Maria Rosaria Cadinu & Myron Rothbart
Three experiments were conducted to examine the basis for subjects’ judgments about ingroup and outgroup attributes in the minimal group paradigm. Categorized and uncategorized subjects were given trait information about one group, and asked to estimate the level of those attributes for the other group. The trait information provided to subjects was both favorable and unfavorable, and consisted of both familiar and unfamiliar (novel) traits. Two principles were proposed to underlie ingroup favoritism: 1) a differentiation principle, predicting that, given information about one of the two groups, both categorized and uncategorized subjects would infer the opposite about the other group, and 2) a self-anchoring principle, predicting that categorized subjects would use the self as an anchor when inferring ingroup characteristics.
In the first experiment, subjects made judgments of a group, and then, using the same traits, rated themselves. Results showed that 1) uncategorized subjects’ ratings were based on a differentiation principle; 2) ingroup subjects’ ratings were based on a self-anchoring principle, with self-ratings being positively correlated with group ratings; and 3) outgroup subjects’ ratings show evidence for a differentiation as well as a negative self-anchoring principle.
In the second experiment, subjects provided self-ratings before group ratings. A pattern of results similar to Experiment 1 was found, and, consistent with a self-anchoring principle, self-ratings predicted ingroup ratings more strongly than in Experiment 1.
In the third experiment, feedback about ingroup and about self were manipulated on unfamiliar dimensions, and subjects were more willing to generalize information from self to ingroup than from ingroup to self. The three experiments together supported both a differentiation and self-anchoring explanation for group judgments in the minimal group paradigm.
Cadinu, M. R., & Rothbart, M. (1996). Self-anchoring and differentiation processes in the minimal group paradigm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 661-677.
Copyrighted by the American Psychology Association (APA) and posted by permission. "This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record." APA Journals