‘Different‘ just means ‘better’: Some obvious and some hidden pathways to in‐group favouritism

Abstract

Within the framework of social identity theory (SIT) a field experiment was conducted to test the impact of comparison importance for in‐group as well as for out‐group favouritism. It was predicted that ( a ) in‐group favouritism would be stronger on dimensions important for the in‐group irrespective of out‐group importance and that ( b ) out‐group favouritism would be possible on those dimensions important for the out‐group which at the same time are unimportant for the in‐group. Results of a 2 (high vs. low in‐group importance) x 2 (high vs. low out‐group importance) x 2 (social group ‘GRÜNE’/‘SPD’) ANOVA support the assumption in principle. The expected effect of in‐group importance on in‐group favouritism is mitigated by out‐group importance. In addition, interaction effects of ‘social groups’ with each of the other two factors on in‐group favouritism point to the relevance of type of intergroup relations underlying the intergroup comparisons.