Abstract
Heightened ingroup favoritism under threat conditions is a well-established phenomenon in social psychology. Past research has focused on self-esteem as a motive for ingroup favoritism, but inconsistent evidence has led some researchers to consider alternate motives. In this study, we aim to investigate the effects of COVID-19-related threats to perceived control on ingroup favoritism. We hypothesized that (a) ingroup favoritism would increase perceived control and (b) threats to perceived control would increase ingroup favoritism. Participants were randomly allocated to three conditions in which they read a low-threat article on COVID-19, a high-threat article on COVID-19, or a control article. Participants then completed a resource allocation task where they were allowed to distribute 100 vaccinations between the outgroup (Asians) and the ingroup (New Zealanders). Control was measured before and after the allocation task. The results did not support our hypotheses; ingroup favoritism did not affect perceived control, and COVID-19-related threats did not reduce perceptions of control. There was a modest effect of ingroup favoritism. The theoretical ramifications of these findings and their implications for organizational and political leadership are discussed.