Positive–negative asymmetry in social discrimination: The impact of stimulus valence and size and status differentials on intergroup evaluations

Abstract

This article deals with a positive‐negative asymmetry in social discrimination. While social psychological research investigating in‐group favouritism has primarily focused on positive evaluations of in‐ and out‐group, a study is presented which examines intergroup differentiation in the positive and in the negative domain. In this study, we examine the influence of stimulus valence (positive vs. negative) and size and status differentials on intergroup differentiation. The dependent measures included evaluative attributes which referred either to a status‐related or to a status‐unrelated dimension. As expected, generally there was in‐group favouritism in the positive domain in which inferior minorities showed highest biases. In‐group favouring evaluations in the negative domain appeared only under ‘aggravating’ conditions, i.e. when the in‐group had inferior and minority status. However, while this pattern of findings was true with respect to status‐unrelated measures, there was a mere reproduction of the status manipulations on measures which were related to the status differential.