Belonging and in-group favouritism: Belonging as a predictor and an outcome of in-group favouritism using negative outcomes.

Abstract

Belonging is considered to be a crucial human social motive. Most of the work concerned with the motivational ramifications of intergroup behaviour has focused on the role of self-esteem. The research presented in the following represents an attempt to redress this issue. Two studies were conducted in order to investigate the link between belonging and distinct forms of in-group favouritism involving negative outcomes (in-group favouring evaluations and allocations). Study one found that New Zealanders who evaluated in-group members more positively than out-group members (i.e., Asians) experienced an increase in belonging. Study two replicated these findings with respect to the allocation of white noise to in-group and out-group members and further demonstrated that New Zealanders with both high and low levels of belonging showed greater in-group favouritism than did baseline participants. Together the results indicate that distinct forms of in-group favouritism (i.e., evaluations and the allocation of noxious stimuli) are directly associated with higher belonging. In each study, the relationship between in-group favouritism and belonging was independent of social identity, personal and group self-esteem. Moreover the nature of the relationship between intergroup evaluations/allocations and belonging is such that it was (a) positive evaluations of the in-group (not negative evaluations of the out-group) and (b) the allocation of less white noise to the in-group (and not the allocation of more white noise to the out-group) that was associated with enhanced belonging. The present investigation can be considered a first tentative step towards understanding the role of belonging with respect to in-group favouritism.