Do Members of Disadvantaged Groups Explain Group Status With Group Stereotypes?

Recent research on group attitudes in members of disadvantaged groups has provided evidence that group evaluations closely align with societal stigma, reflecting outgroup favoritism in members of those groups that are most strongly stigmatized. While outgroup favoritism is clearly evident among some groups, there is still debate about the psychological mechanisms underlying outgroup favoritism. The current research focuses on a less intensively examined aspect of outgroup favoritism, namely the use of status-legitimizing group stereotypes. We present data from members of four disadvantaged groups (i.e., persons who self-categorize as gay or lesbian, n = 205; Black or African American, n = 209; overweight n = 200, or are aged 60–75 years n = 205), who reported the perceived status of their ingroup and a comparison majority outgroup and provided explanations for their status perceptions. Contrary to assumptions from System Justification Theory, participants rarely explained perceived group status differences with group stereotypes, whereas they frequently explained ingroup disadvantage with perceived stigmatization and/or systemic reasons. Further exploratory analyses indicated that participants’ status explanations were related to measures of intergroup attitudes, ideological beliefs, stigma consciousness, and experienced discrimination. Our results highlight the need to develop a better understanding whether, under what circumstances, and with which consequences members of disadvantaged groups use group stereotypes as attributions of ingroup status and status differences.

Stereotypes from the Inside

Communication scholars often examine immigrants’ ingroup favoritism to study their intergroup/intercultural communication. Less is known about how some immigrants exhibit outgroup favoritism for the host culture and how outgroup favoritism relates to their ingroup communication. Drawn upon literatures on outgroup favoritism, this study understands international/intercultural communication in a global system where some immigrants favor the hosting outgroup. The researcher investigates how Chinese international students experience their peers’ performance of outgroup favoritism 崇洋媚外 in the U.S. Through in-depth interviews (n = 15), this study identified how outgroup favoritism enacts negative ingroup stereotyping and ingroup distancing. Students with outgroup favoritism strategically negotiate for less ingroup membership and more outgroup affiliation, creating mutual exclusion among ingroup members. Discussion focuses on Chinese international students’ communication dilemma with outgroup-favoring ingroup members

Simultaneous ingroup and outgroup favoritism in implicit social cognition

People like their own groups, producing ingroup favoritism, a hallmark finding of social identity theory. However, as predicted by system justification or cultural learning perspectives, outgroup favoritism among non-dominant groups is occasionally observed, particularly implicitly. The present research found that non-dominant group members displayed simultaneous ingroup and dominant group implicit favoritism. On indirect measures focusing on positive valence, members of non-dominant racial (Studies 1 and 4), religious (Study 2), and sexual (Study 3) groups showed ingroup favoritism. On indirect measures focusing on negative valence, members of non-dominant groups showed diminished ingroup favoritism, and sometimes favoritism towards the culturally dominant group. These results may indicate that positive self-regard forms associations between the ingroup and positive, whereas cultural learning and system justification form associations between non-dominant groups and negative. A cross-cultural design (Study 5) also found results compatible with these assumptions.

One of us? How leaders can use subtle identity performances to build trust among ingroups and outgroups

Leaders often face the dilemma of earning trust among different subgroups. How can leaders “reach across the aisle” to build trust among outgroup members without alienating their own ingroup in the process? We suggest one solution is for leaders to couple their efforts to appeal to the outgroup with subtle identity performances, behavioral cues that ingroup members understand as prototypical, but that are effectively invisible to outgroup members who are not familiar with ingroup symbols and norms. We conducted an experiment in which we manipulated the leader’s group membership (ingroup or outgroup) and favoritism (ingroup favoritism, outgroup favoritism, or outgroup favoritism with a subtle identity performance). Results show that leaders can maximize their perceived prototypicality, fairness, and trust among the ingroup and outgroup if outgroup favoritism is coupled with a subtle identity performance for the ingroup.

Can mindfulness meditation reduce the tendency to justify the status quo?

System justification theory suggests that advantaged groups in society frequently express ingroup favoritism and outgroup bias, whereas disadvantaged groups express outgroup favoritism. These tendencies are likely to occur when individuals are motivated to perceive the system as legitimate. This motivation is driven by uncertainty regarding unstable systems. Mindfulness practices emphasize open acceptance and awareness of thoughts and experiences. Participation in mindfulness can engender, among other things, greater acceptance of outgroup members. The current study examined whether mindfulcompassion practice reduced system justification, and whether system threat undermined this influence. Unexpectedly, the results suggest that mindful-compassion lead to more favorable intergroup attitudes under high system threat (i.e., lower race-system justification, lower negative attitudes, and higher othergroup orientation). In addition, interactions for negative racial attitudes and othergroup orientation were qualified by internal motivation to control prejudice. This study was the first to experimentally test them impact of mindfulness on system justification. In addition, it is the first to examine empirically whether compassion meditation is associated with assessments of unjust social systems and attitudes toward ethnic outgroup members, and the extent to which system threat undermines this effect. Key words: mindfulness, compassion meditation, system justification, system threat, intergroup relations, outgroup attitudes

A Decade of System Justification Theory: Accumulated Evidence of Conscious and Unconscious Bolstering of the Status Quo

Most theories in social and political psychology stress self-interest, intergroup conflict, ethnocentrism, homophily, ingroup bias, outgroup antipathy, dominance, and resistance. System justification theory is influenced by these perspectives—including social identity and social dominance theories—but it departs from them in several respects. Specifically, we argue that (a) there is a general ideological motive to justify the existing social order, (b) this motive is at least partially responsible for the internalization of inferiority among members of disadvantaged groups, and (c) paradoxically, it is sometimes strongest among those who are most harmed by the status quo. In this article, we review and integrate 10 years of research on 20 hypotheses derived from a system justification perspective, focusing especially on the phenomenon of implicit outgroup favoritism among members of disadvantaged groups (including African Americans, the elderly, and gays/lesbians) and its relation to political ideology (especially liberalism-conservatism).