Minimal but meaningful: Probing the limits of randomly assigned social identities

Xin Yang; Yarrow Dunham

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2019.04.013

Minimal but meaningful: Probing the limits of randomly assigned social identities

J Exp Child Psychol. 2019 Sep:185:19-34. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2019.04.013. Epub 2019 May 11.

Authors

Xin Yang¹, Yarrow Dunham²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. Electronic address: xin.yang@yale.edu.
² Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA.

PMID: 31085424
DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2019.04.013

Abstract

The current studies (total N = 151) experimentally manipulated meaningfulness in novel social groups and measured any resulting ingroup biases. Study 1 showed that even when groups were arbitrary and presumptively meaningless, 5- to 8-year-old children developed equally strong ingroup biases as children in more meaningful groups. Study 2 explored the lengths required to effectively reduce ingroup biases by stressing the arbitrariness of the grouping dimension. Even in this case, ingroup bias persisted in resource allocation behavior, although it was attenuated on preference and similarity measures. These results suggest that one needs to go to great lengths to counteract children's tendency to imbue newly encountered social groups with rich affiliative meaning.

Keywords: Discrimination; Essentialism; Ingroup bias; Meaningfulness; Minimal group; Prejudice.

Publication types

Randomized Controlled Trial
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Child
Child, Preschool
Emotions / physiology*
Female
Group Processes
Humans
Male
Prejudice / psychology*
Social Identification*
Social Perception