Prejudice & Discrimination: Social Identity Theory (DP IB Psychology)

Ingroups & outgroups

• Social identity theory (SIT) proposed by Tajfel & Turner (1979) refers to the identity an individual forms of themselves based on their group memberships

• An ingroup is any group to which an individual belongs

• An outgroup is any group to which an individual does not belong

• An individual’s social identity is a combination of their various different ingroups (e.g. family, college, psychology class, rugby team)

• An individual may choose their ingroups (joining a drama club, supporting a football team) or they may have no choice (e.g. nationality, given sex at birth, ethnicity)

• Negative attitudes towards outgroups can lead to prejudice and discrimination

• The processes of SIT which may also lead to prejudice and discrimination are as follows:

• Social categorisation:

  • the process by which people arrange others into groups according to specific group characteristics:

    • Millennials, Boomers, Americans, Italians, punks, hippies etc.

  • Social categorisation can be the starting point for stereotype formation, for example:

    • Americans are all loud, burger-eating patriots; Boomers are smug and self-satisfied; hippies are all lazy, unwashed layabouts

  • Social categorisation is an easy mechanism for summing up outgroups as it requires little cognitive energy

• Social comparison:

  • the process by which an individual or group compares themselves and their ingroup either favourably (downward comparison) or unfavourably (upward comparison) to other groups:

    • downward comparison would be a businessperson looking down on someone who is unemployed

    • upward comparison would be a businessperson looking up to someone who is a highly successful entrepreneur billionaire

  • Social comparison can lead to individuals and groups feeling either superior or inferior to outgroups, depending on which group is being considered at the time:

    • staff at a school which gets the best exam results will feel superior to all of the other schools in the town but inferior to the highest-achieving schools in the country

• Homogeneity of the outgroup and positive distinctiveness of the ingroup (also known as ingroup favouritism):

  • processes by which the ingroup appears as a collection of distinct  individuals whereas the outgroup is viewed as a ‘mass’ of indistinct members with no individuality

• Favouring the ingroup can mean that the outgroup is easier to dismiss and, more worryingly, to demonise, for example:

  • Jewish people in pre-war Germany were reduced to a set of unpleasant, negative characteristics by anti-semitic propaganda to the extent that they simply became ‘them’ as opposed to ‘us’ (i.e. the German people)

The minimal groups paradigm

• The minimal groups paradigm (MGP) was proposed by Tajfel as a result of research into SIT (see the next revision note which includes his original study)

• Tajfel was able to demonstrate via this study that intergroup conflict is not required for prejudice and discrimination to be manipulated

• Tajfel’s study contradicted prior research conclusions that competition was a necessary component of ingroup/outgroup interaction in order to trigger prejudice and discrimination

• Tajfel found that merely being assigned to a group on an arbitrary (i.e. meaningless) basis was enough to instil loyalty to the ingroup and discrimination towards the outgroup

• The crucial aspect of the MGP was that it used random allocation of people into  groups i.e. not on the basis of gender, age, IQ, ability etc.

• Tajfel’s research into the MGP was to investigate the effects of social categorisation on intergroup behaviour when participants have been randomly allocated to meaningless groups

• As the groups humans belong to are an important part of their self-image and self-esteem it is necessary only for people to know that ‘I am part of X group so I have loyalty to the others in my group’:

  • An extension of loyalty to the ingroup is dislike/suspicion of outgroups

  • Dislike/suspicion may easily turn into prejudice and discrimination given the right conditions

• Thus, the MGP suggests that people are ‘herd animals’ who gain a sense of belonging and identity from the groups to which they belong - regardless of how and why they ended up being a member of these groups

Research which investigates social identity theory of prejudice & discrimination

• Tajfel et al. (1971): testing the minimal groups paradigm 

• Lam & Seaton (2016): Tajfel’s minimal groups paradigm to investigate the influence of intergroup competition on children’s in-group and out-group attitudes

Tajfel et al. (1971) and Lam & Seaton (2016) are available as ‘Two Key Studies of Prejudice & Discrimination’ – just navigate the Group Dynamics section to find them.