Social exchange and solidarity: in-group love or out-group hate?

Abstract

Men exhibit a stronger tendency to favor the in-group over the out-group compared to women. We examined whether this male-specific "coalitional psychology" represents in-group love or out-group hate. One hundred thirty-three college freshmen played a prisoner's dilemma game with a member of their own group and a member of another group. Both groups consisted of same-sex participants. An in-group bias (cooperation with the in-group at a level higher than cooperation with the out-group) based on expectations of cooperation from the in-group was observed for both men and women. When such expectations were experimentally eliminated, women did not show any in-group bias, whereas men still exhibited an in-group bias. This male-specific in-group bias was found to be a product of intragroup cooperation (in-group love) rather than a product of intergroup competition (out-group hate). These findings suggest that the male-specific coalitional psychology caters more toward the promotion of within-group solidarity than aggression against the out-group. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.