1
Aim
To investigate how minimal groups affect behavior
2
Method
An experimental study consisting of 64 British School Boys
3
Procedure
- Participants were shown 12 slides portraying diffe4rent paintings and asked to express their preferences; designed to create "group identity"
- Participants were then assigned to two separate groups
- Each participant was then presented with a series of matrices to distribute points to two other participants, one from his same group (in-group) and one from the other group (out-group)
4
Results
- Participants showed in-group favoritism, preferring to allocate more points to their in-groups instead of the out-group
- In addition, they showed positive distinctiveness since participants would sacrifice gain for their in-group in order to maximize the difference with the out-group
5
Conclusion
- Participants adopted a strategy of in-group favoritism and positive distinctiveness which supports the predictions of the social identity theory
- Study demonstrates how social categorization triggered discrimination and prejudice between groups; supports formation of stereotyping by product of social categorization.