outgroup members) increases willingness to reconcile. This study tests this model in a real-world settings.MethodsStudy 1 examined 143 German and Israeli Jewish participants from youth exchange programs, measuring their feelings of acceptance/empowerment, program satisfaction, outgroup attitudes, and keeping in touch with outgroup members. Study 2 examined 293 Israeli Jews, manipulating the salience of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in a pre-registered laboratory experiment and measuring responses to accepting versus empowering messages from Germans.ResultsAs expected, Study 1 (N =143) found Germans’ feelings of acceptance were linked to program satisfaction, positive outgroup attitudes, and keeping in touch. For Israeli Jews, feelings of empowerment were linked to satisfaction and positive attitudes, but keeping in touch was unexpectedly linked to acceptance. This unexpected effect maybe because keeping in touch is done mainly through social networks that focus on the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, often with a focus on Israel’s transgressions against Palestinians. Consistent with this explanation, Study 2 (N=293, pre-registered) showed that Israeli Jews viewed accepting messages from Germans as more conciliatory when presented with transgressions against Palestinians, and empowering messages as more effective when presented with reminders of historical victimization by Nazis.DiscussionThe findings from Study 1 partially support the needs-based model of reconciliation and additionally suggest that reconciliation needs vary with context. Implications for people-to-people peace-building interventions are discussed.

EXPRESS: Disrespectful Promotions: The Negative Impact of Price Promotions on Products Symbolically Linked to Stigmatized Identities

To reach a more diverse consumer base, companies have begun to offer products symbolically linked to stigmatized identities, and these products are often promoted by price discounts. Despite past work finding that linking consumer identities to products is generally appealing and that price promotions benefit consumers, the current research finds that offering discounts on products symbolically linked to stigmatized identities may backfire. Across eight studies, which include a variety of stigmatized groups in U.S. society, we find that when a company offers a discount on a product symbolically linked to a stigmatized identity, members of the stigmatized group react negatively toward the company (i.e., they hold less favorable attitudes, have lower purchase intentions, and choose the company’s competitor). These negative reactions, which do not arise for the non-stigmatized, occur because stigmatized consumers perceive the company’s action of offering a discount as disrespectful toward their social group. The effect is contingent on whether the company is an in-group or out-group member, the selection of other discounted products, and the type of sales promotions employed. This research enriches our understanding of stigmatized consumers and offers insights into the nature of disrespectful cues in the marketplace and the social cost of price promotions.

Moral wiggle room and group favoritism among political partisans.

How does the availability of excuses for self-interested behavior impact group favoritism? We report the results of a preregistered experiment, conducted on the eve of the 2022 midterm elections, in which American political partisans made payoff distribution choices for themselves and a partner who was known to be a co-partisan or opposing partisan. Under full information, participants exhibit significant group favoritism. However, when the payoff consequences for one's partner are initially hidden, participants exploit this excuse to act selfishly regardless of who their partner is and ignorance rates are identical for in-group and out-group members. As a result, moral wiggle room has a significantly larger impact on selfish behavior for those interacting with co-partisans than opposing partisans, leading to a reduction in group favoritism.

Descriptive norms can "backfire" in hyper-polarized contexts.

Descriptive social norms interventions, where a behavior is promoted by learning that others engage in that behavior, are a cornerstone of behavior change research and practice. Here, we examine the effect of learning about the behavior of outgroup members in a hyper-polarized context: mask-wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Contrary to prior findings, we find a descriptive social norm "backfire": Across three experiments, Biden supporters increased their mask-wearing intentions after being informed that most Trump supporters never wore masks. We also provide evidence consistent with a mechanism whereby this effect was driven by changes in perceptions about how negatively ingroup members view nonmask wearing. Finally, in a fourth study, Biden supporters show the traditional descriptive norms effect (rather than a backfire) from the same treatment when in a nonpolarized context: dishonesty in a coin-flipping task. These findings help to clarify why descriptive social norm interventions promote behavior change, and underscore the importance of social norms in motivating prosocial behaviors. They also suggest an update to current best practices in the design of descriptive norm interventions: in polarized contexts, it can be beneficial to publicize antisocial behavior of outgroup members.

The impact of group membership on punishment versus partner rejection.

People often display ingroup bias in punishment, punishing outgroup members more harshly than ingroup members. However, the impact of group membership may be less pronounced when people are choosing whether to stop interacting with someone (i.e., partner rejection). In two studies (N = 1667), we investigate the impact of group membership on both response types. Participants were assigned to groups based on a "minimal" groups paradigm (Study 1) or their self-reported political positions (Study 2) and played an incentivized economic game with other players. In this game, participants (Responders) responded to other players (Deciders). In the Punishment condition, participants could decrease the Decider's bonus pay. In the Partner Rejection condition, participants could reject future interactions with the Decider. Participants played once with an ingroup member and once with an outgroup member. To control for the effects of intent and outcome, scenarios also differed based on the Decider's Intent (selfish versus fair) and the Outcome (equal versus unequal distribution of resources). Participants punished outgroup members more than ingroup members, however group membership did not influence decisions to reject partners. These results highlight partner rejection as a boundary condition for the impact of group on responses to transgressions.

The self can be associated with novel faces of in-group and out-group members: A cross-cultural study

The self can be associated with arbitrary images, such as geometric figures or unknown faces. By adopting a cross-cultural perspective, we explored in two experiments whether the self can be associated with faces of unknown people from different ethnic groups. In Experiment 1, Asian Japanese participants completed a perceptual matching task, associating Asian or White faces with themselves. The same task was used in Experiment 2 with White Italians. Both experiments showed a reliable association between the self and facial stimuli. Importantly, this association was similar for both Asian and White faces. Additionally, no correlations were found between the strength of this association and an index of implicit bias towards Asian and White individuals. These results suggest that the self is malleable and can incorporate social stimuli from different groups.

Longitudinal associations between parental psychological control and adolescents' intergroup attitudes to prosocial behaviors towards ethnic outgroups.

While a substantial body of existing literature has examined the negative effects of parental psychological control on adolescents' prosocial behaviors, there is a noticeable gap in whether parental psychological control affects prosocial behaviors towards ethnic outgroup members. This three-wave longitudinal study investigated whether similar relations can be observed between parental psychological control and prosocial behaviors targeted at ethnic outgroup persons, and whether these relations are mediated by adolescents' intergroup attitudes. Participants were 412 European American adolescents (42% girls; Mage = 15.63 years at Time 1) and their primary caregivers (52% mothers) residing in the United States. They completed online questionnaires. Parents completed a measure of parental psychological control at Time 1. Adolescents completed measures of intergroup attitudes, public, and altruistic outgroup prosocial behavior at all three time points (T1, T2, T3), each approximately 8 months apart. The retention rate was 38.1% (N = 157; 44% girls) at Time 3. Path analyses revealed a direct negative link between parental psychological control and altruistic prosocial behavior towards ethnic outgroup persons but a direct positive association to public prosocial behavior towards outgroup persons. Importantly, parental psychological control was indirectly related to adolescents' prosocial behavior towards ethnic outgroup persons, via its effect on their intergroup attitudes. The findings underscore how parental psychological control and adolescents' intergroup attitudes contribute to shaping prosocial behaviors towards ethnic outgroups.

Cultural Tightness-Looseness and Individual Differences in Non-Normativeness Predict Stigmatization of Out-Groups: A Multilevel Cross-Cultural Study

Although a large body of research has focused on the determinants of stigma, multilevel approaches that can identify both micro- and macro-level influences are rarely employed. We adopted a multilevel perspective with data from 174,325 participants from 80 countries in two waves—Wave 5 (Study 1) and Wave 6 (Study 2) of the World Values Survey. We examined how country-level normative tightness-looseness and individual-level non-normativeness relate to stigma toward racial and ethnic out-groups and groups deviating from social standards. Preregistered analyses showed that for both waves individuals in normatively tighter (vs. looser) societies exhibited more stigma generally. Also, for both waves, individuals higher in non-normativeness demonstrated a greater level of stigma toward members of immigrant, racial, or ethnic out-groups while exhibiting a lower level of stigma toward groups deviating from social standards. The current work thus reveals how characteristics of both individuals and culture jointly affect stigma.

Who’s to blame? How subtle negative messages about outgroups contribute to ethnic prejudice development in middle to late childhood

Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that parents’ and children’s ethnic prejudice are related to one another. However, little is known about the specific parental practices that facilitate the intergenerational transmission of prejudice. Using a novel measure, we examined how everyday parent-child conversations about the ambiguous behaviors of others (e.g. behaviors open to multiple interpretations) may contribute to children’s ethnic prejudice development. The sample consisted of 249 pairs of mothers and children (aged 6 to 10 years) from the Netherlands with ethnically diverse backgrounds. In line with previous developmental findings, our results reveal that older children exhibit lower ethnic prejudice. Noticeably, however, we find that higher mothers’ subtle negative messages about outgroup members’ behaviors are significantly related to children’s higher ethnic prejudice. These findings did not differ by ethnic background. These results highlight the importance of examining how seemingly innocuous conversations may contribute to children’s ethnic prejudice development.

Cross-Cutting Exposure in Online News Comments: The Effects of Group Identification and Uncivil Discourse on Opinion Conformity and Expression

ABSTRACT Drawing upon the social identity model of deindividuation effects, this study investigated the effects of intergroup relations and discursive quality on individuals’ responses to comments that challenge their existing beliefs on news websites. A two-session online experiment with a 2 (group membership: in-group vs. out-group) × 2 (comment tone: civil vs. uncivil) between-subjects factorial design was conducted. The results showed that exposure to counter-attitudinal comments from in-group members, compared to out-group members, led to greater opinion conformity and less expression of disagreement. Additionally, there was a significant interaction between group membership and comment tone on disagreement expression. When counter-attitudinal comments were uncivil, individuals exposed to in-group comments expressed less dissent in their replies than those exposed to out-group comments. This tendency, however, was not significant when the counter-attitudinal comments were expressed in a civil tone.

Fraternizing with the enemy: Intragroup effects of extended contact

Extended contact (i.e., knowledge that an ingroup member has a close relationship with an outgroup member) often improves relations between groups. In the current research, we argue that such contact can also undermine relations within groups. Specifically, we propose a “fraternizing with the enemy” effect in which the fraternizer is viewed negatively by other ingroup members. In five preregistered experiments ( N = 2,035), we tested this effect in the context of political conflict using both real-world (Study 1) and fictitious (Studies 2–5) ingroup and outgroup members. Our results indicated that the fraternizer (vs. nonfraternizer) was viewed as less ideologically aligned with the ingroup, which in turn led to perceptions of this person as ambiguous and disloyal to the ingroup, and thereby elicited negative attitudes toward the fraternizer. We also found that, besides producing these negative effects, fraternizing with the enemy also produced the positive intergroup effects typically elicited by extended contact. We discuss the potential implications of our results for the effectiveness of extended contact in bridging political divides.

Poorer representation of minds underpins less accurate mental state inference for out-groups

Societies are becoming more polarised, driven in part by misconceptions about out-groups’ beliefs. To understand these effects, one must examine the cognitive processes underlying how people think about others. Here, we investigate whether people are less prone to theorise about the minds of out-groups, or less able to do so. Participants (Study 1: n = 128; Study 2: n = 128) made inferences about social and political beliefs held by real in-group and out-group members, and could choose to receive further information to improve these inferences. Results show: (1) participants sought equivalent or greater information about out-groups relative to in-groups; but despite this, (2) made significantly less accurate inferences for out-groups; and (3) were significantly less aware of their reduced ability. This shows that poorer mental state inference is not underpinned by a reduced propensity to consider out-group minds, but instead by a worse representation of the minds of out-groups.

From inspiration to restoration: Moral elevation as a catalyst for improving intergroup relations in contexts of conflict.

Existing research examining the creation of positive and prosocial interpersonal relations has established moral elevation as an approach-oriented emotion to be associated with a range of positive and prosocial outcomes. In this article and with the goal to identify emotional mechanism for improving intergroup relations in contexts of conflict, we examined the effects of moral elevation on enhancing intergroup relations. Across four experimental studies (Ns = 1,131), conducted in four understudied countries directly affected or threatened by intergroup conflict, we demonstrated that induced moral elevation elicits important cognitive and emotional shifts toward adversarial groups, resulting in improved intergroup relations. Specifically, we show that inducing moral elevation through stories of outgroup moral exemplars (individuals who have risked their life to save the life of an outgroup member) enhanced perceptions of intergroup moral similarity and positive emotions toward the outgroup, consequently fostering greater approach and prosocial intergroup behaviors. This pattern proved consistent across four distinct contexts: nonconflict (Sweden), ongoing conflict (Pakistan), protracted conflict (Serbia), and postconflict (Bosnia and Herzegovina). This article advances existing theory on positive emotions by identifying a novel emotional mechanism conducive to improving intergroup relations in contexts of conflict and extends the impact of learning about exemplary moral behaviors performed by relevant others. Ultimately, this article underscores the relevance of moral elevation in mitigating intergroup conflicts using intergroup interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Tracking politically motivated reasoning in the brain: the role of mentalizing, value-encoding, and error-detection networks.

Susceptibility to misinformation and belief polarization often reflect people's tendency to incorporate information in a biased way. Despite the presence of competing theoretical models, the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms of motivated reasoning remain elusive as previous empirical work did not properly track the belief formation process. To address this problem, we employed a design that identifies motivated reasoning as directional deviations from a Bayesian benchmark of unbiased belief updating. We asked members of a pro-immigration or an anti-immigration group how much they endorse factual messages on foreign criminality, a polarizing political topic. Both groups exhibited a desirability bias by over-endorsing attitude-consistent messages and under-endorsing attitude-discrepant messages and an identity bias by over-endorsing messages from ingroup members and under-endorsing messages from outgroup members. In both groups, neural responses to the messages predicted subsequent expression of desirability and identity biases suggesting a common neural basis of motivated reasoning across ideologically opposing groups. Specifically, brain regions implicated in encoding value, error detection, and mentalizing tracked the degree of desirability bias. Less extensive activation in the mentalizing network tracked the degree of identity bias. These findings illustrate the distinct neurocognitive architecture of desirability and identity biases and inform existing cognitive models of politically motivated reasoning.

Cooperation and crossed categorization in a minimal group context: testing the bounded generalized reciprocity and social identity accounts

ABSTRACT Individuals display the tendency to cooperate more with in-group members than they do with out-group members (i.e. in-group favoritism) across diverse contexts. While previous studies have thoroughly investigated in-group favoritism when a single social category is salient, they have understudied how individuals cooperate with others when multiple social categories are simultaneously salient. To bridge this gap, we conducted a study to examine cooperation under crossed categorization, in which two dichotomous social categories are orthogonally crossed. We then examined the psychological mechanisms potentially underlying intergroup cooperation, including reputational concern, expected cooperation, and social identification, drawn from the theoretical perspectives of bounded generalized reciprocity and social identity theory. Overall, we found that two in-group memberships additively increased cooperation. That is, cooperation with a double in-group member (a person with two in-group memberships) was higher than that with a partial in-group member (i.e. a person with one in-group membership and one out-group membership). We also found that cooperation with a partial in-group member was larger than that with a double out-group member (a person with two out-group memberships). In addition, we found some evidence that expected cooperation partially mediated the relationship between in-group membership and cooperation.