Ingroup bias, which refers to people???s tendency to evaluate and treat members of their ingroups better than members of outgroups, is a central feature of intergroup relations. Conceptually, ingroup bias can be comprised of ingroup positivity, outgroup negativity, or both. However, research has often confounded these components on the assumption that they are reciprocally related. The aim of this research project was to examine the relative dominance of ingroup positivity versus outgroup negativity in ingroup bias and the relationship between them. Two approaches were employed. First, a series of laboratory studies examined the effect of threat on implicit and explicit intergroup attitudes. In Study 1, ingroup positivity and outgroup negativity were assessed in the domains of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination in a context where threat appeared to be salient. Analyses within and across measures revealed that ingroup positivity was more dominant than outgroup negativity, and that ingroup and outgroup attitudes were unrelated or positively related. Experiments that manipulated the salience of realistic threat (Studies 2 and 3), symbolic threat, (Studies 6 and 7), or both (Studies 4 and 5) similarly produced nonsignificant or positive correlations between ingroup and outgroup attitudes. However, in Studies 4, 5, and 7, perceptions of symbolic threat significantly influenced intergroup attitudes. Overall, the findings of the laboratory studies suggest that although threat can shift outgroup attitudes, it does not necessarily lead to reciprocity between ingroup positivity and outgroup negativity. The second approach employed in this dissertation involved content analysis of messages posted on an Internet hate site. In contrast to the laboratory experiments, Studies 8 and 9 found that ingroup positivity significantly predicted outgroup negativity. Implications of these findings are discussed, including the possibility that ingroup positivity will be linked to outgroup hostility when people are highly identified with their ingroup and when the outgroup defines the ingroup. This dissertation contributes to the intergroup relations literature by providing a more detailed account of implicit and explicit ingroup bias, and by identifying potential conditions leading to a negative relationship between ingroup and outgroup attitudes.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/258793 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Gonsalkorale, Karen, Psychology, Faculty of Science, UNSW |
| Publisher | Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Psychology |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright Karen Gonsalkorale, http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright |
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