You’re either with us or against us: How ingroup favouritism arises to defend against external threats

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to gain insight on the inner mechanisms of mortality salience and control threat in order to understand how they influence ingroup favouritism. A further aim was to explore whether these effects could be generalized to non-Western cultures.

In the first study, ninety-five first and second year psychology students from the University of Otago were either administered a questionnaire which reminded them of their mortality (Mortality Salience, MS), introduced a threat to their sense of control (Control Threat, CT), or just introduced a baseline condition. After this manipulation, participants answered a number of questionnaires which measured their self-esteem and locus of control. Following this, they were presented with questionnaires which measured their ingroup and outgroup evaluations. The first study had three hypotheses: The first hypothesis was that MS and CT would lead to increased ingroup favouritism. The second hypothesis was that, when mortality was made salient, ingroup evaluations would be associated with self-esteem, but not control. The third hypothesis was that, when control was threatened, ingroup evaluations would be associated with locus of control, but not self-esteem. All three of these hypotheses were supported. Participants in the MS and CT conditions rated ingroup members (i.e. New Zealanders) higher then outgroup members (i.e. Asians), while those in the baseline condition did not. In the MS condition, ingroup evaluations were positively correlated with self-esteem (but not locus of control). In the CT condition, ingroup evaluations were negatively correlated with locus of control (but not self-esteem).

In order to see if these results generalized to non-student participants from an Eastern culture, a second study was conducted. The second study included one-hundred and twenty-four participants from the sub-continent of India. Participants were recruited through MTurk and presented with the same manipulations and questionnaires as study 1. Two hypotheses were conducted for study 2. The first hypothesis stated that individuals from the Indian subcontinent would show ingroup favouritism after a control threat, but not after MS. The second hypothesis stated that, for Indians in the CT condition, ingroup evaluations will correlate with locus of control, but not self-esteem. While participants did show ingroup favouritism in the CT condition and not the MS condition (supporting the first hypothesis), ingroup evaluations were positively correlated with self-esteem (but not locus of control), which did not support the second hypothesis.

The findings conclude that MS and CT influence ingroup favouritism via different psychological mechanisms, and these may differ between Western and Eastern cultures. Interpretations and consequences are discussed.