Us and Them: Social Categorization and the Process of Intergroup Bias

Abstract

Three studies tested the hypothesis that the use of words referring to in-group or out-group status (such as us or them) may unconsciously perpetuate intergroup biases. In Experiment 1, nonsense syllables unobtrusively paired with in-group designating pronouns (e.g., we) were rated as more pleasant than syllables paired with out-group designators (e.g., they). In Experiment 2, in-group and out-group designators presented briefly to Ss as masked primes were found to influence the time required for Ss to evaluate subsequently presented trait adjectives, even though Ss were unaware of the group-designating primes. In Experiment 3, the masked prime we facilitated S reaction times to positive person descriptors, as compared to the effects of the masked prime they and the masked control prime xxx. The pronoun they, however, did not significantly facilitate S decisions concerning negative person descriptors.