Out-group Peers Research Articles

On the spurious effect of intergroup friendship on outgroup attitudes in schools: The role of social influence and the positive impact of exposure to outgroup peers.

Promoting intergroup friendships in schools is regarded as a powerful strategy for improving outgroup attitudes. However, stochastic actor-oriented modelling (SAOM) studies have often revealed no association between intergroup friendship and outgroup attitudes. I investigated whether SAOM studies reported no effect of intergroup friendship on outgroup attitudes, what was responsible for this surprising finding and whether exposure to outgroup peers was positively related to outgroup attitudes. The meta-analysis of SAOM studies confirms no association between intergroup friendship and outgroup attitudes. Examining longitudinal social network data of 2700 German students, I found that a positive link between intergroup friendship and outgroup attitudes appeared only when I did not control for social influence. This indicates that intergroup friendship did not automatically improve outgroup attitudes. Instead, the development of outgroup attitudes among students depended on social influence and, thus, the quality of outgroup attitudes among their outgroup friends. Exposure to outgroup peers was, however, positively associated with outgroup attitudes. These findings reframe intergroup contact theory by suggesting that intergroup friendship is not essential for improving outgroup attitudes. Rather, social influence and exposure to outgroup peers could be key factors shaping outgroup attitudes.

How Do Children Learn Social Categorization and Intergroup Attitudes When They Grow Up in Divided Contexts?

This paper explores how group preferences develop among children living in the post-conflict context of Kosovo and how this development shapes children’s willingness to be close to their outgroup peers among the segregated majority (ethnic Albanian) and minority (ethnic Serb) members. The study was conducted in four ethnically divided primary schools, with 220 participants aged 6–10. Children played a series of games and tasks which measured ethnic ingroup preference, preference for the Kosovar flag, and willingness to be close to ethnic outgroup children. Children in this context where a new national Kosovar identity is developing following independence display very high ethnic ingroup preferences. Kosovar Serb children showed low willingness to engage with outgroup members and remained constant with age, while Kosovar Albanian children’s willingness to engage with the outgroup was present among younger children but diminished with age. Results add to the literature on the underlying process by which identity develops among segregated majority and minority who have little or no opportunities to interact. Lack of intergroup contact hinders the development of more positive intergroup relations. To build a peaceful coexistence, programs which connect the segregated schools and facilitate intergroup contact, especially among the younger age groups, are recommended.

Gender‐based reasoning about novel toys: The role of child and parental factors

AbstractMuch has been established about children's preference for gender‐typed toys, but far less is known about their reasoning about novel toys. Using such toys, this study explored children's emerging use of gender to make predictions about peers as a form of stereotype construction with its correlates. Two to 4‐year‐olds were shown novel, nonstereotyped toys and asked if they and others would like each item. Gender‐typing was measured by liking for familiar gender‐typed toys, and categorization skills by sorting. Parents completed measures on gender language and behavioural expectations. It was found that gender‐centric reasoning (what children like, they expect same‐gender peers but not other‐gender peers to like) was apparent from age 3 years, with boys showing a higher tendency. Apart from age in months, categorization skills and parental behavioural expectations uniquely contributed to children's degree of gender‐centrism. The findings are discussed in relation to cognitive development, parental gender socialization, stereotype formation and practical implications.Highlights From age 3, children tend to predict peers' liking for novel, nonstereotyped toys based on their own and peers' gender as a form of stereotype construction. Older boys are more likely to differentiate between their own novel toy‐liking and that of outgroup peers (girls) compared to girls. Children's categorization skills and their parents' behavioural expectations contribute to gender‐based reasoning, giving scope for interventions based on modifiable factors.

Do we perceive ethnic ingroup members as wealthier? Examining Hong Kong children’s inferences of wealth status based on resources and ethnic group membership

The way in which children consider information may depend on the groups to which they belong and the social status those groups occupy. In three studies, we examined how children infer their peers’ wealth status based on the possessions present and ethnic group membership. We recruited 242 Hong Kong children (Mage = 5;11, SDage = 1;0) from the ethnic Chinese majority (Study 1: 115 children) and two ethnic minorities (Study 2a: 84 South Asian/Southeast Asian children; Study 2b: 43 White/Biracial children). Overall, participants were able to distinguish between low- and high-wealth items, and make correct wealth-based inferences. Compared to both groups of ethnic minority children, ethnic majority children tend to judge their ingroup peers as wealthier even when they possessed fewer resources than outgroup peers. Thus, children inferred peer wealth status based on the resources present, but such inference was impacted by their own ethnic group membership and socioeconomic status.

Challenging the exclusion of immigrant peers

The present study examined age-related differences in bystander reactions within the context of peer exclusion of national ingroup (British) and immigrant outgroup (Australian or Turkish) peers. The immigrant peers were from nations that varied in terms of their perceived intergroup status in Britain. Participants were British children (n = 110, 8–11 years) and adolescents (n = 193, 13–16 years) who were presented with one of three scenarios in which a British national, Australian immigrant, or Turkish immigrant peer was excluded by a British peer group. Participants indicated their bystander responses. Perceived similarity and bystander self-efficacy were examined as possible correlates of bystander reactions. Findings revealed that children were more likely to directly challenge the social exclusion when the excluded peer was British or Australian compared with when they were Turkish. In contrast, adolescents did not differentiate in their response—they were equally likely to directly challenge the exclusion regardless of the excluded peer’s nationality. Importantly, when the excluded peer was Turkish, moderated mediation analysis showed that, with age, there was higher bystander self-efficacy for challenging the exclusions. In turn, higher bystander self-efficacy was related to higher direct challenging. These novel findings demonstrate the importance of intergroup relations, perceived similarity, and bystander self-efficacy in the emergence of age-related differences in bystander reactions to the exclusion of immigrant peers.

Adolescents' Evaluations of those who Challenge Exclusive and Inclusive Peer Norms.

Early and middle adolescents' judgments and reasonings about peers who challenge exclusive and inclusive peer group norms were examined across three studies with varying intergroup contexts. Study 1 participants included (N = 199) non-Arab American participants responding to an Arab American/non-Arab American intergroup context. Study 2 included (N = 123) non-Asian and (N = 105) Asian American participants responding to an Asian/non-Asian American intergroup context. Study 3 included (N = 275) Lebanese participants responding to an American/Lebanese intergroup context. Across all three studies participants responded to ingroup and outgroup deviant group members who challenged their peer groups to either include or exclude an outgroup peer with similar interests. Findings indicated that adolescents approved of peers who challenged exclusive peer norms and advocated for inclusion of an ethnic and cultural outgroup, and disapproved of peers who challenged inclusive group norms and advocated for exclusion. Non-Arab and non-Asian American adolescents displayed ingroup bias when evaluating a deviant advocating for exclusion. Additionally, age differences were found among Asian American adolescents. Findings will be discussed in light of intergroup research on those who challenge injustices.

Prosocial intentions towards religious ingroup and outgroup members among adolescents from public and religious schools

Prosocial behavior is a very important component in harmonious social relationships, especially within a diverse community such as Indonesia. Public and religion-based schools provide different opportunities for students in terms of interaction with peers from different religions, and in turn may affect attitudes toward ingroup and outgroup religious members. This study compared prosocial intentions towards religion-based ingroup and outgroup peer members in adolescents from heterogeneous (public) schools and homogenous (Islamic) schools. Participants were 220 Muslim middle school students aged 11-15 years, who attended public schools (N= 130; M=48, F=82) and religious schools (N=90; M=46, F=44). They were recruited through snowball sampling and convenience sampling. This research is a quasi-experimental study, by using the Scenario-based Prosocial Intention Questionnaire (SBPIQ) to measure prosocial intentions, which was modified to include manipulations on the targets of prosocial intention. Two-way mixed ANOVA results showed that the level of prosocial intention was highest toward the ingroup target (M=3,411; SD=0,392), followed by those toward the outgroup (M=3,357; SD=0,403) and neutral targets (M=3,234; SD=0,411). Furthermore, prosocial intentions towards ingroup, outgroup, and neutral targets were all higher in students from public schools. These results implied that there were biases in students’ prosocial behaviors toward ingroup/outgroup religious members. It is crucial for both public and Islamic schools to facilitate positive interactions with members of other religious group in order to overcome these biases. Keywords: ingroup-outgroup, interreligious, prosocial intention, prosocial behavior, adolescents, homogeneous/heterogeneous school

Preschoolers’ ingroup bias in predicting others’ sharing: The role of contexts and theory of mind

The current study investigated preschoolers’ ingroup bias in predicting people’s sharing across contexts and its relation to second-order theory of mind (ToM) ability. In Experiment 1, 96 5- and 6-year-old children were assigned to one of two groups in a minimal group paradigm. They heard a story about fictional ingroup and outgroup peers sharing in a public or private condition and were asked to predict and evaluate their sharing behavior. Children predicted that ingroup peers would share more than outgroup peers and also showed ingroup bias in evaluation regardless of the equal actual sharing of ingroup and outgroup peers. Moreover, 6-year-olds displayed a flexible ingroup bias in predicting others’ sharing across conditions because they held such a bias only in public conditions and did not expect ingroup and outgroup peers to share differently in private conditions. Experiment 2 tested a new sample of 80 6-year-olds with the same sharing story and a second-order false belief task. Results showed that only 6-year-olds who fully passed the false belief task showed a flexible bias in predicting sharing across conditions. Results indicate that children’s ingroup bias in predicting others’ sharing is becoming flexible across contexts as they grow up and ToM skills contribute to the development of their increasingly sophisticated prosocial reasoning.

Lebanese adolescents' expectations about social inclusion of peers in intergroup contexts.

This study examined the role of group norms, group identity, age, contact, and stereotypes on youths' decisions to include a peer in an intergroup context portraying Lebanese and American adolescents. Lebanese participants (N=275), ages 12 and 16years, were surveyed about expectations for inclusion of an out-group target with similar interests or an in-group target with different interests into their own Lebanese group or another American group. Findings indicated participants focused on shared interests, rather than national identity, when making inclusion decisions for either group and group norms mattered. Older participants expected American peers to be less inclusive towards an out-group peer. Direct contact predicted inclusivity of out-group American peers into one's own Lebanese group, and indirect media-based contact predicted expectations for inclusivity into an American out-group. Findings have implications for interventions aimed at improving cross-national friendships which, in turn, have the potential to reduce prejudicial attitudes.

Transgression of cooperative helping norms outweighs children’s intergroup bias

Some forms of cooperative helping do not bind people from a moral perspective but ensure the functioning of social groups. Here, we have assessed how children coordinate such nonobligatory social concerns with group identity concerns. We have performed three studies (3–11-years-old; N = 393) aimed at testing children’s peer preferences and resource allocation toward neutral individuals that engage in helping and hindering behaviors toward in-group and out-group peers. In Study 1, we have found that, in helping contexts, children prioritized group concerns and exhibited in-group favoritism. In hindering contexts, they privileged helping norms and did not exhibit out-group derogation. In Studies 2 and 3, we have confirmed that transgressions of cooperative helping norms outweighed intergroup bias. Our results suggest that, when cooperative helping norms conflict with group identity concerns, helping norms take priority. When these principles are coextensive and not in conflict, children give priority to group concerns.

Hungry for inclusion: Exposure to peer victimization and heightened social monitoring in adolescent girls.

Belonging to a social group is one of the most important factors contributing to well-being. The Belonging Regulation model proposes that humans possess a social monitoring system (SMS) that evaluates social inclusion and monitors belonging needs. Here, we used a prospective longitudinal design to examine links between peer victimization experienced across 7 years and social monitoring at the behavioral and neural level in adolescent girls (n = 38, Mage = 15.43 years, SD = .33). Participants completed a social evaluation task during a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan. More severe peer victimization was associated with increased activation to in-group versus out-group peers in the amygdala, ventral striatum, fusiform gyrus, and temporoparietal junction. Moreover, participants who displayed increased activation in these regions reported lower social self esteem and higher levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms. These results suggest that exposure to peer victimization across the school years is associated with heightened social monitoring at the neural level during adolescence, which has potential adverse implications for girls' adjustment and well-being.

Children tell more prosocial lies in favor of in-group than out-group peers.

Children tell prosocial lies from the age of three years onward, but little is known about for whom they are inclined to lie. This preregistered study examined children's (N = 138, 9-12 years) prosocial lying behavior toward minimal in-group and out-group peers. Additionally, children evaluated vignettes in which an in-group peer told a prosocial lie to an in-group or out-group peer. Results show that only older children told more prosocial lies for the benefit of in-group compared with out-group peers. Further, in the vignettes children of all ages were more accepting of prosocial lying in favor of in-group members compared with out-group members. These findings underscore the importance of considering intergroup relations in children's prosocial lying behavior and advocate for broadening the scope of research on children's intergroup prosociality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Personality differences among musicians: Real differences or stereotypes?

The aim of this study was to examine whether the differences in personality traits of different groups of musicians are real differences or stereotypes. In our study we included string, brass and woodwind players, singers, pianists and music pedagogy students, namely, more groups of musicians than in previous studies. Participants were 182 music students (103 female) with average age 20.86 years ( SD = 2.72). Using the BFI-10 personality questionnaire, the participants had to evaluate their own personality traits, and then the personality traits of six groups of musicians. Participants also had to evaluate themselves and six groups of musicians on three pairs of adjectives: masculine–feminine (MF), insensitive/not emotional–sensitive/emotional (EM), and averse to alcohol consumption–prone to excessive alcohol consumption (AC). Results of the Kruskal–Wallis (K–W) test indicated that self-reported personality traits and self-reports on pairs of adjectives of different groups of musicians were coming from the same distribution. Comparison of self-reports with in-group and out-group peer reports showed that there are stereotypes about different groups of musicians. The differences between self-reports and peer-reports were most pronounced for openness, agreeableness, and proneness to alcohol consumption.

Corticostriatal connectivity is associated with the reduction of intergroup bias and greater impartial giving in youth

Although prosocial behavior is preferentially directed toward the in-group across many species, prioritizing the outcomes of both the in- and out-group earlier in development can reduce intergroup biases. The current study examined the role of corticostriatal recruitment and connectivity in buffering the effect of intergroup bias on costly giving behavior during childhood and adolescence, a period when other-oriented preferences and associated brain functions undergo significant change. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, youth (n = 51; 8–16 years) made decisions that could potentially benefit in-group and out-group peers at a cost to themselves. Youth were more prosocial toward in-group relative to out-group peers, but were relatively more prosocial to out-group peers when there was a greater discrepancy between potential rewards for others over oneself (i.e., higher reward inequity). Although they showed no differences in corticostriatal activation, youth evinced greater connectivity between the ventral striatum (VS) and posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) when considering more inequitable prosocial decisions that favored the outcomes of out-group peers, which attenuated intergroup biases in prosocial behavior. We found no age-related differences at the behavioral or neural level, suggesting that in-group preferences already bias prosocial behavior and its neurocognitive processes by late childhood and do not change across adolescence.

Typologies of discrimination: Latinx youth's experiences in an emerging immigrant community.

Few studies examine how racial-ethnic peer discrimination experiences of Latinx youth vary across the race-ethnicity of the perpetrator. In a sample of 170 Latinx early adolescents (Mage = 12.86 years, range = 10.33-15.23; 51% female), we identified 4 latent profiles of youth: (a) relatively low likelihood of experiencing discrimination regardless of peers' racial-ethnic group (38%; low discrimination); (b) relatively high probability of experiencing discrimination from the majority outgroup peers (33%; outgroup); (c) relatively high likelihood of experiencing discrimination from ingroup peers (14%; ingroup); (d) the highest probability of discrimination experiences across the in- and outgroup (15%; high discrimination group). Overall, Latinx youth classified in a typology characterized by a higher likelihood of experiencing discrimination from both ingroup and outgroup peers also reported the worst internalizing and externalizing symptoms relative to those in the low discrimination typology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Supplemental Material for Children Tell More Prosocial Lies in Favor of In-Group Than Out-Group Peers

Supplemental Material for Children Tell More Prosocial Lies in Favor of In-Group Than Out-Group Peers

Majority group children expect that ethnic out-group peers feel fewer positive but more negative emotions than in-group peers

ABSTRACTAcross two studies majority group children’s (8–13 years) perception of positive and negative emotions in ethnic in-group and disadvantaged ethnic out-group peers was examined. Study 1 (N = 302) showed that children expected in-group peers to feel better in a positive situation compared to out-group peers. Whereas, in a negative situation, children expected in-group peers to feel less bad compared to out-group peers, particularly when they evaluated the in-group as very positive. Study 2 (N = 201) replicates these findings across multiple positive and negative situations, and additionally shows that in very negative situations children expect in-group and out-group peers to feel equally bad. These results suggest that children’s perception of emotions in others is influenced by ethnic group membership.

Score-Group Framing Negatively Impacts Peer Evaluations

How does group membership framing affect the feedback students provide learners? This paper presents two between-subjects experiments investigating the effect of Ingroup/Outgroup membership on effort spent in peer evaluations, and whether the group membership criterion type affects quality and stringency of evaluation. Two peer-review assignments were implemented in two separate classes. In the first study, students were nominally grouped by location they sat in class and non-nominally grouped by current class score; each was asked to review an Ingroup and Outgroup peer assignment. A second study randomly assigned students to one of four group types (random, score, motivation, and location); student reviewed two Ingroup assignments. In both studies, score-grouped students graded their peers more stringently than students grouped by location. These studies illustrate for system designers the impacts of group framing - and the disclosure of that-in peer review tasks.

Children's helping behavior in an ethnic intergroup context: Evidence for outgroup helping.

Two studies examined when and why children (10-13 years) help ethnic in-group and out-group peers. In Study 1 (n = 163) children could help an out-group or in-group peer with a word-guessing game by entering codes into a computer. While children evaluated the out-group more negatively than the in-group, they helped out-group peers more than in-group peers. Study 2 (n = 117) conceptually replicated the findings of Study 1. Additionally the results suggest that when children endorsed the stereotype that the out-group is "less smart," this increased their intention to help out-group peers and it decreased their intention to enter codes for in-group peers. The results suggest that the specific content of a negative stereotype can guide helping responses toward out-group and in-group members. (PsycINFO Database Record

Costs of helping only influence children’s intention to help ethnic out-group peers

Studies show that children are often inclined to help less when the costs of helping increase. However, these studies do not take into account who children are helping. Yet, developmental intergroup research has shown that the intergroup context influences children’s reasoning about helping behavior. Two experimental vignette studies are presented that examined the influence of the costs of helping on children’s (8–13 years) intention to help in an ethnic intergroup context. Study 1 (N = 320) showed that the costs of helping reduce children’s willingness to help ethnic out-group peers but do not influence children’s intention to help ethnic in-group peers. Study 2 (N = 166) replicated the results of Study 1 for a different ethnic out-group context. Moreover, children’s reduced willingness to help ethnic out-group peers when costs increase was not contingent on their ethnic in-group or out-group evaluation or their age. Taken together, this research shows, for the first time, that the costs of helping reduce children’s willingness to help ethnic out-group peers but not ethnic in-group peers.