15. In-Group Bias
What Is In-Group Bias?
In-group bias is people’s tendency to favour members of their own social group over non-members.
This bias appears to be present early in childhood development and primarily rooted in positive attitudes towards the in-group rather than negative attitudes towards the outgroup (e.g., Brewer, 1979; Buttelmann & Böhm, 2014). It occurs quickly at the behavioural and the neural level after (randomly!) being assigned to a group (Van Bavel et al., 2008).
Example: Hockey Game
Imagine yourself at a hockey game, rooting for your favourite team. Now, consider how you react to a penalty given to your team versus their rivals. Think about how you perceive and treat other people in the audience based on whether they are cheering for the same team as you or the other team.
This scenario is a simple and obvious example to illustrate the concept. However, ingroup/outgroup bias is a rich and complex area of theory and research (for a comprehensive review, see Hewstone et al., 2002).
