Scapegoating in a small group was investigated as a function of group success/failure, individual group member's apparent responsibility for the group outcome, and in-group vs out-group status. Ninety-six subjects, one half male and the other half female, were divided into 16 same-sex sessions, for a total of six subjects per session. In the context of a game, subjects were asked to rank each other's performance after each trial of the session; one half of the subjects believed a member was excluded on the basis of random selection and the other half of the subjects believed exclusion was based on poor performance (Selection procedure). One half of the games resulted in a success, the other half in a failure. The results indicated that scapegoating occurred as derived from the general definition: the excluded member was derogated in ratings under both conditions of the Selection procedure; and the propensity of given individuals to derogate consistently one target prior to the final outcome was also demonstrated. The results also indicated a tendency to derogate an out-group member more than an in-group member. As predicted, derogation of the excluded member increased under the conditions of failure for both Selection procedure groups; however, the prevalence of the early indentification of a target failed to increase under conditions of failure. From the results, it was concluded that the different types of scapegoating implied by a general definition operationally existed, and while primarily exploratory in nature, predictions were confirmed regarding the likelihood of scapegoating behavior in the face of a failure / acase@tulane.edu
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TULANE/oai:http://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/:tulane_26346 |
| Date | January 1980 |
| Contributors | Troutwine, Robert Dale (Author) |
| Publisher | Tulane University |
| Source Sets | Tulane University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Access requires a license to the Dissertations and Theses (ProQuest) database., Copyright is in accordance with U.S. Copyright law |
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