PSYCH 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Minimal Group Paradigm, In-Group Favoritism, Frontal Lobe
Nahas
Psych 101
General Psychology
LE
Fall 2018
Social Psychology
● The Importance of Group membership
○ Introduction to Social Psych
■ Social Psychology is defined as people influence other people’s thoughts,
feelings, and actions
■ People have an evolutionary need to join groups, as it helps them when
competing for resources
■ Membership brings challenges, including how to be a group member, which
involves understanding social rules, your actions, and controlling one’s
desires
○ People Favor Their Own Groups
■ Banding together in groups provides many advantages (hunting and gathering
resources) but also some disadvantages in competition with others groups
■ It is important for groups to identify people who ingroup and outgroup
■ Formation of Ingroups and Outgroups
● There are two major conditions
○ Reciprocity states that if one group member helps another,
they expect to be helped back
○ Transitivity states that people share their friend’s opinion
about other people
● Groups can be formed based on minimal rules of social interaction
● The outgroup homogeneity effect states that people tend to view
outgroup members as less varied than ingroup members
■ Social Identity Theory
● According to social identity theory, ingroups consist of people who
consider themselves part of the same social category
○ Groups provide sources of pride for members, which aids their
self-identity
● People also exhibit ingroup favoritism, and are more willing to
allocate resources to ingroup members (as opposed to outgroup
members)
○ This effect applies even the grouping is meaningless (the
minimal group paradigm)
● Women tend to show greater ingroup bias towards women than men
do towards other men
■ Brain Activity and Group Membership
● The medial frontal cortex is important for thinking about other people,
and is also associated with ingroup bias
○ It is less activated for outgroup people, which is the process of
dehumanization
Document Summary
Social psychology is defined as people influence other people"s thoughts, feelings, and actions. People have an evolutionary need to join groups, as it helps them when competing for resources. Membership brings challenges, including how to be a group member, which involves understanding social rules, your actions, and controlling one"s desires. Banding together in groups provides many advantages (hunting and gathering resources) but also some disadvantages in competition with others groups. It is important for groups to identify people who ingroup and outgroup. Reciprocity states that if one group member helps another, they expect to be helped back. Transitivity states that people share their friend"s opinion about other people. Groups can be formed based on minimal rules of social interaction. The outgroup homogeneity effect states that people tend to view outgroup members as less varied than ingroup members. According to social identity theory, ingroups consist of people who consider themselves part of the same social category.
