Social Ingroup Research Articles

A Study on Social Inclusion of Humanoid Robots: A Novel Embodied Adaptation of the Cyberball Paradigm

As social robots are being built with the aim of employing them in our social environments, it is crucial to understand whether we are inclined to include them in our social ingroups. Social inclusion might depend on various factors. To understand if people have the tendency to treat robots as their in-group members, we adapted a classical social psychology paradigm, namely the “Cyberball game”, to a 3-D experimental protocol involving an embodied humanoid robot. In our experiment, participants played the ball-tossing game with the iCub robot and another human confederate. In our version, the human confederate was instructed to exclude the robot from the game. This was done to investigate whether participants would re-include the robot in the game. In addition, we examined if acquired technical knowledge about robots would affect social inclusion. To this aim, participants performed the Cyberball twice, namely before and after a familiarization phase when they were provided with technical knowledge about the mechanics and software related to the functionality of the robot. Results showed that participants socially re-included the robot during the task, equally before and after the familiarization session. The familiarization phase did not affect the frequency of social inclusion, suggesting that humans tend to socially include robots, independent of the knowledge they have about their inner functioning.

Reminders of an agentic ingroup buffer disease uncontrollability

AbstractChronic illness has negative impacts beyond those on physical health. In particular, because it is often experienced as uncontrollable, chronic illness might reduce people's general sense of personal control and, subsequently, personal well‐being. Drawing on recent theory and research, we proposed and tested in four experiments (Ntotal = 1323) a potential buffer to these negative effects: thinking about an agentic social ingroup in one's life. In Study 1, patients suffering from a chronic illness that was either high or low in medical disease controllability were asked either to think about an agentic ingroup or a personal issue. Low perceived disease‐related control was associated with low perceived personal control only when participants' personal self, but not when their ingroup, was salient. In three follow‐up vignette studies, we asked participants to take the perspective of a person who suffered from a health problem of low medical disease controllability and attended a self‐help group that was described as either high or low in agency. The findings supported the predicted buffering effect: participants who reflected on a target suffering from a low control disease thought that the target would experience more personal control when the agentic (vs. the nonagentic) self‐help group was salient. These findings suggest ingroups can serve as a source of personal control in the context of health‐related threats to the extent that they are perceived as agentic. Thus, focusing on agentic properties of (health‐related) ingroups might be a promising novel strategy when designing effective group‐based interventions to cope with chronic illness.

Perceptual discrimination in the face perception of robots is attenuated compared to humans

When interacting with groups of robots, we tend to perceive them as a homogenous group where all group members have similar capabilities. This overgeneralization of capabilities is potentially due to a lack of perceptual experience with robots or a lack of motivation to see them as individuals (i.e., individuation). This can undermine trust and performance in human–robot teams. One way to overcome this issue is by designing robots that can be individuated such that each team member can be provided tasks based on its actual skills. In two experiments, we examine if humans can effectively individuate robots: Experiment 1 (n = 225) investigates how individuation performance of robot stimuli compares to that of human stimuli that either belong to a social ingroup or outgroup. Experiment 2 (n = 177) examines to what extent robots’ physical human-likeness (high versus low) affects individuation performance. Results show that although humans are able to individuate robots, they seem to individuate them to a lesser extent than both ingroup and outgroup human stimuli (Experiment 1). Furthermore, robots that are physically more humanlike are initially individuated better compared to robots that are physically less humanlike; this effect, however, diminishes over the course of the experiment, suggesting that the individuation of robots can be learned quite quickly (Experiment 2). Whether differences in individuation performance with robot versus human stimuli is primarily due to a reduced perceptual experience with robot stimuli or due to motivational aspects (i.e., robots as potential social outgroup) should be examined in future studies.

Comparing personal and social optimism biases: magnitude, overlap, modifiability, and links with social identification and expertise

Individuals are more optimistic about their own future than a comparable person’s future (personal optimism bias). In addition, they show overoptimism toward people or social groups they identify with compared with those they do not identify with (social optimism bias). However, commonalities and differences between personal and social forms of optimism bias remain to be addressed. Data from an experiment on anticipated performances in soccer (including 160 participants), revealed (a) comparable magnitudes of personal and social optimism biases, and (b) only partial overlap between personal and social optimism biases. We further found the magnitude of the biases to depend on (c) prior experience in the investigated area. Social optimism bias, however, did not correlate with (d) the extent to which the participants identified with a social in-group. In addition, we demonstrate that (e) despite the availability of objective feedback, both personal and social optimism biases are hard to overcome. Our data further suggest (f) the existence of qualitatively different social optimism biases; biases that can possibly be distinguished by their degree of automaticity or the adoption of a more affective vs. utilitarian stance. Consequently, the present research reveals that the phenomenon of social optimism bias needs further refinement to adequately address its specific sub-components.

Making Pledges More Powerful: Effects on Pro-Environmental Beliefs and Conservation Behavior

We developed pledges that capitalized on several self-related properties (e.g., freedom of choice, actual-ought self-discrepancies, foot-in-door technique) and manipulated two experimental factors: pledge beneficiary and pledge audience. In two studies, participants received a recycling pledge based on a random assignment in a 2 (Beneficiaries: Nature vs. Self) × 2 (Audience: Ingroup vs. Outgroup) design. Afterwards, we assessed their pro-environmental beliefs and provided them with a behavioral opportunity to support conservation (i.e., recycling debriefing forms in Study 1, writing letters to congresspeople regarding an environmental policy in Study 2). In both studies, an interaction between beneficiaries and audience was observed, showing that a recycling pledge framed as benefitting nature and sponsored by a social ingroup led to more progressive environmental beliefs. In Study 2, individuals in the same condition (i.e., the nature-ingroup pledge) wrote more persuasive letters (longer and more sophisticated letters) supporting pro-environmental legislation. Implications for constructing effective pledges and for leveraging the self to promote pro-environmental action are discussed.

Exploring Neighbourhood-based Programming for Older Adults: A Seniors’ Satellite

ABSTRACT Community-based programs for older adults are key health-promoting resources; however, barriers to participation exist, including transportation, cost, accessibility, and social in-groups. To address such barriers, a neighborhood-based Seniors’ Satellite program was implemented. We explored the benefits of participating in this program, and barriers and facilitators to participation, through a mixed methods program evaluation. The Satellite attracted older adults at risk of isolation and those more socially connected, from the local neighborhood and more distant areas. Findings suggest program participants valued the combination of social contact, exercise, and fun, in a local, friendly setting, and gained social and health benefits.

Identity in transition: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of international humanitarian workers\u2019 experiences of returning home

This interpretative phenomenological analysis explores aid workers’ understanding of identity and belonging through the transition from working in humanitarian aid to returning home. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 participants who had returned to the UK after working in recently founded non-governmental organisations in Northern France between 2016 and 2019. Analysis of interview data identified four superordinate themes: (1) shared humanitarian identity, (2) limits and borders, (3) holding on to humanitarian identity and (4) redefining belonging and identity. Aid workers’ belonging in humanitarian work settings is rooted in shared moral values and being able to fulfil a clearly defined role. Upon returning, aid workers struggled to reintegrate, manifesting as denial of having left humanitarian work, re-creation of the social setting and moral demarcation. Participants formed a new sense of belonging through redefining their social in-group. The study sheds light on a previously unexplored area of research, specifically characterised through the closeness of the international humanitarian setting and participants’ homes. Findings suggest organisations can assist aid workers’ re-entry by supporting professional distance in the field, and through opportunities that allow to sustain moral values post-mission. Future research should focus on the role of peer support in the re-entry process and the re-entry experiences of aid workers returning from comparable settings further afield (e.g. Greece).

Overlap in processing advantages for minimal ingroups and the self

Cognitive biases shape our perception of the world and our interactions with other people. Information related to the self and our social ingroups is prioritised for cognitive processing and can therefore form some of these key biases. However, ingroup biases may be elicited not only for established social groups, but also for minimal groups assigned by novel or random social categorisation. Moreover, whether these ‘ingroup biases’ are related to self-processing is unknown. Across three experiments, we utilised a social associative matching paradigm to examine whether the cognitive mechanisms underpinning the effects of minimal groups overlapped with those that prioritise the self, and whether minimal group allocation causes early processing advantages. We found significant advantages in response time and sensitivity (dprime) for stimuli associated with newly-assigned ingroups. Further, self-biases and ingroup-biases were positively correlated across individuals (Experiments 1 and 3). However, when the task was such that ingroup and self associations competed, only the self-advantage was detected (Experiment 2). These results demonstrate that even random group allocation quickly captures attention and enhances processing. Positive correlations between the self- and ingroup-biases suggest a common cognitive mechanism across individuals. These findings have implications for understanding how social biases filter our perception of the world.

Social identity and coethnic voting in the Middle East: Experimental evidence from Qatar

What explains widespread coethnic voting in the Middle East? The prevailing understanding revolves around clientelism: the view that MENA citizens support coethnic parties and candidates in order to most easily or effectively extract resources from the patrimonial state. Previous research has thus neglected non-economic explanations of ethnic-based preferences and outcomes in MENA elections, including social biases long identified in other settings. This study presents findings from a conjoint survey experiment in Qatar, where symbolic elections lack distributional implications. Consistent with expectations derived from social identity theory, results reveal strong favoritism of cosectarian candidates, whereas objective candidate qualifications do not affect voter preferences. Bias is especially strong in a policy domain – promoting religious values – that prompts respondents to consider the candidate’s ethnic identity. Findings offer clear evidence that ethnic-based voting in Qatar and likely elsewhere is not merely epiphenomenal but can reflect actual preferences for members of social in-groups.

Effects of Self-Identification with Threatened In-Group and System Justification on Within-Domain Consumption

Purpose: Current study aimed at exploring the roles of system justification in the effects of consumers' self-identification with the threatened social in-group on the within-domain versus across-domain consumption. It focused on whether there are positive effects of both of the self-definition and the self-investment on the in-group system justification, and also explored whether the system justification, in turn, could make positive effects on the consumption. Research design, data and methodology: The self-identification was approached in view of self-definition and self-investment when the in-group was threatened by members of their out group. The empirical study was performed with the single factor within-subject design based on the feeling of the consumers' being threatened when the in-group was criticized by the others. The in-group threatened was accessed from the memory of each of the undergraduate students participating in the empirical study by asking them to remember the events by which their important in-group was perceived to be threatened in their past life. Questionnaire data collected from the undergraduate students were used to verify research hypotheses by structural equation model in Amos 21.0 program. Results: First, the self-definition positively affected the within-domain versus across-domain consumption, but did not affect the in-group system justification. Second, the self-investment positively affected the in-group system justification. Third, the system justification made positive effects on the within-domain versus the across-domain consumption. Therefore, this article could contribute to the development of the theory related to compensatory consumption in the view that there could be the positive mediation roles of system justification in the effects of consumers' self-investment to their in-group on the within-domain versus across-domain consumption when the in-group is threatened. Conclusions: The results of this study could give managerial implications to brand or product marketing managers. How to vitalize consumers' self-definition with, and self-investment to, the threatened in-group is at issue to the marketers when consumers' important in-group was threatened by others. By evoking the in-group-based self-investment to consumers when the in-group was threatened, the marketers should increase the level of the system justification, and the marketers should promote the consumers to recognize that their products or brands are included into the within-self domain.

Perspective taking reduces group biases in sensorimotor resonance

Similar neural circuits are activated during action and the observation of action and such sensorimotor resonance is said to support action understanding and empathy. Previous research, however, shows that group biases can restrict sensorimotor resonance to the social ingroup. Here we test whether an empathic mindset can alleviate such group biases in sensorimotor resonance. Participants adopted either an objective mindset or a perspective taking mindset while writing about a day in the life of a racial outgroup member. Participants in an objective mindset resonated with ingroup members, indicated by significant suppression of the 8–13 Hz electroencephalographic (EEG) mu-rhythm recorded over sensorimotor areas during action observation compared to baseline, but did not show significant mu-suppression in response to outgroup members. In contrast, participants in a perspective taking mindset resonated with both ingroup and outgroup members and significantly more so with outgroup members. Moreover, mindset uniquely affected resonance in response to outgroup members but not in response to ingroup members, with participants who previously took the perspective of an outgroup member later responding with more resonance to the actions of other outgroup members. Together these findings suggest that taking the perspective of a racial outgroup member can reduce group biases in sensorimotor resonance, potentially fostering an intuitive understanding across groups.

We Are Family: Viewing Pets as Family Members Improves Wellbeing

ABSTRACTThe current work investigated how viewing one’s pet as a family member improves wellbeing. We hypothesized that including pets in a key social ingroup (i.e., family) would increase ascriptions of socially supportive traits to these animals, enhancing their perceived ability to provide social support to owners, which in turn promotes owner wellbeing. Study 1 used a correlational design and showed positive relations between viewing one’s companion animal as a family member, greater perceptions of socially supportive traits, and better wellbeing as indexed by several measures of mental and physical health. Study 2 experimentally manipulated the extent to which participants viewed their pets as family members and found that inducing people to view companion animals as family members improved wellbeing. This study also provided evidence for the mediating role of socially supportive anthropomorphism, and it ruled out a mood-based alternative account. Pets can play an important role in providing social support that can improve people’s mental and physical health, and the processes underlying how animals can be included in people’s most important ingroup shed light on the psychology underlying how group memberships affect perceptions of humanity.

Perception of an ambiguous figure is affected by own-age social biases

Although the perception of faces depends on low-level neuronal processes, it is also affected by high-level social processes. Faces from a social in-group, such as people of a similar age, receive more in-depth processing and are processed holistically. To explore whether own-age biases affect subconscious face perception, we presented participants with the young/old lady ambiguous figure. Mechanical Turk was used to sample participants of varying ages from the USA. Results demonstrated that younger and older participants estimated the age of the image as younger and older, respectively. This own-age effect ties in with socio-cultural practices, which are less inclusive towards the elderly. Participants were not aware the study was related to ageing and the stimulus was shown briefly. The results therefore demonstrate that high-level social group processes have a subconscious effect on the early stages of face processing. A neural feedback model is used to explain this interaction.

Personal control decreases narcissistic but increases non-narcissistic in-group positivity.

We examined the effects of control motivation on in-group positivity. Past research suggests that people compensate for low personal control by increasing support for social in-groups. We predicted that the effect of personal control on in-group positivity would depend on the type of in-group positivity. Low personal control should increase compensatory, narcissistic in-group positivity, whereas high personal control should increase secure, non-narcissistic in-group positivity. These hypotheses were tested in a cross-sectional survey (Study 1 N = 1,083, 54% female, Mage = 47.68), two experiments (Study 2 N = 105, 50% female, Mage = 32.05; Study 3 N = 154, 40% female, Mage = 29.93), and a longitudinal survey (Study 4 N = 398, 51% female, Mage = 32.05). In all studies, personal control was negatively associated with narcissistic in-group positivity but positively associated with non-narcissistic in-group positivity. The longitudinal survey additionally showed that the positive relationship between personal control and non-narcissistic in-group positivity was reciprocal. Moreover, both types of in-group positivity differentially mediated between personal control and out-group attitudes: Narcissistic in-group positivity predicted negative attitudes, and non-narcissistic positivity predicted positive attitudes. These findings highlight the role of individual motivation in fostering different types of in-group positivity and intergroup outcomes.

Identification with Multiple Groups in Multiethnic Middle Schools: What Predicts Social Ingroup Overlap?

Self-definition becomes a central task during early adolescence, as youth identify with multiple social groups. Focusing on ethnic identification and identification with other salient social ingroups (e.g., those based on extracurricular activities), we examined predictors of perceived ingroup membership overlap among ethnically diverse adolescents (n=1264; M age=12.51; 53% female). Social ingroup overlap remained relatively stable, but decreased, across the seventh to eighth grade. The number of cross-ethnic classmates in seventh grade predicted lower overlap in the eighth grade, and cross-ethnic friendships by eighth grade mediated this association. Findings underscore the opportunities provided by multiethnic middle schools for youth to connect and befriend one another across ethnic lines, as well as to foster divergent social identities that are associated with positive intergroup attitudes.

On the other side of the fence: effects of social categorization and spatial grouping on memory and attention for own-race and other-race faces.

The term “own-race bias” refers to the phenomenon that humans are typically better at recognizing faces from their own than a different race. The perceptual expertise account assumes that our face perception system has adapted to the faces we are typically exposed to, equipping it poorly for the processing of other-race faces. Sociocognitive theories assume that other-race faces are initially categorized as out-group, decreasing motivation to individuate them. Supporting sociocognitive accounts, a recent study has reported improved recognition for other-race faces when these were categorized as belonging to the participants' in-group on a second social dimension, i.e., their university affiliation. Faces were studied in groups, containing both own-race and other-race faces, half of each labeled as in-group and out-group, respectively. When study faces were spatially grouped by race, participants showed a clear own-race bias. When faces were grouped by university affiliation, recognition of other-race faces from the social in-group was indistinguishable from own-race face recognition. The present study aimed at extending this singular finding to other races of faces and participants. Forty Asian and 40 European Australian participants studied Asian and European faces for a recognition test. Faces were presented in groups, containing an equal number of own-university and other-university Asian and European faces. Between participants, faces were grouped either according to race or university affiliation. Eye tracking was used to study the distribution of spatial attention to individual faces in the display. The race of the study faces significantly affected participants' memory, with better recognition of own-race than other-race faces. However, memory was unaffected by the university affiliation of the faces and by the criterion for their spatial grouping on the display. Eye tracking revealed strong looking biases towards both own-race and own-university faces. Results are discussed in light of the theoretical accounts of the own-race bias.

A Case Study of Anders B. Breivik’s Intergroup Conceptualisation

This paper undertakes summative content analytical case study of Anders Behring Breivik’s political manifesto, analysing Breivik’s conceptualisations of social ingroup and outgroup, and how these concepts interact. Findings indicate that Breivik conceptualises his ingroup on a three-level scale, ranging from specific to general. The outgroup is conceptualised as twofold, seen as either originating inside Breivik’s ingroup society or outside. A basic interaction pattern between the two group-conceptualisations was found, suggesting mutual reinforcement and a self-replicating pattern of radicalization and entrenched group-conceptualisation. Ingroup categories appeared to exist as hierarchical subsets, while outgroup categories were clearly differentiated as separate entities.

How Peer-Punishment Affects Cooperativeness in Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Groups

This article analyzes how the anticipation of peer-punishment affects cooperativeness in the provision of public goods under social identity. For this purpose we conduct one-shot public good games with induced social identity and implement in-group, out-group and random matching protocols. Our measure of cooperativeness is subjects’ conditional contribution elicited via the strategy method, which allows for observing behavior contingent on every possible level of group members’ cooperation. We demonstrate, firstly, that the social environment is a determinant of how the threat of peer-punishment influences cooperation. The strongest increase is clearly evident when subjects interact with members of different identities, which is especially the case for individuals who were initially categorized as freeriders. Secondly, anticipation of peer-punishment clearly eliminates the typically existing ingroup bias without punishment and renders out-group members to be as cooperative as ingroups members. Lastly, the results indicate that the institutions of peer-punishment and social identity may be complemented in order to raise subjects’ cooperativeness.

Reframing Polarization: Social Groups and “Culture Wars”

ABSTRACTRecent analyses of American politics often invoke the term “culture war” depicting sharp and increasing divisions within the American polity. Most of this research defines culture in terms of values and beliefs about social issues and defines polarization in terms of partisan and issue divisions. I evaluate the claim of worsening “culture wars” by using a conceptualization of political culture that focuses on social groups and measuring polarization as both social group members’ attitudes toward their own social in-groups and out-groups, and the effects of group attitudes on partisanship. Analyzing inter-group attitudes from 1964 to 2012 for social group cleavages defined by race, class, age, sex, and religion shows that polarization in attitudes toward social groups is minimal and generally stable, and most group members feel positively toward out-groups. Partisan and issue polarization seen in prior research do not extend to deep or increasing inter-group hostility that could reinforce issue-based and partisan polarization.

Of Affect and Ambiguity: The Emergence of Preference for Arbitrary Ingroups

What cognitive and affective processes underlie the all‐too‐human tendency toward group‐based affiliation and exclusion? Using a paradigm in which children are randomly assigned to previously unfamiliar and meaningless “minimal” social groups, we investigate the developmental origins of the tendency to prefer and positively evaluate the actions of social ingroup members. Using a procedure derived from evaluative priming as well as children's verbal descriptions of intergroup encounters, we show that 6‐year olds but not 3‐year olds manifest robust ingroup preference. These results suggest that the mechanisms underlying the wide range of human social group affiliations undergoes a striking increase in generality between ages 3 and 6, perhaps driven by a shift from an individual‐level to a group‐level or “sociocentric” orientation.