Low Status Groups Show in-Group Favoritism to Compensate for Their Low Status and to Compete for Higher Status

Mark Rubin (1) , Constantina Badea (2) , Jolanda Jetten

1 Newcastle University [Newcastle]
2 LAPPS - Laboratoire Parisien de Psychologie Sociale

The present research investigated the intergroup allocation behavior of members of low-status groups. In two studies where status relations were either relatively illegitimate (Study 1, N = 139) or legitimate (Study 2, N = 114), undergraduate students completed a minimal group resource allocation task that took into account the intergroup status hierarchy. In both studies, members of low-status groups showed two forms of in-group favoritism. They selected resource allocation choices that (a) compensated for their low status and led to intergroup fairness (compensatory favoritism) and (b) competed with the out-group for status and led to positive distinctiveness for the in-group (competitive favoritism). These results suggest that members of low-status groups use in-group favoritism to make their group (a) as good as the high-status out-group and (b) better than the high-status out-group. The findings support the idea that in-group favoritism can serve different functions.

Mots clés: Discrimination; Group Processes & Intergroup Relations; high status groups; Ingroup Favoritism; Intergroup Conflict; Intergroup Relations; intergroup status hierarchy; low status groups; minimal group paradigm; positive distinctiveness; Prejudice; Social Cognition; Social identity; Social identity theory; Social Psychology

Domaines: Psychologie

Mark Rubin, Constantina Badea, Jolanda Jetten. Low Status Groups Show in-Group Favoritism to Compensate for Their Low Status and to Compete for Higher Status. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 2014, 17 (5), pp.563-576. ⟨10.1177/1368430213514122⟩. ⟨hal-01473250⟩