rosalieberrios-candelaria

Title of QTUG presentation:

Differentiation of Out-Group Members: Relative Intergroup Status and Familiarity

List of Author and co-authors for QTUG presentation:

Rosalie Berrios-Candelaria, Tiia Nurmikko,Beth Lewis, Peter Murphy, Lorin Kinney & Thomas E. Malloy.

Abstract Group formation affords security, task allocation, a social identity, mating opportunities, and increases the likelihood of survival. One’s own group is the in-group; other groups are out-groups. Individuals fail to differentiate the unique traits of out-group members but differentiate in-group members. This is the out-group homogeneity bias. We estimated the effects of familiarity with the out-group and the relative status of the in-group and out-group on the differentiation of out-group members. Perceiver variance components were estimated (Malloy, 2008) and variance ratios from different experimental conditions were computed. Perceivers from a low status group differentiated the traits of high status out-group members to a greater extent than did high status perceivers when judging low status out-group members. There was less differentiation of out-group members in a high familiarity condition compared to a low familiarity condition. High status group members focus on the features that define category membership and ignore unique features that differentiate out-group members. Paradoxically, increased exposure to out-group members may simply confirm existing stereotypes.