Ingroup Bias Research Paper

Ingroup bias is the tendency to favor one own’s group. It has very powerful effects on people, society and everyday life. If a person believes that someone else is involved with the same group as themselves, they will have positive views of them and treat them favorably compared to other groups. This is very common among boys and girls. Ingroup bias is particularly important because it affects your self-esteem. As humans, we build our self-esteem through belonging and connecting with people who have similar attributes. Having a close group in which one connects and feels a sense of belongingness can help to increase one’s self-esteem. Despite these positive factors, an ingroup bias may also create negative outcomes. This may include a group treating another in unfair ways, or perceiving the group as “bad” and “evil.” Ingroup bias can be both positive and negative, helping or hurting people in everyday life.

Gianluca Gini performed an experiment testing how students perception of a bullying episode may be influenced by ingroup bias. Four hundred and fifty five children read a story where the ingroup rule and teacher likeability were manipulated. Participants

were asked to evaluate their own group and an out-group. According to Gini (2006), “Data showed a strong participant in-group bias and a generalized tendency to favor the ingroup.” (p. 2). A clear gender effect was also shown through this experiment, in which boys accepted physical bullying more than girls.
Ingroup favoritism is known as a central aspect of human behavior.

People usually will favor their own “in-group,” being more helpful to them than anybody else. It has been found that “in-group favoritism has been shown to occur based on real-world salient groupings, such as ethnicity, religiosity and political affiliation”(Fu et al., 2012). In some cases, it can be beneficial to act differently to members of different groups. This was shown in a recent behavioral experiment involving coordination games. Subjects chose a cultural group and an action in the game. They tended to change tag and action together, or to change neither. This created strong group membership, and then later showed that in-group favoritism was evolving. It was shown that subjects preferred to interact with members of their own

group.
Bullying is a worldwide problem that many students and high schools are struggling with. According to Nansel (2001), “Psychological research has debunked several myths associated with bullying, including one that states bullies are usually the most unpopular students in school. Another myth is that the tough and aggressive bullies are basically anxious and insecure individuals who use bullying as a means of compensating for poor self-esteem.” Bullies tend to show characteristics including having a strong need to dominate other students, to get their own way, are easily angered, and aggressive towards parents and teachers. Research shows there are more boys than girls who bully others, and that a large percentage of girls are mainly bullied by boys. Physical bullying is less common among girls. They typically tend to use indirect ways of harassment such as leaving someone out, spreading rumors, or purposely ruining friendship to favor themselves. Overall, bullying is a popular problem faced by many and is highly common in high schools throughout the world.